Business process management is becoming the new EAI, or enterprise application integration, as integration software developers jump into the process management arena as the next big frontier.
Magic Software Enterprises and BEA Systems Inc. have plans on the table for new process management capabilities that build on their existing integration suites. Magic, based in Israel, will announce April 18 the next iteration of its iBolt suite for process integration, while BEA announced late last month a partnership with ProActivity Inc., of Newton, Mass., to provide process management life-cycle capabilities.
Magics iBolt 2.5 builds on the softwares process management, BAM (business activity monitoring), workflow and integration features with the addition of several capabilities. For starters, iBolt 2.5 adds Microsoft Corp.s .Net Framework to its Java and eDeveloper environments as an optional development tool. Its also adding better data transformation capabilities.
A new look and feel to the software adds better project-related settings, including enhanced context menus and new centralized repositories to make it easier for system architects to design and run business processes.
In addition to the Microsoft MS SQL and Oracle Corp. databases being compatible with iBolt, the 2.5 version will support IBMs DB2 and DB2/400 databases.
Launched in 2003, iBolt lets users simulate and test changes to business processes, independent of the actual integration or running process.
Separately, BEA, based in San Jose, Calif., announced March 30 that it plans to incorporate its WebLogic integration software with ProActivitys Process Analysis and BAM tools.
The resulting products are aptly, if clumsily, named ProActivity Process Analysis BEA WebLogic Edition and ProActivity Process Business Activity Monitoring WebLogic Edition. The former enables process discovery, validation, analysis and simulations. The latter, BAM for WebLogic, is designed to provide monitoring and alerting capabilities to business users.
Completing the process integration and management circle by combining WebLogic with ProActivity, process definitions can be exported to BEAs WebLogic Workshop for implementation. Execution and management occur through BEAs WebLogic Integration or WebLogic Server Process software, officials said.