In the world of IT operations, police, fire, health, military, and emergency management, Business Process Manager (BPM) represents the culmination of decades of real-world experience, crisis response, and technology evolution. What began as a disaster recovery planning tool has evolved into a multithreaded, multi-user workflow management platform capable of orchestrating complex processes across industries — from cyber incident response and health management to fire, police, military, and flight operations.
The Origins: Born from a Crisis
BPM’s story began years ago at EMCON Technologies, a $3 billion carve-out from ArvinMeritor, where I served as Senior Director of IT. We ran two data centers — one in Indianapolis supporting the Americas and another in Augsburg, Germany, supporting Europe and Africa. Each data center hosted ERP environments (SAP and QAD MFG/Pro) and mirrored its data across continents for disaster recovery using a then-new technology called Data Domain. It was a breakthrough in backup efficiency and remains respected today.
Then one day, disaster struck.
Our QAD ERP system went completely down — across North and South America. In the automotive world, that’s catastrophic. A single downtime event can halt production lines, delay shipments, and trigger enormous penalties. I’d seen a similar event in Germany cost $60,000 per hour of downtime.
When I arrived at the Indianapolis data center, I found chaos — power surges had occurred then a total failure damaging our systems with several fried power supplies, disk drives, and controllers. My team, one of the most capable I’ve ever managed, was already deep in recovery mode, crawling through racks of servers, swapping hardware, and rebuilding arrays.
Thanks to their skill and a strong disaster recovery plan, we were back up in about six hours. Other companies in the same facility were down for days.
But as I watched the team perform miracles — all ten of them in one tight space, each doing their part — I realized something important:
Even the best people and plans need better coordination.
The Idea: Smarter Orchestration of People and Process
A disaster recovery plan alone wasn’t enough. What we needed was a real-time orchestration system — something that could manage who should act, when, and in what sequence. Certain tasks had to be done in series, others in parallel. The plan had to be dynamic, adaptive, and aware of dependencies.
That realization led to the first version of DR Manager, a module we built inside our in-house helpdesk application called HDPlus, written in C++ with a SQL database. The DR Manager module allowed us to define tasks, assign responsibilities, and automatically dispatch them (via email at the time) during a disaster recovery event.
It was a simple but powerful concept — automate the execution of the disaster recovery plan, enforce process discipline, and keep people coordinated under pressure.
The Evolution: From DR Manager to BPM
Fast forward to today, and BPM has grown far beyond its original scope. Rebuilt from the ground up in Python with a MySQL backend, BPM is now:
- Multithreaded: Supports parallel task execution across multiple users.
- Cross-Platform: Works seamlessly on Windows, iOS, and Android.
- Fast and Mobile: Modern architecture designed for speed and real-time communication.
While its roots remain in disaster recovery, BPM now supports any multi-step operational workflow, including:
- Cyber incident management
- Business continuity planning
- Health and safety management
- Fire, police, and military SOPs
- Flight and security operations
- Complex manufacturing processes
How BPM Works
BPM manages workflows through sequences — structured sets of tasks that can be run in parallel or serially depending on dependencies.
- Plan Building
Teams collaboratively build out their workflows.
Network engineers, infrastructure specialists, DBAs, and application admins each create their own task sequences within the plan. BPM allows everyone to work simultaneously — a true multi-user build environment.
- Testing
Once the plan is complete, it moves to the test phase.
BPM dispatches tasks via email or text message, allowing for live or simulated tests. Each user can acknowledge, execute, and complete their tasks directly from their mobile device, providing real-time feedback to management.
Performance metrics — such as response times and task completion — are logged automatically. These feed into a dashboard that gives managers instant visibility into progress, reducing the constant “status update” interruptions that typically plague recovery efforts.
- Execution
When fully tested and approved, the plan moves to “execution ready” status.
If disaster strikes, BPM automatically dispatches the appropriate tasks, monitors progress, and reroutes assignments to backups if someone is unavailable — ensuring zero single points of failure.
- Maintenance
Finally, BPM enforces discipline through automated reminders to retest plans on a recurring schedule — annually, quarterly, or as often as needed.
Beyond Disaster Recovery: A True Business Process Manager
Although BPM was born from disaster recovery, it’s now a universal workflow engine. Its flexible design supports any environment where structured, multi-threaded coordination is required — whether for:
- Shop floor operations
- Emergency response coordination
- Military readiness drills
- Police and Fire SOPs
- Flight Operations
- Corporate compliance workflows
In short, BPM provides structured agility — the ability to respond to complex, time-sensitive events with precision, accountability, and real-time visibility.
Closing Thoughts
BPM began as a way to manage crisis.
Today, it’s a way to manage complexity — any kind, anywhere.
From the early days of fried switches and mirrored data centers to the mobile-enabled, Python-powered platform of today, BPM stands as proof that the best technology often comes not from theory but from experience in the trenches — from real problems, solved under pressure.
Let’s meet and discuss how we can help you solve disaster recovery, Business Continuity, and Emergency responses.
