03/24/2004

Dralasoft, Inc., a provider of Java technology for e-business and enterprise application infrastructure, released Workflow 3.0, the newest version of its Business Process Management (BPM) software. “Leading the improvements in Version 3.0 include an extensive new SOAP interface that can be used to invoke Workflow Engine as a Web service, enabling business partners to seamlessly collaborate in mission-critical workflows via the Web,” Daraloft says.

Web services are increasingly seen as the next, and possibly ultimate, use of the Internet to realize business process efficiencies. Dralasoft quotes Whit Andrews, research director for Gartner, as saying in his report "Predicts 2004: Web Services" that, “The service-oriented architecture (SOA) that Web services enables will provide an ideal setting for a new class of business applications called service-oriented business applications. By using service-oriented business applications, SOAs can, in turn, use Web services so that business processes can occur in real time. This will be a boon for enterprises that want integration with business partners to be easier and faster."

Dralasoft says Workflow 3.0 “capitalizes on its SOA capability by enabling business units and/or trading partners to integrate common workflow technology into any major production situation. Document management, task management, claims processing, e-commerce, and supply chain management are just some of the ways in which Workflow 3.0 can save time, manpower, and cost in distributed environments.”

“Dralasoft Workflow 3.0 carries significant benefits for the next wave of business process collaboration," said Richard Rogers, Vice President of Business Operations for Dralasoft, Inc. "With Web services just beginning to fuse applications and information in new and exciting ways, companies will soon be looking for ways to optimize all kinds of business procedures. Workflow 3.0 is fully capable of coordinating and leading the charge."

Dralasoft explains that Workflow “is comprised of three modules: Dralasoft Workflow Engine, the runtime component; Dralasoft Studio, a drag-and-drop design interface for workflow development; and Dralasoft Workflow Manager, the application's reporting and analysis tool. In addition to their existing support for Java, XML, LDAP, HTTP and JDBC, the three modules now fully support SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol), making them suitable for Windows .NET implementations as well as other kinds of Web services.

“Also new to Workflow 3.0 is a new process for creating Web forms, the class of online interface that includes order forms, claims documents, employee benefits information, and other fill-in-the-blank data entry. In the past, designers wishing to add a form to a BPM routine had to build the form outside the application, then map it to Workflow Engine. With Workflow 3.0, designers can now describe the form within Workflow Studio, after which the module automatically creates and maps the form to the engine.

“The last major improvement to Workflow in version 3.0 is enhanced scalability through the use of replication and clustering techniques. By supporting greater scalability across a wide range of business processes, Workflow 3.0 can handle a greater number of users and a more sophisticated level of BPM than ever before,” the vendor concludes.