Metastorm brings workflow to cloud

Enterprise software provider Metastorm has introduced an online workflow modelling service called Metastorm M3, writes PC World.

The service, which is hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform, can be used to model a variety of different enterprise concerns, such as goals, systems, workflows, rules and projects. The service provides 23 modelling objects from which models can be built.

"Our goal was to put the most popular modelling types up into the cloud in a much simpler environment, so organisations can involve more people in the modelling process," says Metastorm VP, Laura Mooney.

London-based document workflow architects Tipac have joined the Avanquest ProcessFlows channel partner programme, says SourceWire.

The programme has been specifically designed to support partners specialising in the areas of voice over IP, fax over IP and managed print services who would like to add business process automation solutions to their portfolio.

Both Avanquest ProcessFlows and Tipac focus on the implementation of solutions designed to streamline the document intensive processes which underpin business.

Unlike its competitors in the business process management (BPM) market that offer disparate tools aimed at automating and refining enterprise procedures and policies, IBM provides a BPM suite that is "process-, content- and human-centric", says a company executive, reports ZDNet.

Katrina Troughton, VP of WebSphere software at IBM Software Group, said that following its 2009 acquisition of Lombardi, a BPM software and services provider, IBM is now able to "empower" both top-level executives and frontline employees to better contribute to the customisation and deployment of business processes.

Compared to its competitors in a BPM market which Troughton described as "fragmented", and where vendors are offering piecemeal products, she said Big Blue is able to better offer a complete suite of solutions as well as provide its customers with a strong ecosystem of partners.