1. What is Blue Prism’s rapid business process development environment?

Blue Prism has developed a methodology and associated technology designed to support the process of designing, building, testing and deploying new business processes.  This is done by bringing together systems, processes and people without changing the underlying systems in order to either automate, integrate or improve an existing process or build totally new ones.  As Blue Prism software supports re-useable process objects and non-invasive data management methods, it can truly deliver integration at the speed of business.

2. What systems can Blue Prism integrate?

Blue Prism has incorporated many years of experience of integration and numerous technologies into its software. The technologies used are secure, reliable and robust. This coupled with a wide range of dedicated tools that have  been developed means that we are confident in being able to link the vast majority of systems with the click of a button. This proven data and process integration capability ensures that new processes can be rapidly designed, built and tested without any impact on existing systems.

3. What hardware infrastructure do I need to run Blue Prism?

Blue Prism has been designed for flexibility and to meet the most robust IT standards for IT operational integrity, security and supportability. The software can be deployed either as a front office or back office process, running quite happily on a standard desktop in the front office or on any scale of systems for back office processing.

4. Will you be modifying my existing systems?

It is a key design point of Blue Prism that we don't change any of your underlying systems, as this is often complex and expensive to perform.

Blue Prism gathers data and integrates processes at an abstracted level using a variety of techniques and interfaces that ensures underlying systems are not impacted.

5. Is Blue Prism secure and auditable?

Security and auditability are built into the Blue Prism product at several levels.  The runtime environment is completely separate to the process editing environment.

Permissions to design, create, edit and run processes and business objects are specific to each authorised user.

A full audit trail of changes to any process is kept, and comparisons of the before and after effect of changes are provided.

The log created at run-time for each process provides a detailed, time-stamped history of every action and decision taken within an automated process.

Our clients tend to find that running a process with Blue Prism gives them a lot more control than a manual process, and from a compliance point of view assures that processes are run consistently, in line with the process definition.

6. How are process changes controlled and monitored?

Blue Prism can easily track and report changes to processes.

Our audit viewer allows users to track the details of who, when, why and exactly how a process was changed.

In addition, detailed logs are held of every step taken during execution, providing a robust and detailed audit trail.

7. I can think of plenty of processes that could be automated using Blue Prism – how do I select the right ones?

The Blue Prism process selection methodology provides the mechanism to identify the candidate landscape across chosen sections of the enterprise. A sophisticated scoring profile is applied to criteria such as case volumes, average handling time, right first time targets, customer service levels and timeframe for delivery of an IT solution through the existing change list.

8. How do I get started on delivering processes using Blue Prism?

Blue Prism recommends a phased approach to getting started as the Operational Agility framework is eminently scalable. It is typical to target the configuration of between 1 and 10 processes initially with a rolling program of processes being introduced once the framework is established. 

9. How long does it take to establish the Operational Agility framework?

The average time to establish the initial Operational Agility framework is between 4 and 12 weeks from project initiation.

10. How long until my team are self-sufficient in developing automated processes?

The initial 3 day training course provides the basic knowledge required to begin creating automated processes. Candidates can expect to achieve full accreditation within the timeframe of the project for the initial Operational Agility framework creation. During this time the trainees are delivering automated processes into the production environment therefore generating business benefit.

11. What support do I need from Blue Prism Professional Services?

It really depends on the skills you already have in house and the way you wish to work.  Blue Prism can provide a full range of services from basic training, support and mentoring with a view to quickly getting your team independently delivering ongoing automations, right through to a full turnkey package where we will take responsibility for delivering business benefit within agreed service levels.