EPSScentral News

Welcome to the March 2004 edition of .infoREADER.

I would first like to extend my thanks to so many who have expressed delight with the new format. We are pleased that .infoREADER has generated such overwhelming approval, and look forward to serving you in kind when we unveil the new epsscentral.info site (soon). Many thanks for your continued visits, feedback, and support.

This month we invite you to submit entries to the 2004 PCD Awards, which have been expanded to include both in-production solutions and design concepts/prototypes. We are also accepting applications from those interested in judging the PCD Awards. See the PCD Awards section of .infoREADER for details.

Another exciting development is the shift in emphasis from the technologies that support our organizations to the processes that comprise them. An example is the title change in the EAI (enterprise application integration) Journal to the BI (business integration) Journal. Just as an emphasis on learning vs. training focuses on the outcome, business processes (not technology) get to the root of the performance paradigm. Performance-centeredness requires proper representations of process, human factors, and information, hence the shift in focus to process rounds out the triumverate - along with positive trends in the usability sciences and content/knowledge management.

Recent trends in business, technology, and investment reveal increasing emphasis on Business Process Management, Business Activity Monitoring, Business Process Improvement, and Business Rules Engines. Organizations are focusing on processes, product vendors are forming alliances to gain competitive advantage in the process technologies, and investment dollars are shaking loose once again in this exciting approach to making performance happen. Reengineering fell short of expectations in the 1990s because organizations did not get the right processes right. This recent attention to process is perhaps the correction, and for a very good reason: It is what has been missing from the performance equation.

Warm regards,

Gary Dickelman

President & CEO

EPSScentral LLC