Bridgestone Europe and Caja Duero future proof thanks to AgilePoint BPMS Suite

Bridgestone’s new product approval process. Caja Duero achieves ISO 20000 certification and become the 2nd financial entity in Spain in IT Service Management processes (ITSM).

“Bridgestone has chosen SAP as their ERP. It was not our preferred option to implement another heavy weight system that requested a large investment. We acknowledged our need for a BPMS and LoQutus proposed us several solutions. Finally we decided to choose AgilePoint BPMS as it offered us the light weight BPMS we needed at an excellent value proportion. Furthermore AgilePoint proved through POC to blend in perfectly in our existing environment”
-Rodolphe Grandjean – Senior Manager ECM/CRM, Bridgestone Europe NV/SA

Bridgestone Europe chooses AgilePoint BPM Suite to digitalize its New Product Approval process and engages LoQutus as strategic implementation partner. The NPA-process, which runs through entire Europe, should optimize the internal efficiency at Bridgestone.

As market leader Bridgestone always ensure the best quality of its tyres. New types of tyres are therefore always subject to a strategic approval process. The New Product Approval (NPA) process is used whenever a new tyre is designed for a new type of car. The process requires the feedback and the consent of various departments by means of digital signatures.

Until last year, the NPA system was not digitalized, which complicated the control on the process flows and even the reporting wasn't naturalness. Furthermore the NPA process wasn't streamlined which made it very time consuming.

To optimize the internal efficiency, Bridgestone looked for a BPM solution. The new solution should also fit into the business plan Bridgestone had put first. The plan emphasized the importance of a drastic reduction of the time to market. To achieve this objective, Bridgestone contacted LoQutus.

Since Bridgestone had already chosen SAP's extensive ERP package, the company preferred AgilePoint BPM Suite, a .NET based Business Process Management solution. The BPM solution is a lightweight solution and perfectly complementary with the powerful SAP solution and - by extension - the complete existing IT environment of Bridgestone. The functionalities of AgilePoint are used in the whole NPA process.

As a web form, Bridgestone chose in this stage a tailor-made solution in ASP.NET. With this solution, all other technologies remained an option in the future. In a later stage, most probably a specific forms engine application will be implemented that will make sure the data - saved in XML format on the server - will be converted into ASP. LoQutus also installed specific hardware to support the project.

LoQutus started the project in July 2008. In order to control the complete process, the scope of the project was extended during the start up phase. In spite of this extension, LoQutus managed to roll out the project within the set six months.

With the digitalized NPA process, which is used in Europe and partially in Asia, Bridgestone can improve its efficiency significantly. Thanks to the e-platform the several steps of the approval process now only take minutes instead of several weeks. Because of this the production time is much shorter which enables Bridgestone to respond more easily to the market demand. The flexible software capacitates to offer a quick response to possible changes. Moreover, obstacles come quicker to light and processes run more transparent, which increases the user satisfaction.

It is clear that the investment will recover its costs quite quickly thanks to the advantages of the increased efficiency. LoQutus has proven Bridgestone that it is the right partner to select the best solution and implement it successfully.

Caja Duero achieves ISO 20000 certification and become the 2nd financial entity in Spain in IT Service Management processes (ITSM)

Obtaining the ISO 20000 certification is a success and undoubtedly the recognition for the organization that their processes are defined and are in control. The real challenge is to ensure the recommended practices and processes are followed and the opportunities for improvement are identified and incorporated to instill a culture of continued progress. In line with this objective, Alejandro Hernández Capa, Caja Duero ICT Director, requested a "process automation approach aligned with the IT management strategy", as he explained, as the way to improve efficiency and to ensure the tasks are always done in the same manner and as described, maximizing process consistency.

In order to accomplish the implementation of their ITSM, Caja Duero has been supported by Ozona Consulting, a consultancy firm with a deep expertise in ITIL and ISO 20000 projects. "Thanks to the contribution of Ozona, we have achieved the certification in record time and we have laid a very solid basis for extending our ITSM processes to all departments in the company" -points Pedro Ignacio Dorado, Caja Duero Systems and Communications Manager.

Ozona provided the methodology and support to adapt their processes to the requirements of the norm, along with a model of comprehensive documentation and tools necessary to align with ITIL and ISO 2000, more than 600 technical procedures defined in Caja Duero.

The consulting services were complemented with the implementation of Ozona ISO 20000 Starter, a standard solution developed by Ozona, that uses the AgilePoint BPMS engine, to allow companies to implement their Service Management Processes according to ISO 20000 in an agile way while minimizing the deployment cost.

Finally, the external audit was conducted during August by AENOR,   Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification (www.aenor.es), and Caja Duero achieved the certification in conformance to ISO 20000-1:2005 norm for its ITSM system for the 5 fundamental services in their ICT area, that are the core of all IT services offered by the company to both the business units and the clients, core banking services, financial terminal, electronic banking, ATMs and workstations.

This certification recognizes the high quality of the IT services that Caja Duero offers to its business units and clients in Spain and abroad. Caja Duero becomes the second financial institution in Spain to achieve this certification and accomplishes a further step in the strategy of adopting quality initiatives in the ICT area, which also includes the progressive implementation of CMMi and ISO 27001 from 2010 onwards.

"As ISO 20000 consultants, we aim to provide our customers the implementation of a complete management system that meets the standard requirements, and in a record timeframe" explains Ramon Ares, Ozona CEO. "With AgilePoint we have built a Services Platform to turn the process definition into execution, facilitating not only the success in the ongoing operations, but also the process improvement and the auditing, with an unprecedented benefit/cost ratio for our clients."

About LoQutus:
LoQutus is a Belgian expert in IT architecture. Its architect team has the same goal as an architect in the construction industry: to design the most efficient building plan, as a whole or concentrating on a specific part. Furthermore, LoQutus also implements the proposed plans. By consulting LoQutus, companies can optimally tune their IT systems to their company processed and thus avoid useless investments.

LoQutus is based in Sint-Martens-Latem and employs 25 people. The company is a 100% daughter of the MÖBIUS group. MÖBIUS is a spin-off of the University of Ghent and is an international authority when it comes to providing advice and implementation skills for both Supply Chain & Business Process Management.

More information on LoQutus can be found on www.loqutus.com.

About Bridgestone Europe:
Bridgestone Europe is part of Bridgestone Corporation, the world's largest rubber and tire producer. Bridgestone was founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi, he used an English translation of his surname for the name of the company. The sales department is responsible for the sales and marketing of the entire assortment of Bridgestone tyres in Europe. Worldwide Bridgestone counts more than 133 752 employees and had a revenue of € 19,16 billion.

Bridgestone is considered a leading company by car manufacturers when it comes to Run Flat Tyre technology. Bridgestone tyres turn in top performances on the demanding circuits all over the world.

More information on Bridgestone Europe can be found on www.bridgestone.eu.

About Caja Duero:
Caja Duero with origins in Salamanca (Spain) and dated from 1881, is nowadays an important savings bank that serves 1 million customers in 570 branches and with 650 ATMs also operates in Portugal. Caja Duero also has a fundamental role in its Social Welfare institution. In 1991 Caja Duero joined the EGFI (European Group of Financial Institutions), that counts with financial institutions that share the same philosophy of action and were created to provide common services and products in the countries of the European Union. www.cajaduero.es

About Ozona:
With a specialized consulting division fully dedicated to ISO 2000, since 2007, Ozona has become the leader in Spain and Portugal with a track record of 7 companies certified. Ozona not only provides the consulting domain expertise but also provides to their clients, the technological platform to bring the procedures and processes into execution. Besides IT Quality, Process Consulting, Mobility and Virtualization are also Ozona's focus areas. www.ozona.es

About AgilePoint – Ascentn:
AgilePoint is the first comprehensive BPM solution for the Microsoft platform and it is designed to enable business users to quickly implement and deploy cross-functional and cross-organizational business processes in the form of process-based applications, all while in an easy-to-use process-modeling environment running on their desktops using reusable business activity modules and executable functional parts built by IT. For more information www.ascentn.com