ESI Uses Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization Service to Streamline Core Business Processes: Financial News

ESI Uses Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization Service to Streamline Core Business Processes
Monday October 5, 8:00 am ET

SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwire - 10/05/09) - Fujitsu today announced in North America that Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. (ESI) (NASDAQ:ESIO - News), a leading provider of world-class photonic and laser systems for microengineering applications, has used the Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization service (APD) to streamline ESI's opportunity-to-order process with the goal of reducing on-hand inventory. Using the service, ESI successfully and cost-effectively gained new and detailed insight into existing processes and inefficiencies and identified opportunities to increase inquiry-to-order conversion rates. Of the 22 process improvement initiatives identified, 77 percent were a direct result of the Fujitsu APD exercise.

Source: Fujitsu America Inc.

· Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery - 'Dialing down' from process spaghetti to uncover the clearer process path

The Fujitsu APD service is based on the Fujitsu Business Process Management by Evidence (BPM-e) process mapping and analysis tool and quickly reconstructs real-world processes based on factual information. It creates a dynamic diagram that can move from high level to detail, aiding the analysis of exception paths, repeated steps and loop-backs, transition times between steps, and the associated costs. Designed for companies embarking on process improvement and governance initiatives, the APD service helps enterprises visualize and optimize complex processes. It illuminates exposure to compliance failure, fraud, and other legal and efficiency issues lying hidden in a company's operational workflows. The cost-effective service eliminates labor-intensive exploration that organizations typically require and immediately reveals what often remains completely invisible even after months of work.

News Highlights

Within a short period of time, the APD service provided ESI with a detailed analysis of its opportunity-to-order process -- how opportunities move from quotes to orders within the SAP system. From the findings, ESI gained more intimate knowledge of its processes, which will optimize the company's decision making.
The APD service provided ESI valuable insight into how many inquiries got converted into quotes, how many quotes got converted into orders, how many orders got cancelled and how many orders stayed open. This is helping the ESI team engage in much more focused discussions on how to improve the conversion rate.
The APD service will allow ESI to make process improvement decisions quickly based on hard evidence. In addition, the APD service produced its diagrams utilizing a fraction of the resources of other methodologies and with minimal disruption to the business.
The service has provided ESI with the option to launch process standardization and improvement initiatives resulting in business transformation.
ESI will share its experience with the Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization service at the Gartner BPM Summit, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando, Fla., on Tuesday, October 6, 2009, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m., and at Forrester's Business Technology Forum 2009 on October 8, 2009, from 2:25 to 2:55 p.m.
A demonstration of the Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization service will be available at both events -- the Gartner BPM Summit, booth 9 and the Forrester Business Technology Forum, booth 205.

Quotes

Jim Sinur, Research Vice President, Gartner: "The ability to rapidly obtain a visualization of existing complex business processes is the first step in developing a quick-change capability that delivers a host of benefits, including greater agility in competitive markets, faster responses to the demands of management and collaborative teams, and the ability to more easily and cost-effectively keep pace with evolving regulations and compliance issues. Automated Business Process Discovery solutions not only help in presenting the required information, but can also help companies keep their processes fine-tuned over time."

Greg Mueller, Manufacturing Systems Analyst, ESI: "We were very impressed by how much insight into our critical opportunity-to-order process the Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery and Visualization service provided in so little time, at such low cost, and with so little disruption to our business. APD produced easy-to-understand visualizations based on what is actually happening within our organization, allowing us to make solid process-improvement decisions."

Rio Mori, Executive Vice President, Platform Products, Fujitsu America: "Thanks to the Fujitsu Automated Process Discovery service, ESI has been able to quickly take a deep dive into one of its most important processes and cost-effectively develop the evidence it needs to make smart and reliable decisions about how to improve it. APD provides fast and accurate insight into what existing processes really look like, providing a solid foundation for helping to ensure that process improvement and business and IT transformation initiatives have the best chance for success, all without the high cost and business disruption of other approaches."

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees supporting customers in 70 countries, Fujitsu combines a worldwide corps of systems and services experts with highly reliable computing and communications products and advanced microelectronics to deliver added value to customers. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (Tokyo:6702 - News) reported consolidated revenues of 4.6 trillion yen (US$47 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009. For more information, please see: www.fujitsu.com.

About Fujitsu America, Inc.

Fujitsu America, Inc. provides a complete portfolio of business technology services, computing platforms, and industry solutions. Fujitsu platform products are based on scalable, reliable and high-performance server, storage, software, point-of-sale, and mobile technologies. Fujitsu combines its renowned platform offerings with a full suite of onshore, near shore and offshore system integration, outsourcing, and datacenter services covering applications, operations, infrastructure, customer service, and multi-vendor lifecycle services. Fujitsu provides industry-specific solutions for retail, manufacturing, healthcare, government, education, financial services, and telecommunications sectors. For more information on Fujitsu America's business scope, visit http://solutions.us.fujitsu.com/.

About ESI

ESI is a pioneer and leading supplier of world-class photonic and laser systems that help its microelectronics customers achieve compelling yield and productivity gains. The company's industry-leading, application-specific products enhance electronic-device performance in three key sectors -- semiconductors, components and electronic interconnect -- by enabling precision fine-tuning of device microfeatures in high-volume manufacturing environments. Founded in 1944, ESI is headquartered in Portland, Ore. More information is available at www.esi.com.

Fujitsu and the Fujitsu logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and product names are the property of their respective owners.

The statements provided herein are for informational purposes only and may be amended or altered by Fujitsu Limited without notice or liability. Product description data represents Fujitsu design objectives and is provided for comparative purposes; actual results may vary based on a variety of factors. Specifications are subject to change without notice.

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