Appian Case Study

Overview

International Vitamin Corporation (IVC) is a large-scale manufacturer of store-brand vitamin and nutritional supplements in the United States. 

Sigmasoft was tasked with improving IVC's process management and bulk workflow using partner Appian. Sigmasoft has been providing developer services, business analyst support with management consulting flair and operational technology services to IVC during the prescribed period. Appian is a cloud computing and enterprise software company that offers a platform as a service. These platforms include low-code development, process mining, business process management, and case management. 

Our knowledge of their business processes, IT landscape, and technology services and our technical expertise made us the preferred partner for their bulk transfer workflow program. 

Digital Transformation

Sigmasoft delivered several technical objectives within the Appian Business Process Management (BPM) tool setup. We improved process models by logically arranging work flow across business nodes and providing security within those models. We further organized applications by organizing them into sensible groups. We employed SAIL forms (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Language) to design user-accessible tasks in various layouts.

We implemented many innovative service components to simplify the work process, such as dynamic document generation and write-to-store data entry. In record keeping, we could show end-to-end information summary dashboards on request. Sigmasoft also improved the quality and simplicity of data-driven reports to better assist with management decisions. 

Sigmasoft was able to help IVC to define its business requirements and to-be processes and conduct market research to identify the most suitable BPM tools available to fit the needs of their various business function domains. We achieved this assessment by inviting various BPM vendors to highlight their ability to make actionable improvements to IVC. Based on our selection criteria and the vendor's proof of concept (POC), Appian was selected to address IVC's business challenges.  

Sigmasoft proactively proposed a development and support model based on objective criteria and delivered a transparent and concrete commercial benefit to the client. Appian licenses were chosen and procured for their "low code" quality, and benefits were palpable. Results were achieved quickly and assessed in 2-week sprints, which helped to justify costs. 

To create awareness at an organizational level, Sigmasoft contributed to a host of initiatives aimed at marketing the bulk transfer process. We created a set of collateral specifically for these marketing purposes. We crafted regular articles in the client's internal newsletter highlighting the benefits of bulk transfer and shared these success stories of improved processes within the client organization. We also supported the town halls and posted flyers to raise awareness of the ease of use, improvement of operating procedures, and the program's success.  

We worked jointly with the IVC in the marketing, communication, and implementation of Appian's BPM initiative. We also conducted awareness and benefit realization sessions with other complementing business units to enable an understanding of the new application, its capabilities, and how it will improve their business operations as a whole.

Business Impact

The overall Business Impact was significant, with great improvements in organization, marketing, and C-Suite executive function. This led to increased productivity through automation in the bulk load, eliminated redundancies in the process cycle, and reduced the cycle time between approval.

Client

International Vitamin Corporation

Partners

Appian

Tension

There are many elements in the bulk transfer workflow: moving large quantities of data points from marketing to sales to record keeping and reporting must be streamlined to maintain efficiency in the steps of good business practices.