One of the corner stones of ARIS is the EPC process modelling notation (event-driven process chain). In fact, the EPC notation was invented back in 1992 by the creator of ARIS - Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer. In those 20 years, the notation was a very successful tool appreciated by academia and business to capture and communicate process information. For example, SAP used this notation to document the reference processes of their SAP R/3 ERP system. Here at former IDS Scheer (now Software AG), we always focused on putting the perfect tooling around the EPC notation - our ARIS Platform. ARIS Platform has been a tremendous success in the market. Today, far more than 8,000 companies world-wide are using ARIS Platform to master their BPM efforts.
However, things are changing and we as a company need to adapt, too. The recent acquisition of former IDS Scheer by Software AG and the retirement of Prof. Scheer gave us the opportunity to rethink some of our core principles. We reviewed a set of 427 recent customer databases and we had to notice that only 7% use EPCs for process modelling. In contrast, 92% decided to go with BPMN 2 notation instead and yes, there is still a small group of fanatics (1%) using UML activity diagrams for process modelling. Also outside of ARIS, we notice an exploding demand for BPMN 2 tools and consulting services. For us, those are clear signs that things have changed.
Therefore, we decided to accelerate the uptake of BPMN 2. With the next service release of ARIS Platform, we will start to phase-out EPC notation. It won't be possible to create new EPC models. Of course, you will be able to maintain and change your existing EPC models, but all new process models must be done using BPMN 2 collaboration or process diagram. We will also provide an easy to use migration tool to convert your EPC models to BPMN 2 collaboration diagrams. Along with the update of our professional tools, we will publish a new version of our free modelling tool ARIS Express, which will remove support for EPC diagrams completely. We also started a set of tutorials on BPMN 2 to educate you on the correct usage of this new notation to help you get started. We highly recommend that you forward this important announcement to your colleagues and fellows so that they also get aware of this upcoming change.
Stay tuned for more details. We will regularly update you on the migration process and when the new versions of ARIS Platform and ARIS Express become available. EPC was yesterday, say hello to BPMN 2!
LOL. That is a good one. I would have loved to see the heart attacks or cheers (depending on the group you belong to) .
But seriously, I am curious what the state of EPC/BPMN adoption is (as primary notation and not in the M2E scenario). My assumption is that it is 5% of ARIS users who use BPMN as their primary or sole notations. Please add your choice in the comments.
thank you for your message. Just going to update the currenct Express version in a few seconds, so Business Processes can't be created anymore. Stay tuned.
Of course you all spotted it: it is an April Fool's!
Software AG has no plans to discontinue the EPC notation, because both, EPC and BPMN 2, are very relevant process notations serving different domains. In the past, I have done a detailed comparison of both languages and this analysis shows that none is better than the other. It just depends on what you want to achieve.
In customer projects, we see many examples where both notations are successfully combined. EPCs and value-added chain diagrams are used for the more abstract business process models and BPMN 2 is used on the workflow level.
So I'm pretty sure that both notations will be part of any new ARIS products for a very long time!
OMG...we are in the process of finishing up 1700+ business process models, of which 85% are EPC's... tell me your joking! I know this is April fools day, but my heart just about stopped with your message...
