Overview //
eB (enterprise Bridge) combines best-of-breed enterprise content management with configuration management capabilities to deliver a powerful Enterprise Information Management system that ensures the delivery of relevant, trusted information–in context–that support our customers’ critical business processes.
eB’s configuration management features enable the rapid development of comprehensive information configurations using out-of-the-box information "objects" that map to your existing business processes. These pre-defined objects include documents, physical items, organizations, people, locations and projects – and have pre-defined data and behavior based on the best practices learned and proven by Enterprise Informatics customers.
The cornerstone of the eB architecture is the ability to establish relationships between information objects and manage those objects through the life cycle of change. When combined with advanced document and records management capabilities, eB makes it easy to see who is responsible for information, what the information describes, and what other information must be considered if a change is needed.
Business Values
With eB for Enterprise, CIOs and information architects can establish and enforce enterprise information governance policies and procedures to ensure compliance with regulatory mandates. eB provides the ability to capture, control and record enterprise information that has a direct impact on achieving overall business goals. eB supports risk management activities to reduce legal or compliance exposures, improves cross-functional collaboration and streamlines operational business processes.
- Information accuracy is vastly improved and can be trusted for business operations
- Automated classification of information enforces information governance, policies and controls
- Compliance officers and auditors are provided with evidence that their information policies are being followed and enforced
- Powerful records management securely stores all records (paper and digital) with defined retention and disposition rules to ensure regulatory compliance
- Contextual search, retrieval, viewing, and printing of documents and records increases productivity and efficiency
- Integration with other business applications streamlines processes and eliminates discreet, disparate repositories of information
- The reduced number of overall systems that must be supported substantially reduces IT costs
Enterprise Informatics customers use eB for Enterprise within a wide variety of industries, including: Energy, Government, EPC (Engineering, Procurement & Construction), Manufacturing, Finance, Healthcare, Military, Mining, Utilities and Transportation. In addition, the eB for Nuclear Application Suite is a set of integrated solutions developed specifically for the highly regulated Nuclear Industry, and eB for SharePoint extends the value of Microsoft SharePoint in all industries.
Next Tab: Applications
Applications
Information modeling
eB for Enterprise provides a powerful information modeling capability that allows organizations to quickly and easily structure and organize their enterprise information assets. eB's predefined, ready-to-use information objects provide a rich model for classifying information and establishing relationships between relevant information objects.
The ability to establish relationships between information assets is one of the cornerstones of the eB information architecture. In eB, it is easy to see who is responsible for information, what the information describes, and what other information must be considered if a change is needed. The ability to determine the impact of change is key to ensuring information integrity.
Not only can information, like a busines process, be modeled, but its definition can be controlled and tracked with revision control. This makes it possible to control and track changes not only of the information but the definition of the information as well.
The process for modeling enterprise information involves the following steps.
- Identify business critical core information assets (documents, assets, people, processes, etc.)
- Identify information interdependencies (That is, how are these pieces of core information related to each other?)
- Classify the information in structured ways to make sure it is consistently described
- Determine the permission model for controlling change and access
- Define any automation correlating to how the information is processed
Information asset capture, indexing and linking
Indexing is the process of identifying and assigning unique numbers and revision levels to information assets. Inherent attributes such as the title, type of asset, status, effective date, date obsolete, as well as user-defined attributes and data serve to identify and control information.
In addition, eB maintains cross references to other information, references to superseded information, and references to locations and status (available, issued, lost, destroyed) of various information asset versions.
Information relationships and structures
Information may be linked in a hierarchical manner, and information relationship classifications such as "contained in," "propagated from," or "referenced by" may be assigned. This allows the user to create and define compound information assets and inter-relationships among assets managed by the system.
Information workflow
eB automates business processes and routes information to the appropriate people within the enterprise for follow-up action. Workflows are defined, constructed, and maintained with an easy-to-use graphical design tool.
Information vaulting
eB ensures that all electronic information sources are secure. The media management server application manages the vaults and ensures that the files are routed to local or distributed repositories on magnetic or optical media. eB's unique distributed vaulting capability utilizes a self-repair feature to ensure the integrity of the vault and performs path analysis to optimize performance.
Information copy management and distribution
eB offers complete control over information asset distribution and circulation. Copies that exist on different media types (electronic, microfilm) can be distributed or circulated to specified persons or to pre-defined distribution lists. The system also notifies holders of copies about changes, prints transmittal notices and labels, and notifies holders when return dates have been exceeded.
Change management
eB offers powerful features for varying levels of change control. When information assets are approved for change control, eB controls the asset and its attribute data with a formal change process.
Once a change request is registered and the primary affected asset(s) identified, the system can be asked to perform a change effects analysis. These reports allow users to identify and incorporate other assets affected by a change request, ensuring that all related information is taken into consideration during the change process. Change-effects analysis is the key to improving information quality, consistency, and overall information integrity.
eB monitors the progress of a change request by providing status details for each affected information asset. eB traces the complete life cycle of changes made and compiles an accurate revision history.
Records management
eB includes a powerful records management capability that provides complete life cycle management of all corporate records and associated information.
Unlike other record management systems, eB records management uses enterprise modeling capabilities to link records to other information assets managed by eB. This ability to manage records in context greatly enhances their value and makes it easy for users to search for, locate, and retrieve records and view all related assets.
With eB, rules can be defined to automatically declare a document a record. Once recorded, that document will be managed through its life cycle. eB administers the record as a corporate asset according to the policies in the file plan under which it is classified. Once under eB control, storage locations and destruction dispositions are controlled by definable rules.
Next Tab: Technology
Technology
Built upon an advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), eB uses the latest Microsoft technologies. Developed with the same technologies as SharePoint, eB embraces Microsoft's .NET framework to form the foundation of its application server tier, web services and user interfaces. This architecture allows eB to easily be integrated to other business critical applications.
eB is compatible with Windows 7 and certified for Windows Server 2008. Enterprise Informatics is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
The eB architecture is proven to be enterprise scalable and highly reliable, and offers the flexibility to adapt to the unique business requirements of a diverse customer base. eB is a highly effective solution for building bridges between SharePoint sites across the enterprise (eB for SharePoint) and other information repositories that are required to realize an effective EIM strategy.
eB for Enterprise is certified by the Institute of Configuration Management (ICM) as a four star Configuration Management software platform.
For more information visit the Technology page.
Next Tab: Resources
Resources
The Informatics of eB White Paper
eB for Document Management Solution Brief
eB for Configuration Management Data Sheet
eB for Enterprise is deployed at more than 250 customers world-wide, supporting a wide range of industries that includes utilities, government, transportation and construction. Our customers use eB to improve their operational efficiency, reduce the cost of meeting compliance requirements and minimize business risk.
First Tab: Business Values
