06/21/2004

HandySoft Global says the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) will feature BizFlow, HandySoft’s business process management (BPM) enterprise platform, among a small group of BPM solutions demonstrating the capabilities of interoperability between Wf-XML 2.0 and OASIS ASAP.

HandySoft offered these details:

The interoperability of these two standards is critical for BPM solutions to utilize Web services in long-running processes or to monitor the current state of a running process. This interoperability will be demonstrated through four test scenarios involving simulated customer, retailer and manufacturer roles, taking place on Wednesday June 23rd at the Brainstorm Group Business Process Management Conference in Burlingame, CA.

“By participating in this important real-world interoperability demonstration, we are reinforcing our commitment to advancing industry standards, leading technical innovation in the area of business process management, and delivering real value to our customers,” said Susan Muldoon, vice president of product strategy at HandySoft Global Corporation. ”The interoperability of these two standards will enable companies to do real business-to-business automation. Even customers using different BPM vendors can now inter-weave their processes with minimal effort, so long as both adhere to these standards. This helps our customers improve the ROI of their BPM implementations by facilitating both internal and external process automation.”

"ASAP and Wf-XML are important because they provide a standard way to link and manage systems in a loosely-coupled and flexible way that supports long-running processes," said David A. Kelly, president of Upside Research, Inc., a technology analyst firm specializing in business process management. "ASAP and Wf-XML complement existing standards such as BPEL, while providing vendor-neutral support for business-to-business interactions."

Existing Web services protocols traditionally function best when the service can answer a request quickly. Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) provides a way for long-running Web services to be deployed, when the answer to a request might take minutes, days or months to arrive. ASAP is capable of handling both automated and manual activities, making it particularly well-suited for connecting business processes via Web services. Wf-XML 2.0 enables the business-to-business management of process by connecting BPM engines of different vendors, enabling the quick, easy connection of systems supporting long-term processes.

In May, HandySoft introduced BizFlow 9, featuring wizard-based Web and J2EE services for reusable, standards-based interoperability with IT resources, such as rule engines, enterprise applications and external partner systems. Additionally, this enhanced Web services capability enables companies to extend the power of real-time data monitoring, control, reporting, and analysis beyond the enterprise, so that critical business information can be supplied in real-time by the entire value chain.

The WfMC, founded in August 1993, is a non-profit, international organization of workflow vendors, users, analysts and university/research groups. The Coalition's mission is to promote and develop the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products. Comprising over 300 members throughout the world, the Coalition is the primary standards body for this significant software market. The creation of the WfMC Standards Reference Model has proved its importance in other areas of technology, most notably the ISO Seven Layer reference model for computer communications.