CommerceQuest Partners with Bantu to Enhance Business Process Management Suite with Enterprise Instant Messaging
BPM Provider Addresses Rapidly Emerging Industry Trend to Further Improve Process Efficiency and Increase Productivity
Tampa, FL - May 31, 2005
CommerceQuest Inc. and Bantu, the leading provider of secure enterprise
instant messaging (EIM) solutions, have announced a strategic
partnership, whereby CommerceQuest has integrated Bantu's EIM platform
into its industry leading business process management solutions. The new
relationship will further enhance CommerceQuest's TRAXIONSM Enterprise Business Process Management Suite (TRAXION EnterpriseBPMS) by offering secure instant messaging (IM) capabilities to more than 500 industry-leading companies.
According to industry analyst reports, more than 25 million people currently use consumer IM while at work, often without departmental knowledge. As such, secure enterprise-grade IM solutions are rapidly emerging, with global revenue expected to reach $350 million and corporate IM users totaling 349 million by 2007.
"This rapid growth of IM has significantly impacted enterprises
today by offering more productivity, while raising new concerns about
security," said Larry Schlang, chief executive officer of Bantu.
"Our partnership with CommerceQuest will enable even more
organizations to benefit from one of the most advanced EIM solutions as
an embedded part of CommerceQuest, while addressing demands for
additional security, integration, rapid deployment, and reliable
scalability."
The Bantu partnership will allow CommerceQuest customers to communicate in a secure IM environment that captures all correspondence in an XML-based audit trail for internal record-keeping. The EIM solution will enable users to work in a real-time collaborative atmosphere to define and approve processes, as well as reduce the time it takes to complete a process cycle.
For example, organizations will be able to use Bantu's EIM solutions to
more efficiently work on and complete processes such as order entries
and budgeting. In addition to TRAXION EnterpriseBPMS's formal step-by-step method to define and monitor processes, users are also able to more loosely define and collaborate on tasks that must be completed in real-time, allowing for more flexibility and rapid decision cycles and adoption rates. This functionality allows companies to improve and speed their informal business processes, to identify and reduce unmonitored costs and to formalize internal best practices.
"Aligning with Bantu is the latest example of CommerceQuest not
only staying ahead in the industry, but most importantly, addressing the
rapidly emerging trend of EIM," said Michael Forster, chief
executive officer of CommerceQuest. "This partnership further
demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with one of the most
comprehensive BPM solutions in the market by offering secure instant
messaging capabilities to improve process efficiency and increase
productivity."
About CommerceQuest (www.commercequest.com):
Founded in 1991, CommerceQuest is the only enterprise solutions provider
that enables its customers to rapidly turn business strategy into
business processes by fully integrating the work that people do with
software systems that optimize business performance. CommerceQuest
delivers a complete set of scalable business process management (BPM)
solutions that leverage existing IT investments to unite people,
processes and technology in a service-based architecture that spans the
extended enterprise, from the mainframe to the Internet and everything
in between. More than 500 industry-leading companies rely on
CommerceQuest to help them integrate heterogeneous workflow and IT
systems, including many of the Fortune 500 companies such as The Home
Depot, Coca-Cola Bottling, Ahold, and American Express.
CommerceQuest is a privately-held company and a member of Internet
Capital Group's (Nasdaq: ICGE) collaborative network of Partner
Companies. For more information about CommerceQuest, please call us at
813.639.6300 or visit us on the Web at www.commercequest.com.
About Bantu, Inc.:
About Bantu, Inc.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Bantu is a leader in secure
Enterprise Instant Messaging (EIM). The Bantu EIM Platform provides
robust messaging, presence, alerting and conferencing that enhance
real-time communication and collaboration, resulting in greater
productivity and operational effectiveness. Bantu EIM provides the
highest levels of security and scalability, is platform-independent, and
easily integrates into any business application or service. Bantu's
government, corporate and education customers include the U.S. Army,
U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Department of State, Department of Commerce,
Federal Emergency Management Agency, British Army, HSBC, Sprint, Strong
Financial, The George Washington University and Johns Hopkins
University. For more information, visit www.bantu.com.