Optimizing warehouse logistics with the right BPMN editor

How business analysts implement their complex warehouse management systems

Business analysts and project managers play a significant role in the development of Information Technology solutions within the logistic industry. Meeting with clients, describing business processes, drawing models in a BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) workflow for discussion with internal and external stakeholders are all tedious and cumbersome tasks.

Finding a good BPMN editor that quickly helps implement an IT solution to successfully run a warehouse becomes quite important. The editor must be easy to use, help communicate the encoded knowledge quickly and efficiently, and enable workflow sharing.

The ContextAnalyzing business processes to provide an IT solution to logistics companies

MIA Systems is an Austrian software company that develops and implements complex warehouse management IT solutions, working to improve their clients’ intra logistic systems. By offering innovative solutions, the company seeks to maximize their customers’ benefits.

When MIA Systems receives a request, they set up a first meeting with the customer and discuss about the process and software solution that might be suitable for the customer. Marina Hagen-Canaval, IT Project Manager at MIA Systems, and her colleagues call it the Sales Workshop. This is where they introduce their standard product and explore the warehouse management system’s boundaries.

After the system’s boundaries have been defined, the analysis phase kicks in and the Project Management team visits the customer, with a suggested solution that reflects the complexity of the project. The solution may refer to order picking, good handling or inventory taking. Each of these processes is then analyzed and transferred to BPMN ‘to-be’ workflows. These workflows are the basis for the MIA Systems User Interface mock-ups.

Following the Analysis Workshops, Marina and her colleagues iteratively review the presented mock-ups and the BPMN models based on the feedback from the client. This iterative process in the analysis phase ends with one final document, the Requirements Analysis. This document describes the system as well as the processes that will be implemented in the customer’s warehouse.

Marina then presents the final document to the customer with the recommended solutions to specific problems that were spotted during the analysis stage. Upon agreement from the client, the software development starts.

The ChallengeLooking for a BPMN editor to speed up business process modeling

MIA Systems has been using this business process-first approach for a long time and used another BPMN editor to model workflows.

However, working with their BPMN tool showed some limitations, primarily concerning time performance, efficiency and simultaneous work on the platform.

Marina and her team wished for a BPMN editor with a more modern and intuitive user interface to speed and ease up their business process modeling.
They wanted a professional and elegant way to suggest the optimal process solution to their customers. So they found Cardanit online, compared it to other tools, tested it and chose it for its performance.

The SolutionEmbracing the right answer to efficiently model business processes

Cardanit enabled Marina to draw her BPMN models pretty quickly and easily, so she recommended it to the Project Management team to enable collaboration within customers' projects.

All processes are now being drawn with Cardanit, while its great usability and professional workflow outlook play a pivotal role while showing the BPMN diagrams to the client.

During the analysis stage, the MIA Systems team uses the Cardanit sharing functionality which enables email notification to access and edit the BPMN model.

During the internal discussion stage, Marina presents her screen and collaboratively refines the workflow with her colleagues in real time. Cardanit allows two or more people to work simultaneously and remotely on a model.

MIA Systems staff usually share the .png file before a meeting and then discuss it in the customer’s office making changes with their smart pens directly onto the file. Back in the office, they amend the BPMN model to reflect the customer’s feedback.

The BenefitsCardanit as the user-friendly BPMN editor that makes process modeling quick and easy

“Cardanit is very user-friendly and makes modeling super easy and really quick, helping us save time in delivering the solutions to our customers”, Marina tells about her experience in modeling business processes with Cardanit. “Its collaboration features are great for simultaneous work within the team. We found that customizing the BPMN elements also gives our diagrams quite a modern style. Cardanit is very competitive in pricing and this helped make it our first option when choosing the new BPM software for our needs. On top of that, we found excellent customer service whenever we needed any assistance.”

Further reading

BPMN in transportation: Cardanit pivotal role in port logistics analysis

BPMN in healthcare: Cardanit becomes corporate practice in healthcare business process management

BPMN in Information Technology: Cardanit helps streamline IT business processes

About MIA Systems

MIA Systems is a start-up like company from the Rhine Valley in Austria with an award winning team, consisting of highly trained individuals, which is dedicated to design and develop highly sophisticated warehouse management systems. Depending on the use case, different components such as mobile devices, touch computers, stacker control systems or fully automated transport systems (shuttles, conveyor technology and many others) may be integrated into the warehouse solution.