Personally I think this is interesting for several reasons:

• It shows Microsoft getting more serious about "real" BPM support
• Like most serious BPM companies, Microsoft recognizes that decision management, using business rules, is important also
• Fair Isaac already uses many of these Microsoft technologies in conjunction with business rules managed in Blaze Advisor (in ScoreNet for instance) so we know this works
• Because Blaze Advisor supports the integration of predictive models into decision services built with it, this alliance means that decisions using rules and analytics can be deployed effectively into processes being managed on .NET.
• Microsoft is upgrading its BPEL support and that will aid in adoption

There’s a lot about decision management in BPM on this blog and my other one.

You know, on balance this should have had a shameless commerce warning. oh well.

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At the same time, they would like to keep their IT investments under control and not grow by the pace of change. They would like to leverage their past IT investments and not jeopardize the business-critical data and knowledge accumulated on the legacy systems at the expense of new breakthrough IT systems.

BPM comes into play at this point. It offers orchestration, and proposes to combine existing systems in intelligent and innovative ways so that together they could provide a solution to a present challenge in a coordinated manner. The orchestration should be around people and systems in a process-centric methodology and all these resources should act with ease towards achieving a common goal.

A true BPM implementation should provide management with controlled IT costs and leveraged legacy systems. This report will highlight a solution approach of BPM in a basic manner.

BPM and Associations

In more concrete terms, BPM is about ‘workflow’ and ‘connection’. It is now time to explain how BPM is concerned with these terms. The proper implementation of the two with respect to the BPM methodology delivers orchestration benefits in the form of composite applications.

Workflow systems are designed to facilitate interaction between employees and systems of a business. Once designed properly, they operate efficiently to streamline business activities in an enterprise. BPM proposes a unified view of processes and workflows attached to them. In its process management methodology everything else surrounds “process” and this enhances manageability and eases flexible orchestration. This is a considerable appeal as systems like ERP incorporate several workflow packages to model all sorts of interactions in an enterprise. The shortcoming is that multiple workflow engines make management of workflows more difficult as they evolve. After some time, the design for the past might become a burden for required present workflows and thereby inhibit execution. At the end responsiveness to the business landscape is significantly eliminated.

On the connection side, BPM coordinates the cooperation of separate systems towards a common goal. BPM advocates the use of standards as an essential component of composite systems design for coordinated work. The communication among cooperating systems is enabled by the Internet and XML which helps link different applications by enabling them to speak with the same protocol. In line with that, BPM proposes standards-led SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture) as a methodology for achieving increased responsiveness for businesses by transforming them into true “service” businesses. Without SOA, enterprise application integration efforts would result into spaghetti of services where several complex middleware operate in the back end to connect gigantic monolithic applications for a common goal; not to mention the cost and limitations associated.

BPM Suites and Their Offerings

With connection and workflow as main elements of an enterprise scale business cooperation and coordination in the new era, according to “The 2005 BPM Suites Report on Singularity’s Singularity Process Platform” a BPM suite should possess three core tools that are able to:

* model a business process

* link elements of the process model to human interfaces, software components, and databases that are used in the runtime execution of the process

* manage the actual execution of the process by calling human or software components, or by acquiring or storing data as prescribed by the process description

A successful BPM initiative should be built upon the drivers including;

* Lower business costs and increased efficiency

* Increased adaptability and flexibility

* Lower costs of system development and support

* Lower systems implementation risks

* Better governance and compliance and better customer service

Conclusion

The continued evolution of software architectures shows that a new era of architecturing IT systems has arrived. In this era, enterprises which are facing increased sophistication of their business environment need more adaptable solutions that deliver efficiency and value both in an inexpensive way. They understand that the focus of new IT infrastructures that would support the business in the future should transform from integration to orchestration. The solution is BPM systems.

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Working as an IT application consultant, I am interested in BPM systems and associated technologies.

In addition to facilitating system integration, these solutions must minimize costs, protect software investments, and increase corporate flexibility–all while generating a quick return on investment (ROI).

Previously, IT executives had an option. They could either create their own processing solutions or buy them as packaged applications. Both approaches were costly. These solutions also had a major downside. Once encoded, they were difficult to change. This encoding prevented businesses from quickly meeting its customers’ needs. More importantly, it hindered adaptability to a dynamic increasingly demanding marketplace.

Combining BPM and Web services changes that. This union provides businesses with a powerful set of benefits. It increases efficiency and flexibility, reduces costs, and protects software investments by integrating and recombining with a company’s existing systems. In addition, the union provides real-time visibility into processing systems as well as a way to monitor and evaluate key performance indicators– the prerequisites needed to implement a continuous improvement program.

A Tactical Implementation of SOA

The foundation for BPM and Web services is a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Web services is a tactical implementation of SOA, which bridges the gap between businesses and IT through a set of business-aligned services using a unique set of design principles, patterns, and techniques.

SOA involves the dynamic discovery, organization, and description of services, which enables companies to select, bind, and invoke a service over the Internet. SOA differs from service-based architectures, like RosettaNet or OBI (Open Buying on the Internet), which focus on formats and protocols. A service-based architecture is part of an SOA.

Key SOA Components

The major components of an SOA are a service directory, a service provider, and a service requestor. The service directory contains information about all the available services. A service provider publishes a service by adding the appropriate entries to the directory, which a service requestor uses to find the appropriate service.

When a service requestor finds a match, it binds to the provider using information maintained by the directory. The binding information contains the protocol specifications that requestors must use as well as the structure of the request messages and the resulting responses. The two companies then form a “business partnership.”

When the service requestor no longer needs the provider’s services, it dissolves the partnership. It then forms new requirements and puts them into a query called a locator, which is run against the service directory. The locator returns a list of possible providers, from which the service requestor chooses a new business partner, and the whole process starts again.

When the business partners bind, they create a “virtual” application. The partners temporarily combine their services to meet an immediate need and capture a business process. Once captured, the business process is automated using workflow management technology. The applications are then integrated and work is routed to the appropriate departments.

Considerations in Deploying an SOA

Businesses who want to deploy an SOA face three considerations. First, current object-oriented analysis and design (OOAD) methods don’t address the primary elements of an SOA: services, flows, and components for realizing services. Companies must develop or acquire the techniques and processes required to identity, specify, and realize the individual services. The also need the enterprise-wide components to ensure the quality of services.

Second, a shift in corporate mindset must occur. Companies must shift their thinking from strictly a production-oriented goal to the key SOA objective: enhanced customer service. Whether its Web services or another implementation, SOA is designed to provide customers with services that meet their unique requirements. That’s a major leap for some companies but making the transition is a must obtain SOA’s benefits.

Third, applications created for one business or product line can now be used in a supply chain and be exposed to business partners who might compose, combine, and include them into new applications, creating what some analysts are calling the service ecosystem or a service value-net. Executive must accept this possibility.

Companies need to address these considerations before deploying an SOA. Unless they do, they won’t reap the benefits of an SOA. Nor will they have the adaptability need to compete successfully in the days ahead.

The Role of BPM Technology

BPM technology provides the tools and infrastructure to define, simulate, and analyze this business process model. It does so in such a way that the process is manageable from a business perspective using business solution management tools. A dashboard, for example, provides information about execution status and progress in various levels of detail.

Business analysts then compare readouts to key performance indicators to evaluate the processes performance. If a process is not meeting its objectives, executives change the process. It’s here where methodologies, like Six Sigma, are implemented as part of a continuous improvement program. The goal, of course, is to provide customers with the highest quality services.

Conclusion

Combining BPM technology and Web services represents more than just an advanced approach to automating business processes. It takes it to a whole new level. With support from SOA, the combination provides benefits cost-conscious enterprises want from their IT solutions–increased flexibility, ease of integration, protection of existing investments, and a quick ROI.

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Peter Peterka is President of 6 Sigma us. For additional information on Six Sigma Black Belt or other Six Sigma Online Training contact Peter Peterka.