IBM Embraces BPEL for Modeling

IBM recently migrated its business process modeling software to the
XML-based Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), a specification that ties Web services to business processes.

The reason for the move of version 5 of WebSphere Business Integration Modeler to BPEL is two-fold: it gives companies a
standards-based platform to plot out operations to determine where a
business process is breaking down, and it gives companies a
revenue-generating opportunity to sell the processes that work best within
the organization.

“Everyone wants to reduce costs and everyone wants to drive new revenues,”
said Debbie Moynihan, IBM WebSphere Business Integration program manager.

Moynihan pointed to the benefits that can be derived using the modeling software
for either strategy. On the business process side, it lets companies that
have recently merged their operations — either through an acquisition or
business partnership — to identify each other’s business processes and meld
the two. The case for business modeling also makes sense in operations that
span companies, or even continents, bringing them all under one business process
umbrella.

WebSphere Business Integration Modeler fits into the Armonk, N.Y., company’s
overall business integration (BI) strategy of model, integrate, connect,
monitor and manage. The systems vendor got into the modeling business through the
September 2002 acquisition of Holosofx, a former partner.

Launched
as an IBM product in March 2003, Modeler and the WebSphere BI Server are
used throughout IBM’s operations, a necessity given the number of
acquisitions the company makes in any given year.

For companies looking for another money-maker, the modeler allows companies
to sell working processes as a service.

“[A customer could] model a process and if they chose to do so, specific
steps in the process could be made available as a service,” she said. “If
you can model them, you can leverage them, which is very beneficial.”

IBM’s modeler application was originally based on Forms Definition Language
(FDL), a proprietary technology intended for MQ Workflow, a process
integration server. With BPEL, version 5 allows existing customers to use
the information gathered in the modeler to run in Workflow and new customers
to use other business integration servers based on BPEL, from IBM’s own
Business Integration Server Foundation to Oracle’s BPEL Process Manager and
Microsoft’s BizTalk Server 2004.

Modeling data is imported into third-party integration servers using another
Web standard, XML Metadata Interchange (XMI). The move to BPEL also lets
companies using XML-based content or Microsoft’s popular Visio program to
import the data into IBM’s modeling software.

IBM’s push to incorporate BPEL into its code base has a lot to do with the
growing popularity of business process management in the corporate world, an
area industry experts say will pick up considerably in coming years.

According to a February 2004 report by research firm Gartner, 70 percent of
all enterprises will have conducted some type of business process activity
by the end of 2005 despite much of the damage done by business process
“gurus” of the mid-1990s, who tried to convince companies to break
established processes and build entirely new ones, regardless of the need.

One of the points forwarded by the report’s author, Jim Sinur, is that many
company officials aren’t really aware of the scope of their enterprise.

“Although it’s not common knowledge, most enterprises don’t really
understand the depth and breadth of their business processes, if they
haven’t had a recent business modeling effort,” he noted in the report.
“This isn’t intentional; however, processes that were designed years ago
have been adapted for volume changes, exceptions, managerial regime changes
and additional regional activities.”

Pricing on the WebSphere Business Integration Modeler 5.0 starts at $1,250
and includes one year of maintenance support.