TIBCO unveils next-generation business process modelling powerhouse

TIBCO Software has announced its planned release of TIBCO Business Studio 2.0, a standards-based modelling environment that enables seamless collaboration between business and IT users to develop executable business process models.

TIBCO Business Studio is the first in a series of products that TIBCO will roll out during the next year as part of its TIBCO ONE Project, which will deliver a single platform focused on usability for creating next-generation infrastructure applications.

"The user-specific functionality of TIBCO Business Studio enables invaluable collaboration between our business and IT users to ensure that both sides contribute successfully to the process model in order to improve their BPM implementations," says Alan Grigg, Chief IT Architect, ING Korea.

TIBCO Business Studio, now in use worldwide across 135 different countries, addresses the challenges of orchestrating people and systems in a business process, inside and outside of the organisation. It allows for the modelling and managing of those business processes and moving to process execution in a timely and accurate manner. With views and tools specific to the expertise of each user type, both business and IT users can contribute effectively and efficiently to create an executable business process.

This latest release of TIBCO's unified modelling environment also represents one of the first modelling tools providing complete support for Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) 1.0. BPMN is a business process management (BPM) industry standard for graphical notation that depicts the steps in a business process, providing comprehensive business process modelling capabilities to users within a single environment.

According to Gartner's Position on BPM report, "Process models are needed to help business and IT managers understand actual processes and enable them, by visualisation and simulation, to propose improvements. Moreover, explicit process models are easily changed because non-technical mangers understand them easily and they are independent of the underlying resources. Models provide a basis for cross-organisational collaboration between managers responsible for the separate parts of a process, as well as with IT professionals on the implementation of the resulting design."

TIBCO Business Studio 2.0 offers significant feature enhancements including:

* User-specific functionality for unparalleled collaboration between business and IT users to ensure both roles contribute successfully to the process model;
* Standards support for BPMN and XML Process Definition Language (XPDL) enables models created to be shared or implemented by a variety of users and tools;
* Creation of data domain models using simple drag-and-drop capability from a Unified Modelling Language (UML) palette allows for easy conceptualisation and sharing of the data associated with a business process;
* Version control system enables collaboration over the same business process model across the enterprise and geographic boundaries;
* Ability to import business processes modelled using other modelling tools such as Visio and Aris; and
* Enhanced reporting capabilities, including a user-friendly view for creation of custom reports, allow for individualised analysis of key performance indicators.

"BPM strives to continually improve the way a business operates by documenting, analysing, automating and evolving business processes, but management of these processes has become increasingly critical and difficult for organisations," says Marco Gerazounis, TIBCO Regional Director Middle East and Africa. "By bridging the gap between business and IT users, TIBCO Business Studio 2.0 makes collaboration on a day-to-day basis easier with rich, user-friendly features."

TIBCO Business Studio 2.0 will be made generally available in the near future. Upon release, it may be downloaded for free at http://www.tibco.com/devnet/business_studio/default.jsp. Demonstrations can also be viewed at the third annual worldwide TIBCO User Conference (TUCON), being held 30 April through 3 May 2007, at the Hilton Hotel in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit http://tucon.tibco.com.