Software AG presents the integration of the Alfabet and ARIS product lines at CeBIT 2014, introducing a new strategic platform for communication between business and IT. With this new solution, business processes and IT can be managed through a single platform to support planning activities across the entire corporate structure—from business decisions to their IT implementation.

The integration of the two products, ARIS and Alfabet, delivers a new generation of business process and IT management solutions that form the foundation for the ongoing transformation of businesses in the wake of growing digitization. Harmonizing the continuous development of business processes and the supporting IT is crucial in order to keep pace with rapidly changing business conditions. This requires new approaches to collaboration between business teams and IT planning groups that previously, in many cases, acted independently. The interoperability between ARIS and Alfabet establishes the methodology for this new collaboration: Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Architecture (EA), IT Planning and Portfolio Management can all be handled with one comprehensive approach.

Target groups for both products are each served with trusted and established methods and tools. ARIS provides the collaborative environment along the entire communication chain, including the required governance. The result: lower costs, higher quality, faster reaction times and proactive error correction, making ARIS the design environment for the Digital enterprise vision. Alfabet links the interdependent perspectives of IT, business, finance and risk for "whole view" analysis of how IT can support business change and helps IT decision-makers make better IT investment decisions and reduce transformational risks by understanding when, where, how and why to make changes in the IT portfolio. Thereby Alfabet drives the IT-empowered transition to a Digital enterprise.

Dr. Wolfram Jost, CTO of Software AG, on the advantages of integrating the two product lines:

"The interoperability of ARIS and Alfabet enables both business managers and IT managers to speak the same language. The vision of collaborating on joint transformation projects becomes a reality. This closes the gap between business and IT to create digital systems of differentiation—the first step on the road to a Digital enterprise."

A prototype of the integrated portfolio is already in use at Wüstenrot & Württembergische AG. Dr. Detlef Ruprecht, Head of Enterprise Architecture Management at Wüstenrot & Württembergische, states:

"The integration of ARIS and Alfabet enables us to integrate the information on processes and applications, and provides suitable views that make interconnections visible. This gives us integrated strategic planning across all levels of the enterprise architecture, from processes to IT infrastructure."

The integrated ARIS/Alfabet package solution will be available at the beginning of Q2 2014.