Staffware, a business process management (BPM) software company, has announced its support for the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS) as well as a new, senior, appointment to the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC), strengthening its continued commitment to develop, promote and support open standards within the industry.
Staffware is a founder of business process management and has been delivering technology and solutions for over 15 years to all industry sectors including insurance, banking, telecommunications, utilities and government. Having authored the first independent process automation product on the market, Staffware has always placed significant importance on the role of standards. For process management, this has meant helping to shape the standards, as well as implementing them.
In addition, Staffware announced support for the BPEL4WS specification. BPEL4WS is a platform for executing business processes so they can be more easily reused and integrated with other processes. The specification enables simple execution of such processes in a Web services environment.
Mark Ehmke, Staffware SA managing director and local chair for the WfMC, says: "Staffware has always placed importance on the role of standards. Having authored the first independent workflow product on the market, Staffware has had a role in shaping the standards, as well as implementing them. We believe that supporting these and other industry standards will continue to raise the bar within the BPM industry."
To strengthen this commitment, Staffware also recently announced the election of its VP of Research, Justin Brunt as Technical Committee Vice-Chairman (Europe) of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). Brunt has over 22 years experience in the software industry, with more than eight years in workflow/business process management in senior positions at Staffware. Brunt has acted as Staffware`s technical representative to the WfMC and project managed much of Staffware`s WfMC-related developments including interoperability challenges.
Share
In 1993, Staffware co-founded the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) with other workflow vendors. The goal of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is to create a set of standards that will form the basis for enabling integration and interoperability capabilities between disparate workflow management systems and other software technologies. This has led to the creation of a reference model architecture. The creation of a standard reference model has proved its importance in other areas of computing technology, most notably the ISO Seven Layer reference model for computer communications. The Workflow Management Coalition Reference Model Architecture is no less important in describing the characteristics of a workflow management system, both now and for the future.
Workflow management systems provide support in broadly three functional areas:
* Process definition functions that define and model the workflow process;
* Run-time functions that manage the Workflow process and co-ordinate activity in a 'live` environment; and
* Interface functions that manage the interaction of the workflow system and the external environment.
Such interaction would encompass both related computer technologies and end-users, within the context of a process.
As these functional areas rely on the efficient exchange of information, this has led to the creation of five standard communication interfaces within the WfMC Reference Model.
BPEL4WS
The IBM Business Process Execution Language for Web Services JavaTM Run Time (BPWS4J), created jointly by IBM (NYSE: IBM), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), and BEA (NASDAQ: BEAS), includes the following: a platform upon which can be executed business processes written using the Business Process Execution Language for Web Services (BPEL4WS); a set of samples demonstrating the use of BPEL4WS; and a tool that validates BPEL4WS documents. The BPWS4J platform also includes an Eclipse plug-in that provides a simple editor for creating and modifying BPEL4WS files. Its main features are as follows:
* Synchronised XML source and tree views of the business process being created;
* Flexibility for accommodating bottom-up as well as top-down approaches to process design;
* Context-sensitive menus that facilitate creation of specification-compliant processes; and
* Validation of process against specification requirements during editing session.
Staffware Plc
With over 1.5 million licensed users globally, Staffware has built an unrivalled reputation on the strength of its products and on its commitment to its customers. Staffware employs around 350 people worldwide with offices in 16 countries, supported by a global network of partners, covering all major business centres of the world. Staffware has grown organically, ten-fold in the last six years.
Staffware is the founder and global leader of workflow/business process management and has delivered world-class technology and solutions for more than 15 years to over 5 000 customers in the general commercial, insurance, banking, telecommunications, utilities and government sectors. Staffware customers have achieved substantial cost-savings and operational efficiencies through the rapid implementation of Staffware based applications that have been designed to their exact requirements.
Staffware`s award-winning Process Suite provides a complete set of tools to transform and streamline internal processes and tasks of an organisation. Available on a wide range of technology platforms with unrivalled interoperability, Staffware technology also facilitates the effective integration and automation of an organisation`s internal operations with those of it`s trading partners, customers, suppliers and intermediaries. The Staffware Process Suite provides market leading BPM and CRM technologies as a foundation for improvements in organisational productivity; adherence to statutory, industry and management regulations; increased levels of customer service and greater competitive advantage.
In a recent test carried out on the iProcess Engine component of the Staffware Process Suite, Doculabs Inc independently verified its performance capabilities in terms of massive volume transaction throughput, very large user populations supported and embedded resilience, declaring that the Staffware Process Suite has defined new standards for people-to-people; systems-to-systems and people-to-systems BPM.
Staffware South Africa is the fastest growing office, doubling both turnover and staff within the last year.
Staffware is also closely involved with many industry associations, including the Workflow Management Coalition and AIIM. Mark Ehmke, managing director of Staffware South Africa, chairs the local chapter of the Workflow Management Coalition.
Editorial contacts