B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

Adapt
Business Process Management (BPM) 139
Adaptation of the designed processes within the organization and the
customization of the standard package of BPM software forms part of
the adapting phase of BPM. Training and follow-up of the personnel
involved is an important component for the adaptation and acceptance
of processes.
5.3. BPM Systems
Currently, there is a big convergence going on in the integration software
industry, where the EAI and B2Bi vendors are embracing BPM tools by
including them in their integration solution suites.
There are certain mandatory components of a BPM system, as follows:
Process modeling tool
This is a graphical modeling tool that enables rapid visual design
of business processes while hiding the implementation from the
users. The tool should provide the functionalities of modifying user
interfaces, business rules and process rules that drive the working of a
business process.
Process modeling involves drawing a workflow diagram that links
resources, logic and movement of information between systems. Subprocesses
are used when the main process becomes too complex and
needs to be broken down to keep it simple.
The process-modeling tool provides an environment to bind the
components (process models; real entities such as companies, organizations,
or people; source and target systems of the trading partners) of a
business process together to create the final model for the process.
Advanced modeling tools also include XML-based rules repository,
so that the rules can be shared across multiple applications in a single
uniform format.
Process execution engine
This component is responsible for providing an environment for executing
the process flow — i.e., sequencing and invoking the required element