The Insider's Guide to Next-Generation BPM
By Alan Lundberg, Senior Manager, Product Marketing, TIBCO , 05/03/2007
Print this article
Email this article
Talk Back!
Write to Editor
Are you implementing SOA the right way? Will your SOA serve your business, allowing you to leverage opportunities and mitigate threats, over the long-term?
SOA is a valuable tool in today's business environment. It allows architects to break down monolithic applications into discrete services that can be reused in a variety of applications. By exposing information and transactions as services in an abstracted, standards-based way, SOA provides a foundation for new classes of business applications - composite applications that are assembled from a mix of existing and new service logic as opposed to being built entirely from scratch. SOA also enables organizations to deploy new business services faster, and at a lower cost.
However, unless you plan carefully, SOA doesn't necessarily respond to the dynamics of real-time business. Consider the following example, one that has relevance for a variety of industries.
A mobile operator targets a particular consumer to make the switch to their service, promising a new model of phone and rate plan. The promotion proves successful, and the targeted customer chooses to change service and take advantage of the offer.
The core business operation in this example is a triumph for the SOA application model. Because of SOA, IT was able to create a sign up and approval application 40 percent faster than before via extensive reuse of existing services throughout the enterprise (and originally developed using disparate technologies and platforms). Services exposed trends in a data warehouse identifying which prospects would be most likely to take advantage of the offer; inserted the prospect's name and contact information into a CRM/call center application; accessed a service contract and processed it with a billing system; and finally, invoked an order process to activate the inventory/warehouse actions and logistics processes to send a new phone and rate plan contract to the customer.
However, this story is not over yet. Without proper planning and an event-driven SOA approach, the success outlined above could take an unfortunate turn.
Imagine that this promotion is so successful that the particular brand of phone offered is selling quickly and inventory is running low. By the time this particular order is processed, the warehouses no longer have the phone in stock and it cannot be shipped. The order process gets "stuck" and sends an alarm that the shipment hasn't been completed. By the time the customer service representative contacts the customer about the delay and offers another phone model, the customer has already decided to take a similar offer from his current service provider and the opportunity is lost.
-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. |
|
|
