The Insider's Guide to Next-Generation BPM
By Beth Gold-Bernstein , 10/27/2003
Print this article
Email this article
Talk Back!
Write to Editor
This is an open letter to the vendor community, and/or the many excellent programmers who lost their jobs in the recent downturn. An opportunity awaits. We are at the cusp of making service oriented architectures a reality thanks to the hype about and interest in Web services. Companies are actually embracing the concept and moving forward. But they need to be able to purchase services that will plug into their architectures, and are finding few suitable solutions out there to meet that need.
It is generally agreed among architects and analysts that event-driven service oriented architectures are most adaptable to change over time. (See Roy Schulte's ebizQ webinar "Creating The New Enterprise Agility: Service-Oriented and Event-Driven"). This is not a new concept. Service oriented architectures (SOA) have been considered best practice for decades, from the Open Systems Interconnect (OSI) Reference Model adopted by the International Standards Organization in 1983, to the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) developed by the Open Software Foundation, to CORBA. However, the widespread adoption of SOA had previously been constrained by lack of agreement over interface standards. Web services finally solve that problem. It is the first interface standard that is universally accepted by all vendors, and will work with any programming language on any platform (with the caveat that the vendors stick to the standard).
Now that the technical issues have been resolved, companies implementing an SOA can focus on the real value of the architecture - the ability to flexibly deploy business services. However, there is a lack of off-the-shelf business services available for purchase that will plug into an event-driven SOA.
A large retail company started building its service oriented architecture over six years ago. When looking for business service modules to purchase as part of a Point of Sale system, the company looked for modules with event-driven interfaces that would perform some business logic, interact with the company's back-end data sources, and deliver information to the company's front-end presentation layer. For example, it didn't want to have to write the module that analyzes what is in the basket and offers cross-sell opportunities. It wanted to buy that piece of code and plug it in. It wanted to buy another module that would monitor the inventory, check for open purchase orders, factor in the point of time in the selling season, and determine when to reorder stock. In other words, the retailer wanted to buy components that offered sophisticated business logic, add its own business rules, and have third-party business services easily plug into its architecture.
-1-
Best Practices in Moving Processes to the Clouds
How Can the Cloud Fit Into Your Applications Strategy?
Cloud Data Integration Best Practices
The Economics of Cloud Computing
Data Services Insight: Successful implementation of Canonical Information Models
ebizQ editorial highlights and updates, compiled by Site Editor Anne Stuart
March 10, 2011
The sixth annual BPM in Action 2011 Virtual Conference will explore cutting-edge market developments in BPM and describe how to leverage them for improved business operation and performance. More
Date:Apr 07, 2010
Time:13:00 PM
ET- (17:00 GMT)
Date:Apr 07, 2010
Time:12:00 PM
ET- (16:00 GMT)
In part two of Joe McKendrick's recent podcast with Miko Matsumura, chief strategist for Software AG, they talk about how SOA and IT systems need to change and grow and adapt with the organization around it.
Listen Now
Phil Wainewright interviews David Vap, VP of products at RightNow Technologies, and finds out how sharing best practices can help businesses understand how best to engage with online communities.
Listen Now
Scott Hebner, Vice President of Marketing and Strategy for IBM Rational, discusses a topic on the top of every company's mind today: getting the most from IT investments.
Listen Now
In BI, this tough economy and the increasing role of Web 2.0 and MDM are certainly topics on people's minds today. WiseAnalytics' Lyndsay Wise addresses each of them in this informative podcast.
Listen Now
Deepak Singh, President and CTO of Adeptia, joins ebizQ's Dennis Byron in a podcast that gets its hand around the trend of industry-specific BPM.
Listen NowSmart event processing can help your company run smarter and faster. This comprehensive guide helps you research the basics of complex event processing (CEP) and learn how to get started on the right foot with your CEP project using EDA, RFID, SOA, SCADA and other relevant technologies. Learn More
A lot of people are talking about Enterprise 2.0 as being the business application of Web 2.0 technology. However, there's still some debate on exactly what this technology entails, how it applies to today's business models, and which components bring true value. Some use the term Enterprise 2.0 exclusively to describe the use of social networking technologies in the enterprise, while others use it to describe a web economy platform, or the technological framework behind such a platform. Still others say that Enterprise 2.0 is all of these things. Learn More
|
|
This new publication from our sister site SearchSOA.com explores workflow, business activity monitoring (BAM) and complex event processing (CEP) issues. |
|
|
