Since the emergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA), there's been ongoing debate as to whether it will replace BPM. This is according to business applications company, Softworx.
However, Deon Eachells, solutions manager at Softworx, doesn't think this will happen. “Even though SOA does cover BPM to a large extent, I believe SOA will enhance and integrate BPM into the organisation's solution stack,” he says.
Eachells argues that having a company's business processes mapped and documented manually outside of the system requires spending many hours updating any changes and distributing these around the organisation. In contrast, SOA will ensure BPM is embedded in the total solution, and that changes or updates are always online, ensuring users are working with the latest version.
He notes that in tough economic times, companies will re-look their current business processes, and try to re-align these with the current environment, as well as streamlining them. The process is often difficult as changes have to be made manually, and then implemented throughout the organisation, he adds.
“The irony of tough times is that you often have to spend to save. Therefore, it could pay for companies to implement business process management and event management functions within SOA,” explains Eachells.
He says this will not only allow them to achieve the electronic version of business processes, but also assist in the implementation and enforcement of the required changes.
“SOA would then provide the necessary tools for better monitoring and compliance to the new processes,” concludes Eachells.
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