Some companies define their business in terms of a business process model made up of business processes. A business process is a repeatable set of activities that represent work required to achieve a business objective. Typical business processes include marketing services, selling products, delivering services, distributing products, invoicing for services, and accounting for money received.

In contrast, some companies use business capabilities as a governance structure. Business capabilities describe the main functions and competencies about what is necessary to run the business. A business capability is captured as an abstract description of what is done in a company to meet its business objectives independent of the organization's structure, business processes, and people. For example, Support and Services is a high-level abstract description of a business capability whereas Deliver Services is a description of a repeatable activity (business process) that takes place.

A business process rarely operates in isolation. Other business processes will depend on it and it will depend on other business processes. A business process may have as many levels of subordinate business processes as needed, although three levels should be sufficient in the business process hierarchy to describe the value chain. Business processes at the top level are primarily abstract and present an overview of the process hierarchy. The business process hierarchy becomes more detailed on the level of the subordinate business processes.

You company's main business processes should be defined as the highest level business processes. Each business process may have multiple subordinate business processes, whereby it is recommended that the business process model not have more than 3 or 4 levels to provide manageability.

Software AG provides interoperability between Alfabet FastLane and ARIS. Both ARIS and Alfabet FastLane maintain data about business process models and objects in the IT landscape in order to support planning and management capabilities. whereas Alfabet FastLane focuses on IT portfolio management and ARIS on business process analysis and management. The available interoperability between the two solutions allows both ARIS and Alfabet FastLane to be used in synergy. If your company is interested in an integration to ARIS, please contact: https://empower.softwareag.com/ContactSupport. A one-time registration is required to access the Empower Portal.