Procession's initiative to bring business software buyers greater understanding

ST ALBANS, ENGLAND, October 24, 2010 (Press-News.org) The UK-based business process management software specialist, Procession, has challenged Oracle, IBM and Microsoft - the world's major software vendors - to be more transparent in the information they disclose about their software and systems.

David Chassels, CEO of Procession, has written to Oracle, IBM and Microsoft asking them to give buyers more information and less marketing hype about their products because many IT buyers fail to fully understand the issues behind the software they are buying. Consequently, they may not buy the software and systems that are best suited to what they want.

Chassels commented: "If we, as suppliers of platform technologies, voluntarily supply this information, it saves everyone a lot of time and money - and leads to greater product satisfaction. Isn't this what the 'Big Society', announced recently by the Prime Minister, is all about?"

In particular, Chassels is concerned that the UK Government - the largest single buyer of IT software and systems in the UK - is not making the best informed IT procurement choices. He said: "For too long, Government has not really understood exactly what it is buying into - in terms of the underlying business software technology.

"This technology is largely supplied by the three global vendors: Oracle, IBM and Microsoft, each of which has its own powerful ecosystem that builds its products. None of these vendors makes its own ecosystem transparent to buyers and, so, it's easy for IT buyers to fail to fully understand the issues behind the software they are buying.

"At Procession, we believe that it's vital that, at the very least, the UK Government understands the core capabilities that the technology vendors can support," he added.

In Chassels' view, the Government needs to get to grips with such issues as:
• The software's 'agility' - its ability to support change
• Vendors' ability to produce prototypes quickly, and to respond rapidly to end user/business feedback
• The use, and value, of open source software and systems
• How much custom coding is required to build customised solutions - and how accessible it is
• The ease of delivering the software as a service or from the cloud and shared service capability
• How the platform of required software tools has evolved to meet all the business needs
.
"The large vendors should take a leaf from Procession's book and be volunteering information to resolve these and similar issues - and they should cut back on any market hype that hides the truth," said Chassels.

Notes for Editors:

Procession's answers to these questions can be found on their website under partner information at http://www.procession.com/resources/questions_answered.pdf

About Procession
Procession provides the world's most advanced business process management software that removes the complexity, time and high costs of building customised, business applications/solutions.
This revolutionary software, that has been perfected over 15 years, provides a unified framework that closes the gap between business and IT by creating dynamic applications, based on the specific needs of a business. Procession supports a quick and incremental build of people-driven process applications that sit as a ProcessHub , orchestrating the supporting activity and making sure the right information is in the right place at the right time with full accountability.
Using Procession's unified tool, which includes the building of the user interface, business applications can now be rapidly developed as the core business logic code is pre-built. The software allows an application to be simply developed by business analysts and non-technical consultants using a drag and drop graphical designer interface. This unique and agile approach to application creation removes IT complexity and brings greater power and flexibility to support the end-user.
There is now no need to custom code any business applications, or buy inflexible off the shelf software, which rarely solve specific business problems. In reality it is now quicker and cheaper to build using Procession's breakthrough innovation where the core code never changes. Including the simplification of a required specification, supported by Procession's class-leading agility in the software, this can result in an 80% reduction in development and maintenance costs, compared with traditional methods.

Further information from:
David Chassels, Procession: +44(0)1494 781 444; +44(0)7774 681773 (mobile)
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR: +44(0)01727 860405

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