Amazon Web Services and Appian have had a long partnership over the years. Amazon uses Appian BPM in the cloud to automate a number of mission-critical financial processes including payroll, payment, and accounting, while Appian hosts the majority of our cloud customers on the Amazon EC2 infrastructure. To round out the Appian World business track, Tim Bixler, Federal Manager of Solutions Architecture at Amazon Web Services, outlined the business and IT value of cloud computing.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian World 2013 liveblog, Cloud BPM

Once again, Appian World 2013 attendees split into three learning tracks for beginners, developers, and business users. While beginners heard a customer case study from Punch Taverns, and developers learned about enabling records navigation, the business users learned how Energy Alloys improved performance across the value chain. Kaushik Ray, Director of the BPM Applications Group, presented “Kanban in the Cloud: BPM for Just-in-Time Production.”

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Tags: , Appian World 2013 liveblog, BPM for Manufacturing, Energy Alloys, Kanban

Appian Cloud turns cloud computing into real business value for your organization. Request a free 30-day trial and get started with Cloud BPM today!

-Ben Farrell, Director Corporate Communications

Tags: , Appian Cloud, Cloud BPM, Cloud Computing

In case you missed our announcement earlier this week, 2012 was a great year for Appian. Demand for our worksocial BPM software around the world drove record-breaking company performance. Conventional wisdom is that BPM is anti-cyclical to the economy because it promises cost-reduction through automation. I don’t believe that. Traditional BPM had the same tough year every other industry had in 2012.

What I do believe is that “work” has changed. Where it happens, when it happens, who’s involved, and how they get it done. The IT consumerization revolution is far, far from over, but it is past its infancy. Huge numbers of us today already do at least as much work via mobile devices on-the-go as we do in our offices.

That’s what drove Appian’s record year. 98 new customers in 12 months decided our platform is uniquely capable of harnessing social, mobile and cloud innovation to drive value in their business. Global leaders in US and international government, insurance, financial services, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, retail, food and beverage, and other industries joined the Appian community.

You can be part of that community as well – even if you’re not an Appian customer or partner – by coming to Appian World 2013 (April 29-May 1 at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.). In addition to hearing about BPM successes, lessons learned and industry predictions, you’ll get a first-hand look at the power and simplicity of the Appian BPM Suite. (If you are a customer or partner, you can also sign up for free product training). Register today!

Ben Farrell

Tags: , Appian World 2013, Cloud BPM, mobile BPM, Social BPM, worksocial

On Monday, we announced that a major General Services Administration application running on Appian Cloud and Amazon Web Services has been granted Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) Moderate Authorization and Accreditation. Back in 2010, an Appian Cloud application at the Department of Education was the first cloud BPM solution to be granted FISMA Low status.

This is a big deal, as federal agencies are grappling to balance cloud security concerns with Administration directives that are changing the government data center landscape. The GSA’s investment in certifying the application will make it easier for other federal agencies to attain FISMA Moderate Authority to Operate (ATO) designation for their Appian Cloud solutions.

The federal BPM community will gather at Appian World 2013 (April 29-May 1 in Washington, DC), and cloud BPM will be a big part of the agenda. If you are engaged in planning, evaluating, deploying or using federal cloud services, you can’t afford to miss this gathering of peer practitioners and federal IT thought leaders.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian Cloud, Appian World 2013, Cloud BPM, federal cloud, FISMA

We announced on Monday that Appian’s customers in Australia now have more options for their BPM deployments, thanks to our close partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The minute AWS turned on its new Service Region in Australia, Appian Cloud was up and running. We were ready right out of the gate because AWS gave our cloud team early access to the environment for pre-testing to ensure Appian Cloud deployments would perform optimally.

This is big news for a region where we have already found tremendous on-premise BPM software demand. With the addition of single-digit millisecond latency to end-users and the ability to store data locally in Australia, we expect our partnership with AWS will help lead an explosion of local Cloud BPM activity.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Australia, BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, worksocial

Last week’s Gartner Symposium and ITxpo attracted over 10,000 attendees and far exceeded original estimate of 8,000 attendees. “The world’s most important gathering of CIOs and Senior IT Executives”, according to Gartner, featured a Focus. Connect. Lead theme. Appian sponsored the event and talked to hundreds of attendees on how worksocial can help achieve these goals and drive business results.

>>Register for the free Appian worksocial webinar today.

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Tags: , Cloud BPM, Gartner, iBPMS, mobile BPM, Social BPM

Atlanta-based Car Stereo Plus (CSP) is an auto dealer expediter. That means they’re the folks who trick out your new ride with extras like GPS, a kicking sound system, leather seats and those shiny spinning rims (if you’re into that sort of thing). They are a small company, about 40 employees, in a market with much larger competitors. They are also the latest company to realize the immense benefits of Appian’s worksocial technology.

CSP co-owner Foster Lee knows that the secret to his company’s success in the Atlanta region – and its ability to grow into other markets – is based on closely connecting a distributed field force to core company processes. Automotive customers are a demanding and fickle bunch (when someone spends a lot of money on a new car, they want it the way they want it, and they want it fast). Keeping CSP’s auto dealer customer happy means deliver excellent service on the cars and trucks those dealers’ customers are buying.

“Worksocial from Appian has turbo-charged our operations and increased our competitive edge,” said Lee. “It is an easy-to-use platform for mobile- and social-based work that is deeply integrated with our core systems and data. Comparing our previous systems to Appian is like comparing a horse and plow to a tractor.”

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Tags: , Cloud BPM, mobile BPM, Social BPM, Social Business Software, worksocial

Worksocial is powerful, and that power is being used to address one of the most urgent issues in America today: unemployment. As reported by Government Computer News, the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is using Appian case management for mobile and social engagement with U.S. veterans to help them find government and civilian work.

At a recent VA Job Fair in Detroit, volunteer event support staff spent a matter of minutes getting used to the simple Appian social interface, then used iPads to register, schedule meetings and track progress for thousands of attending veterns. The result, according to the Veterans Employment Services Office (VESO), was that more than 1,300 veterans received tentative job offers, and close to 800 more scored second-round interviews. I can’t think of a more powerful testament to the connectedness and rapid action that just one day of worksocial can deliver.

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Tags: , BPM for Government, Business Process Management, Cloud BPM, enterprise mobility, Social Business Software, worksocial

Ah, the cloud.  How abused of a term you have become over the past 10 years.  Originally the term “Cloud” evolved from IT network diagrams where engineers would just draw a big cloud shaped bubble to represent a network, whether internal, external, etc.  Now it represents more than just a network diagram, but a new philosophy for the development, management, upgrading, and distribution of software.  Unfortunately “Cloud”  has also become one of the most abused buzz words in enterprise IT, ushering in a stampede of cloud-washing smoke screens by every old legacy software company.

Clouds can come in many forms, but behind the scenes they embody properties that are unique to modern software delivery techniques, such as:

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Tags: , Cloud, SaaS