Productivity up with Ovations Technologies, SourceCode`s K2.net

Enterprise business process automation and business intelligence specialist Ovations Technologies has added power to its workflow engines with the inclusion of K2.net from SourceCode.

Ovations Technologies and SourceCode recently concluded a partnership whereby Ovations Technologies` OvaFlo solution - a locally developed business process automation application that enhances traditional workflow engines - has been converted to operate on the K2.net suite of products.

K2.net is an end-to-end business process automation solution and workflow toolset developed by SourceCode. It allows companies to design, execute, manage and control their integrated and automated processes. It is an event-driven process engine developed on the Microsoft .Net platform, which makes use of such technologies as XML Web services and SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol).

"Ovations Technologies has a phenomenal solution in OvaFlo," says SourceCode CEO Adriaan van Wyk. "Moreover, the company has an exceptional understanding of workflow and the complexities involved in automating workflow processes. It is imperative for us to have partners with this level of knowledge. Ovations Technologies has a fairly unique skills base in this market, and proof of this can be seen in the successful implementation of workflow for several large corporates."

K2.net`s architecture is such that partners can extend it and in so doing unlock additional value to customers from their workflow solutions.

"In negotiating the partnership, Ovations assessed K2.net and SourceCode from many perspectives," says Ovations Technologies MD, Rainer Gaier. "We found the benefits to be numerous and diverse."

According to Gaier, a number of perspectives were taken into consideration. These included architecture, the robustness of the solution, performance, specific features, cost, growth potential, Microsoft endorsement and channel distribution. At the end of the day K2.net was evaluated as being on a high architectural level, designed with fail-over capability and a very high throughput rate.

"OvaFlo integrates directly into K2.net wherever there are processing requirements," explains Gaier. "Those requirements include designing a new process; developing and maintaining processes; initiating work into the process; modifying items in the process; sending items through the process; placing items on hold for a duration; diarising items for a duration; or terminating work items.

Gaier feels that in many instances including K2.net into a workflow solution will increase Ovations Technologies` chances of achieving an enterprise roll-out based on a combination of cost, reliability, performance and capability. "K2.net offers enormous value for money. The scalability of the product is critical for large-scale roll-outs and the reliability of the solution is paramount to a mission-critical environment. In addition, it is easier to deploy than most other workflow solutions," he concludes.

The initial release of OvaFlo for K2.net will be supplied as an add-on to K2.net but will operate seamlessly. Future releases are expected to be bundled with K2.net and include very tight interdependencies.