B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

132 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
known as open nested transaction model, fits well in such scenarios as
it allows the main transaction to be broken into independent and logical
sub-transactions. The outcome of the sub-transactions is tied to the
main transaction. If the main 'transaction aborts' all sub-transactions
must abort. This model does not impose the isolation requirement, but
maintains the all-or-nothing nature of transactions by using the processlevel
forward and backward recovery approach.
5.2.5. What is BPM?
Although there are several interpretations and definitions of BPM,
we will try to understand BPM as it relates to B2Bi. Business process
management involves management of several components, including time,
cost, quality, scope, human resources, communications, procurement, risk
and integration. BPM is designed to streamline the internal and external
business processes of a company through a combination of several
techniques, such as designing workflows, process rules and application
components. BPM is a required element to direct data flow among the
mass of packaged applications, legacy systems, services and partners.
It aims to automate business processes from start to finish, thereby
eliminating the need for unnecessary manual intervention and removing
all points of friction within the company and with its trading partners. It
also enables the formulation of consistent business policies across the
organization, which leads to consistent execution of business processes
across all channels and applications.
BPM's focus on explicit process management allows processes to be
executed, monitored, controlled and modified with greater ease than in
the past. Through BPM, companies can track and monitor the actual
state of a business process at any time.
It is worth mentioning that BPM is not intended to remove manpower
altogether from supporting and running businesses. The goal of BPM
is to let the personnel focus on what they are good at — thinking,
rationalizing and making decisions by getting involved in exception
management and process optimization. In fact, providing adequate support
for human interaction is a vital feature of any BPM system.
BPM, EAI and B2Bi go hand-in-hand (see Figure 5.7) as the elements
or resources included in a workflow definition should be interoperable