AuraPortal Lets Users Build Their Own Processes

Business Process Management provider AuraPortal has added a new module to its product lineup — Marketing Campaigns, or MC. It is based on template-oriented pattern processes — as all of AuraPortal’s applications are — which means it can be easily tailored by end-users.

MC is able to follow up on any type of campaign, explained Scott Rich, general manager for AuraPortal. These range from general marketing and direct marketing programs for prospects to up-selling and cross-selling to customers based on their profiles, both offline as well as online.

There is also analytics functionality to rate the results of the campaigns. Another new feature is the ability to link to third-party payment processing systems.

Designing Web Forms

The end result, Rich told CRM Buyer, is a comprehensive BPM application that is enhanced with additional e-commerce capabilities.

The template approach means the application is easy for end-users to customize, he noted. “Customers can, for example, design their own Web forms because it is all Web-based.”

Some examples include Web forms for information requests or, internally, to track specific campaigns. “We’ve already done much of the work around those,” he said.

More emphasis and resources can thus be placed on using the system to develop processes that go across the organization or extend out to the customer or vendors, added Rich.

Third-Party Payment

The new links to third-party payment processing systems allow users to create their own shopping carts and payment gateways to conduct commerce on the website, Rich pointed out.

“AuraPortal can be linked to almost any payment processor,” he explained. “This is a significant step, as it goes beyond working through a process that in the end can only notify people of an event.”

Unstructured Processes

The shopping cart process is a bit more structured than the typical transactions for which AuraPortal is used.

“Most of our customers will use our product to manage unstructured processes that are not covered in an ERP system, such as document management,” Rich noted.

Imagine ordering a PC online with different features and options available. “Our BPM process is similar,” said Rich, “in that the choices and rules can be easily selected for a particular situation.”

B2B Orientation

The shopping cart functionality is perhaps a bit misleading, in that most of AuraPortal’s deployments are in the B2B space, and shopping carts are typically associated with B2C websites.

That is changing,though, according to Rich, and more B2B transactions are calling for payment functionality.

“These companies want the ability to manage customer processes on a financial level,” he said, “not just on an information basis.”