Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step ...

Value of BPM for the Clouds 141
earlier in this chapter, no standard definitions exist for these concepts, so perhaps
it is time we created them.
Business process automation (BPA) tools and approaches provide
mechanisms for the automation of business processes without end-user
interaction at execution time. Most application integration tools
provide this type of subsystem.
Workflow tools allow for the automation of business processes with
end-user interaction (typically) at execution time. These categories of
technology and approaches are typically document oriented, moving
document information among human decision makers.
BPM is an aggregation of business process modeling, business process
automation, and workflow. This approach implements and manages
transactions and real-time business processes that span multiple
applications, providing a layer to create common processes that span
many processes in integrated systems.
The good news is that most business processes are already automated.
The bad news is that they tend to exist within different systems. For example,
adding a customer to a packaged accounting application may establish the
customer in that system, but it may still be necessary to use another system (a
different system that may exist within a trading partner) to perform a credit
check on that customer and still another system to process an invoice. You
need not possess exceptional insight to recognize the potential for disaster
that exists in this scenario. Not only do these disparate systems need to share
information and services, but they also need to share that information in an
orderly and efficient manner.
The goal of BPM, and the use of BPM within cloud computing, is to automate
services invocation and process flow so that another layer of processes
will exist over and above the processes encapsulated in existing systems. In
other words, BPM completes application binding, allowing the integration of
systems by readily sharing information and services and by managing the
sharing of that information and services with easy-to-use tools. This enables
the process architect to create and re-create processes to solve business problems
and adjust processes as needed, as the business changes.