As with the evolution of the Web—or maybe because of it—the area of business process management and integration is seeing its own progression, from basic process modeling and integration to complex integration and execution.
To facilitate this growth, vendors are building out new functionality to help users orchestrate business process flows.
Intalio, for example, announced Feb. 7 that it is partnering with open-source forms developer Orbeon to co-develop tools for workflow applications. Intalio also said it plans to integrate Orbeons PresentationServer into the 4.0 version of its Intalio/BPMS suite.
Separately, Tibco Software announced the day before, on Feb. 6, a newly integrated suite of applications based on its 2004 acquisition of Staffware, which enables users to transform legacy applications into reusable services for process orchestration, company officials said.
Orbeons PresentationServer, distributed under an open-source license, is an AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) implementation of the XForms 1.0 World Wide Web Consortium standard.
It will be embedded in Intalios workflow component to allow users to develop Web-based forms that support interactions with end users while remaining fairly browser-agnostic.
The PresentationServer can be deployed in several portals—BEAs WebLogic, SAPs NetWeaver Portal and IBMs WebSphere Portal—or as a stand-alone component.
When it comes to the co-development workflow application tools, Intalio and Orbeon will focus on a WYSIWYG form designer, available next quarter, for the Eclipse platform, which will be integrated into Intalios designer environment.
Separately, with the integration of Tibcos BPM Suite and the former Staffware Process Suite, Tibco has realigned its strategy to include process development and integration, based on SOA (service-oriented architecture) concepts.
As part of the initiative, Tibco has also further integrated its iProcess engine with its BusinessWorks suite for monitoring and system management. The company has upgraded the BPM user interface, as well, to include AJAX for the development of RIA (Rich Internet Applications).