metoCube – Model. Deploy.

Improve

Copyright Nevant metoCube 2007

metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

metoCube
Businesses need to enhance their business processes continuously in order to produce better quality
products and services at less cost than their competitors. Excellence in business process has become a first-
class competitive advantage.

Business process optimization involves:

• Analyzing and understanding actual processes

• Evaluating and deciding the best ways to enhance them

• Designing and documenting new processes

• Deploying the new processes and ensuring that they are perfectly understood by the individuals in
charge of their execution

• Controlling and continuously enhancing the process

metoCube is the first software system specifically designed to document procedures. It can be considered
a centralized storage medium for information that describes how work is performed within an organization.
MetoCube is especially suited towards documenting processes in which most of the tasks are carried out by
people (interacting with other people or with software applications) instead of by machines or software
systems. It is focused on coordination instead of automation.

Business process optimization is more than analyzing existing processes and creating a set of documents
that describe a new way of working. A key task, often neglected, is to transmit these new ways of working
to the people responsible for completing them. This is the way to transform chaos, random results and
best efforts into order, predictable quality and optimization.

metoCube helps companies link the organizational goals with the workers' daily activities so that tasks
performed by individuals are perfectly aligned with objectives and management's strategic vision. It facilitates
understanding of what happens inside a company, for example allowing you to see at a glance all possible
ways in which your company interfaces with your customers.

Better understanding of processes by the people in charge of their execution results directly in higher
commitment, better organizational performance, operative cost reduction, enhanced quality products and
services, and customer satisfaction.

Using a tool like metoCube in combination with an adequate change management effort helps companies
achieve this objective, as well as helping overcome people's resistance to change in the way they work.

Various factors are necessary for a process improvement initiative to be successful. Management
commitment, adequate internal communication, participation by people affected by change.. etc. metoCube
can act as a catalyst in this business transformation.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

The key to translate values, philosophy and principles of quality in measurable

results is to achieve a wide and deep comprehension on the employees' part as
to their roles and responsibilities within the organizations.
MetoCube helps process owners to understand, analyze and introduce changes in business processes. It
also helps them communicate these new processes to employees, translating new ideas into a well defined
and intelligible format, thus transforming ideas into value.

Business Process Improvement does not generate value until it is executing in the real world. It is from this
moment onwards that invested resources offer return on investment (ROI). The value generated for the
business is a function of the differential of the resource consumption and quality between the old process and
the new one. The more efficient the deployment of new process is, the sooner the invested resources are
recovered.

A business process is something that cannot be analyzed on its own. The context in which it is executed
comprises people, IT systems, and the objects that it uses or creates. metoCube allows you to incorporate all
these components to create a model of your business, constructing a “spider web” in which all the
components are related and where processes are the meeting point.

Benefits of using metoCube

...Productivity enhancement, increased efficiency, operative cost reduction, increased
margins...
• It facilitates business process modeling and analysis
metoCube is designed to document and describe your business processes, storing models of
heterogeneous nature. Thanks to its great versatility you will be able to model workflows described precisely
as well as unstructured recommendations and best practices of a less rigid nature.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

Whatever the nature of the various processes in your organization, they will all be available in a consistent
format. High level processes can be described as well as detailed procedures containing all the information
necessary to carry them out.

For each of the processes and elements (tasks, events, roles, etc...) there are a number of defined fields
(responsible role, version number, etc...) and a detailed description in html format in which formatted text,
images, hyperlinks and other data can be included.

If you have already modeled some processes in your business (perhaps in different formats), it is very
easy to migrate them to metoCube and have them available across the whole organization in a consistent
and unified format.

• It accelerates process deployment

Effectively deploying a business process requires that all involved employees are familiar with,
understand, and actually execute the process.

• Processes are always easily available and reachable through a web browser like Internet Explorer.

• MetoCube's structure maximizes information accessibility . For example, from a task description
page you can one-click through to a page describing the role in charge of carrying it out.

• You can easily access all materials needed to carry out the task. For example, if a task consists in
adding an order you can provide a link to the application used for order management, of if it
consists in updating a list on an excel spreadsheet, you can provide a link that opens it from the
task description.

• You can visualize the tasks that compose a process sequentially, in effect navigating through the
flow described in the process, in a “wizard-like” fashion.

• All the processes are documented in a single format, so information can be quickly and easily
found.

• All the departments, groups and other organizational units in your company access the same
information; it is possible to standardize the way that the different tasks are carried out inside your
company.

• Allows and promotes continuous process improvement

Controlling and introducing enhancements to a process is as important as its initial design and
deployment. Businesses must continuously change business processes to reach excellence in execution and
to adapt to a changing environment.

Using metoCube, any change introduced in a process is immediately accessible for all users. The
information exists only in one place. All processes are looked up via web, so it is guaranteed that you are
always looking at the most recent version.

As elements are described in only one place (their corresponding page) and liked everywhere they are
referenced, each piece of information is stored only once, avoiding duplication. You can make changes
without worrying if the same information you are modifying is replicated somewhere else.

• It facilitates process analysis

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

metoCube offers multiple views that highlight relationships between each of the four business essential
components (processes + people + objects + goals). This allows a deep understanding of the processes
and their relations by people in charge of their execution.

It is also fundamental for decision making, because it increases understanding by the people in charge of
their design. For example, if a department head is thinking about making changes in a process, an IT system
or the organizational structure of his/her department, she/he can easily know which roles are involved, which
activities they are responsible for, etc...

metoCube offers multiple perspectives on a process. Processes can be analyzed from various points of
view, giving answers to questions like:

• Processes

• Who is in charge of each process?

• What are the inputs of each process?

• Which objects are modified throughout the process?

• What applications are used during each of the processes?

• Roles

• What responsibilities are assumed by each department? Which processes are under its
scope?

• Given a certain role, in what processes does it take part? Which tasks is it responsible for?

• Objects (documents, things or application records that are used, created or modified)

• Which transformations does an object suffer across the different processes?

• Who is responsible of accuracy of the data of the business object?

• Applications

• Which business processes are supported by each application?

• Which application records (orders, service requests, etc...) are managed in each
application?

These views allow management to analyze and enhance processes, achieve an efficient distribution of
tasks among the different roles, evaluate whether the systems in use are sufficiently integrated, etc... A
holistic vision of the process portfolio can help to reduce duplication and fragmentation.

• It leverages the value of your existing IT assets

It makes it easy for IT managers to understand how end-to-end processes make use of the different IT
systems, facilitating decisions that optimize it's use.

It also helps to achieve a more efficient usage of IT tools by workers, that carry out their work in
compliance with the standard procedures in place.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

metoCube is a very low TCA and TCO tool that can dramatically accelerate the ROI of your existing IT
infrastructure.

• It offers the necessary information to make optimum decisions for IT systems acquisition or
development

Understanding processes is necessary for evaluating the convenience of introducing a new IT system that
automates a process or part of it.

When processes are understood, it is easy to evaluate if a commercial tool can support them adequately.
This helps avoiding the common pitfall of acquiring a software package to discover that, because of its
rigidity, it is the company that must adapt its processes to the way the software works and not the other way
around.

If the decision is to develop a software system to automate certain tasks, processes modeled in metoCube
are a good way to transmit requirements, easing communication between business users and technical staff.
When communication is fluid, the scope of the system is clear, and it is more likely that that the system meets
its requirements and the project is delivered on time.

• It acts a a knowledge repository

Existing knowledge in a company is an asset that is becoming more and more important. In an
environment in which the majority of companies depend strongly on the knowledge of their employees, the
adequate management of this asset has become indispensable.

MetoCube can help your company to achieve this:

• It drives knowledge management, transforming knowledge from implicit (intangible) to explicit

(documented and accessible).

• It helps mitigate the risk derived from concentrating key company knowledge only in the minds of
few individuals. What would happen if any of these persons is on holiday and a problem appears?
And if he or she leaves the company?

• The cost associated with training new employees to carry out their new tasks is reduced, because
all the information they need to perform their job is readily available in a clear format.

• The documented knowledge can be considered an intangible asset. A company whose business
processes are documented and accessible holds greater value.

• It is especially recommended to store methodologies

A methodology is a set of techniques, best practices, processes, templates and recommendations that
define the way in which work must be carried out within an organization.

A methodology that resides in MS Word, PowerPoint or plain HTML is uncomfortable for the users. It is
difficult and cumbersome to reach desired information. This is not the best way to achieve user commitment
and buy-in.

On the other hand BPM and workflow tools prove excessively rigid for the purpose of storing
methodologies, as these are of a flexible and unstructured nature and rely greatly on common sense and
human interpretation.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

It is also possible to describe and store methodologies in HTML, and publish their content on a corporate
intranet, but this solution is impractical and slow to edit and it makes change introduction extremely
uncomfortable.

Due to its great versatility, metoCube is the perfect solution to store and publish any type of methodology.

• It is especially recommended to store new business process that arise when deploying an
information system (ERP, CRM, etc...)
metoCube complements other process automation tools such as a CRM system, ERPs, Business Process
Management Systems, etc... It is usual that, as part of the deployment of a new information system, existing
business processes change or new ones appear.

When used in conjunction with these tools, it plays a crucial role in facilitating user understanding of how
these tools should be used, giving them end-to-end visibility on the processes that these tools support. The
lesser the time needed for the new process to be executed correctly, the higher the ROI of the new system. It
can also provide some basic integration with web applications through hyperlinks.

During the period following the deployment of a new information system it is usual that, after having
observed the processes in the real world for some time, changes are introduced. This is extremely easy to do
with metoCube.

• It can generate procedures manuals

Procedures manuals facilitate the task of process approval and revision. Manuals are rendered in a very
simple and easy way. You can generate an HTML page that is optimized for its manipulation in MS Word. You
can print these procedures and use them in your training sessions.

Reports can be rendered for processes, organizational units, objects, etc...

• MS Visio diagrams can be imported

Diagrams are a way to communicate concepts. Use metoCube's visio template to draw a set of diagrams
and import them into metoCube. The diagram elements are linked to their corresponding page in
metoCube, allowing intuitive navigation.

• All processes are available for all members in the organization

A lot of times knowledge is compartmentalized. As a consequence, people tend to have silo vision, without
being conscious of how their work affects other people in the organization, or more importantly, how it affects
a product or service that the client receives. With metoCube all this information is as far as one click.

Each person has a clear understanding of how his or her role fits into the bigger picture.

• Intangible benefits
• It is intuitive and easy to learn, so there is little need for training.

• The fact that the company is acquiring a specific tool can make the workers perceive that there is a
serious commitment from management with the process improvement initiative.

• It can help create a business process aware culture. This can be very useful if a deeper business
process initiative is to be initiated at a later stage. Some examples can be the introduction of a
BPM tool or the transformation of the organization into a process centric company.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

• It has positive effects on company image.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

Product architecture

metoCube enables the generation of models of the four fundamental components of a company: work,
people, objects and goals.

It is based on the Simple Operations Modeling Framework (SOMoF), a procedure documentation

technique that allows organizations (enterprises, divisions, departments, etc...) to describe their operations in
a simple way using a set of interrelated elements (such as process, task, role, etc...).

Thanks to web technology, all processes are easily accessible to all groups in the organization, and it is
easy to integrate the information in a corporate intranet. Each element is defined only in one place, although
it is easily accessible from any element with which it is related.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

All the information is stored in a database, and changes need to be carried out only once. Irrespective of
the context from which an element is accessed, you can be sure that the information displayed is the latest
and up to date.

metoCube's Value Added Views

metoCube's Value Added Views are a set of views that allow process analysis from the point of view of the
roles that take part in them, the applications that support them and the objects (documents, things or records)
that are used, created or modified within them. This analysis results in deep understanding of processes by
those in charge of their design, allowing them to make optimal decisions, and by users, who will be executing
processes in a way that is compliant with the defined procedures.

It is usual, if inappropriate formats such as word, static HTML, etc... are used to document procedures,
that these views are created statically as tables or lists that summarize the tasks for which a specific role is
accountable in the role description. This situation, in which the same piece of information is replicated without
control, makes change introduction greatly difficult, as all the content should be reviewed in order to be sure
that everything remains consistent.

In metoCube these views are dynamically generated on the run based on the relations among the different
elements, and change introduction is not a danger for consistency, as the different pieces of information exist
in only one place.

Views can be constructed dynamically because in metoCube processes are described in a structured way
as opposed to the narrative way in which procedures are usually written in Microsoft Word (for example, you
use a pick list to specify the role that is responsible for a task instead of just saying so in the task
description).

This allows metoCube to store the information in a database and present it to the user from multiple points
of view by querying the database.

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metoCube – Model. Deploy. Improve

metoCube's context
metoCube has been designed to work in conjunction with a set of applications that complement each
other. This set of applications covers all needs that a company faces in a business process reengineering
project.

• MS Visio

You can model the processes by drawing diagrams with Visio, the de-facto standard diagramming
software.

• Process support software (CRM, ERP, project management, incidence management, etc...)

These are systems that automate the execution of the procedures described in metoCube. Among their
functions you can find the following:

• Workflow execution

• Task automation

• Process instance control and monitoring

• Per process instance data storage. Historical analysis

Technical requirements
Operating system: Windows or Linux

Web server: Apache 1.3.x with PHP 5.2.x

Web browser: Internet Explorer 6+. Firefox 1.5+.

Database: PostgreSQL 7.4+

Hardware

pentium IV 3.4Ghz/Athlon 64 1Gb ram

Copyright Nevant metoCube 2007