RAVEN Cloud Adds On-Ramp for Visio Users

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ravenflow today unveiled integration with Microsoft^® Visio^® from the cloud-based version of its award-winning RAVEN technology for rapid business process and use case visualization.

“RAVEN Cloud offers a more effective way for stakeholders and non-technical subject matter experts to contribute directly to model definition and validation, without also needing to be Visio experts. This approach should both expand the market of potential modelers, and lead to more accurate modeling results.”

“Visio is the go-to process modeling and flowcharting tool for many companies,” said David Ruiz, vice president of products at Ravenflow. “We recognized that organizations wanted to leverage their existing investments in Visioand other Microsoft tools, while expanding the pool of process contributors. RAVEN Cloud now provides a faster, easier on-ramp to Visio, extending business process and use case modeling to more stakeholders across the organization and enabling ready collaboration with anyone who uses Visio.”

While Microsoft Visio is widely considered the diagramming tool of choice, many business and process analysts can struggle to create clear, logically correct process maps using Visio or other drawing tools. In many cases, they can spend hours—or even days—interpreting requirements and textual descriptions and drawing the diagrams from scratch.

“Whether the project is business process transformation or product development, process modeling provides a critical first step in validating how a system or service should perform. As models are far easier to change than code, the better the model, the more accurately it can be validated by stakeholders and the less rework will be required during development,” said Nathaniel Palmer, Editor-in-Chief at BPM.com.

“Yet the most common mistake is to begin by drawing lines and boxes, inevitably leading to ambiguity and misinterpretation by stakeholders, rather than first establishing a clear and simple explanation of the process,” he explained.

RAVEN Cloud transforms process modeling by eliminating the need to draw at all. It automatically generates visual process diagrams from natural language descriptions in seconds, empowering users to express their process and application needs instantly, and with greater clarity and quality.

“By allowing process models to be created directly from written narratives,” Palmer said, “RAVEN Cloud offers a more effective way for stakeholders and non-technical subject matter experts to contribute directly to model definition and validation, without also needing to be Visio experts. This approach should both expand the market of potential modelers, and lead to more accurate modeling results.”

Based upon patented language processing technology, RAVEN Cloud allows business people to describe business processes in plain English, or select from a library of business process and use case templates. RAVEN Cloud automatically identifies any logical errors, process gaps, and missing or ambiguous steps while generating error-free visual process diagrams that all stakeholders can understand. A free public beta is available at www.ravencloud.com.

To learn more about RAVEN Cloud’s integration with Visio, join Ravenflow’s free launch webinar, “Simplifying Process Mapping with RAVEN Cloud and Visio,” on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT). To register for this event, please visit www1.gotomeeting.com/register/344964745.

About Ravenflow

Ravenflow is the leading provider of process visualization and requirements definition software that allows companies to gain better insight, clarity, and quality in their process improvement and application development projects. Leveraging a patented natural language engine, Ravenflow helps companies analyze and visualize their business processes, application requirements, and system engineering needs. Ravenflow recently received the 2010 IBM Jazz Innovator Finalist Award, the 2009 Jolt Productivity Award, 2009 IBM Rational ISV Partner of the Year Award, and was selected as a Gartner “Cool Vendor in Application Development.” For more information, visit www.ravenflow.com.

All products mentioned in the release are trademarks or registered trademarks of Ravenflow. All other trademarks, trade names, and/or product names are used solely for the purpose of identification and are the property of their respective owners.