Aligning Process Automation and Business Intelligence to Support Corporate Performance Management

In recent years, companies have tried to realize efficiency gains of business process orientation by implementing business process automation (BPA) systems coordinating the interaction of existing function-oriented enterprise applications according to the logic of specific business processes. Additionally, business intelligence (BI) applications have been installed to support management in measuring the company’s performance and deriving appropriate decisions. BI and BPA initiatives are usually organized as separate IS projects that are not properly coordinated, leading in turn to an unsatisfactory alignment of strategic management and operational business process execution. The proposed article is to depict how new trends in the IS area can lead to a convergence of BPA and BI and therefore deliver appropriate support for an integrated corporate performance management (CPM). The utilization of IS in an integrated CPM solution is illustrated by an example from the telecommunications sector.