IPD deploys process management suite from Progress

IPD takes on technology from software company Progress

Global real estate company IPD has purchased a process management suite from software firm Progress in a deal worth about £4.4m over four years.

IPD provides information on the real estate markets to investment banks and other investors and currently distributes analysis every 10 days. Julian Self, group operations and IT director at IPD, said that the new technology will allow the firm to reduce this to every seven days.

The platform replaces a bespoke system that was built 18 years ago, and has been customised to calculate specific metrics and measures to provide to clients.

The old system required a number of staff to engage in data cleaning before analyses were sent to clients, but Self said that this will no longer be required.

These staff will now be able to focus on producing more analysis for clients, which will help the firm recoup its investment – it hopes within four years.

There are three main elements to the platform: a business process management stack from Savvion, which Progress bought in 2009; a complex event processing engine; and a control tower that gives visibility and provides charts for business analysis.