Process Excellence news – Celonis, PUMA, Orange, Huawei & more

PEX Network brings you the latest news in process and operational excellence (OPEX), business process management (BPM), digital transformation, process mining, low-code technology, intelligent document processing (IDP), Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen and more.

Week of 02/26, 2024 includes:

• Celonis hits hiring milestone and expands Fujitsu partnership
• PUMA reports soaring operational profits
• Framework supports process mining from blockchain applications
• Quantix appoints first SVP of operational excellence
• IDP vendor seeks to eliminate generative AI hallucinations with proprietary LLM
• Huawei launches 10 industrial digital and intelligent transformation solutions
• Orange and Microsoft partner to accelerate digital transformation in MEA
• Sage unveils generative AI tool to automate accounting and finance processes

Celonis hits hiring milestone and expands Fujitsu partnership

Process mining leader Celonis announced the hire of its 500^th employee at its Madrid Hub, nearly half of which are women. Since it opened three years ago, the Celonis Madrid Hub has become a major innovation and training center in Europe, hosting more than 50 nationalities. “Celebrating our 500-strong team at the Madrid Hub is a proud moment for us,” said Fernando Ranz, VP and country leader Iberia and Latin America at Celonis. “The exceptional mix of expertise and cultures here not only fosters innovation but also gives us a unique ability to understand and meet the complex needs of our customers in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.”

Celonis also revealed an expanded partnership with Fujitsu to accelerate business transformation for customers and digital transformation. Starting April 2024, Fujitsu will leverage Celonis’ process mining technology to provide consulting services that draw on its know-how acquired through in-house practices and customer use cases in various industries to help customers realize business transformation, according to a press release. “By expanding the strategic partnership between Fujitsu and Celonis, and combining our process intelligence platform with Fujitsu’s digital transformation capabilities, we can offer customers tailored solutions to optimize their business processes and achieve their transformation goals,” said Bastian Nominacher, co-founder and co-CEO of Celonis.

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PUMA reports soaring operational profits

Global sports brand PUMA released its fourth quarter financial results reporting a 133 percent surge in its operating result, up to €94.4 million from last year’s €40.5 million. That’s despite the company facing a significant 42.3 percent drop in net income to €800,000 ($868,500) from the previous year’s €1.4 million, illuminating a path of operational profitability even in challenging economic times. The improvement was achieved through PUMA’s gross profit margin and strict cost discipline, the firm said.

“In a volatile environment that impacted the whole industry, PUMA delivered strong growth and profitability fully in line with the outlook,” commented Arne Freundt, CEO of PUMA SE. “Without the extraordinary devaluation of the Argentine peso, which had a significant one-off accounting impact, our results would have been even stronger. This outcome reflects the strong underlying performance of PUMA and we were only able to achieve this because of our amazing PUMA Family and all of its fantastic partners.”

Framework supports process mining from blockchain applications

A new academic study has measured the effectives of a process-aware framework to support process mining from blockchain applications. Previous studies have demonstrated the application of process mining techniques to Ethereum-compatible application event data. However, the availability of event data is typically constrained by the application’s process awareness, with domain analysis identifying several challenges to mining the business process from blockchain applications.

A framework was therefore created to support identification of appropriate cases for process mining and automate the generation of event logs from blockchain data. It consists of two modules, the Process Awareness Recognizer (PAR) and the Event Log Generator (ELG). PAR is a rule-based classifier to assess the process awareness of a given application. ELG is an automated batch processing model consisting of three methods: 1) Extractor: to retrieve event data from blockchains, 2) Decoder: to transform the extracted data to a human-readable format and 3) Formatter: to produce event log files in a format compatible with PM tools.

The results approved the feasibility and applicability of the framework, which was validated by implementing a proof-of-concept application with an input set of 201 real-world applications.

Quantix appoints first SVP of operational excellence

Quantix, North America’s leading supply chain services company to the chemical industry, announced Brant Nieminski as its first SVP of operational excellence to lead process improvement initiatives focused on enhancing operational performance. Quantix has a nationwide network of more than 80 terminals, eight-million square feet of warehousing/packaging space and a fleet of 5,000 trucks, trailers, chassis and other highly specialized equipment. Nieminski was most recently an executive VP at BNSF Logistics.

“Providing our customers with the highest level of service, quality and value remains a top priority at Quantix, especially as we’ve grown considerably over the past five years,” commented Chris Ball, president and CEO of Quantix. “We look forward to Brant influencing how we elevate our performance and continue to deliver for customers.”

READ: 5 operational excellence trends for 2024

IDP vendor seeks to eliminate generative AI hallucinations with proprietary LLM

IDP vendor Rossum launched a next-generation AI engine for transactional documents to revolutionize document understanding and streamline automation end-to-end. Rossum Aurora focuses on transactional documents such as invoices, packing lists or sales orders - tailored for speed and precision, ensuring time is not wasted in dealing with hallucinated data, according to the firm.

“In 2017, we revolutionized the IDP market by introducing the first template-free platform,” said Tomas Gogar, CEO at Rossum. “Today, we’re primed to replicate this success with the launch of our specialized Transactional Large Language Model. After two years of meticulous development, it’s ready to elevate learning speed, accuracy and automation to unprecedented levels across the Rossum client base. We expect the industry to broadly adopt this approach in the coming year.”

DOWNLOAD: 2024 generative AI and intelligent automation trends report

Huawei launches 10 industrial digital and intelligent transformation solutions

Chinese multinational technology corporation Huawei launched 10 industrial digital and intelligent transformation solutions as well as a series of new flagship products to meet the needs of customers at different stages of industrial transformation. The new releases were revealed during Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona 2024.

“Huawei recognizes that each customer has its own specific needs and challenges. As digital and intelligent transformation continues to progress, Huawei is dedicated to developing scenario-based, cutting-edge, green and low-carbon products and solutions to meet customer needs,” commented David Shi, VP of ICT marketing and solution sales at Huawei.

Orange and Microsoft partner to accelerate digital transformation in MEA

Orange Middle East & Africa (MEA) signed an agreement with Microsoft to accelerate the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the region. The collaboration aims to address the growing needs of SMEs as they undergo digital transformation, helping them to thrive in the digital economy. It will focus on three key areas: Driving access to key technology solutions, preparing SMEs for digital adoption and strong governance and performance monitoring.

Microsoft and Orange aim to support 15,000 businesses throughout 2024, with an ambition to reach one million SMEs by providing access to technology, tools and support to accelerate adoption. The goal is to promote digital inclusion and enable all economic players in the MEA region to benefit from the advantages of digital transformation.

“This collaboration with Microsoft is a significant step in our commitment to support the digital transformation of African businesses,” said Jérôme Hénique, CEO of Orange MEA. “By combining our network and Microsoft’s solutions, we can provide SMEs with the tools and guidance they need to thrive in the digital economy.”

Sage unveils generative AI tool to automate accounting and finance processes

Accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology leader Sage announced the introduction of a new generative AI-powered productivity assistant to revolutionize accounting, finance and people management processes. Sage Copilot automates workflows, identifies errors and generates actionable insights unique to each business and accountant’s practice, according to the firm. It helps with forecasting, cashflow management and generating and sending invoices with simple, natural language commands, it added.

“Sage Copilot revolutionizes small and mid-sized businesses and accountant productivity by bringing trusted AI into the heart of their operations – automating tasks and providing insights to fuel growth and efficiency,” said Steve Hare, CEO of Sage.

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