BPM Integration

Business Process Management (BPM) is probably the killer Enterprise Application as email is the killer Internet Application. Every business small or large has a business process however in most cases it is informal and business process automation is fragmented across many Enterprise Applications. As email revolutionised the way we communicate toady I expect BPM to revolutionise the way workers and managers cooperate in the Enterprise.

BPM and SOA

A good explanation of Service Oriented Layered Architecture (SOA) is provided by Object Management Group (OMG) here (a local copy is here)

In a nutshell:

• Business Process Layer exposes IT systems functionality to business users and business process designers
• Business Services is the Enterprise Integration (EI) Layer for Enterprise Applications (Components)
• Components Layer is the Enterprise Applications Suite
• Operational Resources Layer are the Databases and Legacy Enterprise Systems