IMS & ARC – Everyday work and its development

Currently, Arter’s product family consists of two different software that solve different development needs in organizations. IMS-software is a solution for developing a quality and management system. ARC-software, in turn, is an enterprise architecture tool that helps the visual modelling of various areas of an organization, such as processes, information systems, and services.

But hold on. Isn’t process management also an essential part of a quality and management system as well? How do these two software products differ? If you are using both IMS and ARC it is important to understand what information should be modelled in which software and how are these models different?  Let’s go through a simple example of what different information, from the perspective of a single process, is described to these two programs.

Process information in IMS

IMS is involved in the daily work of the entire organization and describes its operational activities. Visualizing process hierarchy with IMS is effortless and the 3-page technique (read more about the technique in this blog) makes it easy to understand the process. That is, the process includes both a summary, a process diagram, and a detailed process step description. When you look at these three tabs, you can get an accurate picture of the individual process up to the level of the work instructions.

A single process in ARC

ARC describes strategy and relationships of operational activity. In other words, it splits everyday work into building blocks that can be used to assemble the organization’s current and target state. Information and description of the same process is slightly different in ARC than IMS.

The process chart, of course, looks similar with swim lanes and different phases, but the summary and the description of the phases can’t be found in ARC. Of course, links and text fields can be added to the process element, but you should consider exactly to what level of information you want to deepen the description. In ARC the purpose is to demonstrate the most important relations when it comes to managing change. This way, for example, you can show what kind of information passes in the process, what information systems it needs and how it relates to the strategic goals through the organisation’s capabilities.

Thus, a single process appears differently when viewed from a management system perspective and from the perspective of enterprise architecture. Transferring a process from IMS to ARC is greatly facilitated by IMS-ARC process integration which we offer as an additional service to ARC. However, this is a soft touch to the characteristics of IMS and ARC and the resulting depiction of a single process. I will be happy to tell you more about how to make the use of IMS and ARC software more effective in your organization!

Would you like to hear more about how you can use IMS and ARC together ?

I am happy to tell more by phone +358 50 454 4287

or via email ville.lukkaroinen@arter.fi