BPM: Where Do Web Services Fit In?

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Every company wants to maximize IT resources, but few know how. Integrating an application like a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with a business process supplying information to that application is a proven way doing so. This combination not only speeds data processing and cuts costs but also optimizes information use, enhances customer service and creates revenue generation opportunities.

Business Process Management (BPM) software integrates applications, like a CRM system, with a critical business process, streamlining information flow and boosting processing power. When combined with Web services -- one of the IT industry' hottest areas -- the software capitalizes on online technology's ability to distribute application resources and customer information throughout a company and delivers the benefits described earlier. In short, BPM software maximizes precious IT resources.

Web Services: A Definition

Response to a buyer's survey conducted in 2002 by the Delphi Group (the consulting and conference division of Perot Systems' Research) indicated that many firms were unable to define Web services. Although more of today's executives are familiar with the term Web services, many are still unsure what exactly it means.

Even the World Wide Web Consortium's definition doesn't provide much help. It describes a Web service as "a software system identified by URI [RFC 2396], whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML-based messages conveyed by Internet protocols."

Here's a more simple description of Web services. In essence, Web services bridge the communications gap between software written in different programming languages, developed by different vendors and/or running on different systems, all with the help of the Internet. Barry Murphy, writing in Intelligent Enterprise magazine, refers to Web services in a different, but perhaps more meaningful, way as "...business assets that can be shared, combined, used and re-used by heterogeneous computing resources within an organization or among them. The user may be a human or a machine."

Technological Significance of Web Services

Columnist Bradley Brown described the significance of Web services as similar to that of the RCA phone jack on home stereo systems. The jack's standardization enabled enthusiasts "to piece together the best parts of a system-cassette player, 8-track, turntable and receiver-rather than using cumbersome all-in-one players or trying to string together components that required competing inputs."

Although some might disagree with this description, it clearly captures the essence of what makes Web technology such a powerful component of BPM software-its ability to link disparate processes over the Internet and maximize the use of IT resources.

Web services range from such major efforts as storage management and CRM to much more limited services, such as furnishing a stock quote and checking bids for an auction item.

Web Services Infrastructure

Before Web services, Internet computing was based on the exchange of information through Enterprise Application Integration (EAI). As a result, developers had to create a one-time, proprietary solution to integrate a system and exchange data. Web services eliminates this requirement using infrastructure tools:

• XML (extensible markup language)
• SOAP (simple object access protocol)
• UDDI (universal description, discovery and integration)
• WSDL (Web services description language)
• J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition)
• .NET (a Microsoft-developed platform)

XML is the key to Web services. A public format, which means it is not a company's proprietary product, XML is the universal language of choice for exchanging data over the Internet. XML lets the user define a customized markup language for different kinds of documents, making the exchange of data easier. In other words, XML describes how one application addresses a Web service to perform a task and return an answer.

SOAP makes it possible to use Web services for transactions like credit card authorization or checking inventory in real time and placing an order. UDDI enables software to determine which Web services are available and how to connect with them. WSDL describes the kind of work the Web services can do, such as provide access to a database of ZIP codes.

J2EE and .Net are two key Web services platforms. J2EE , a Java platform designed for the mainframe-scale computing typical of large enterprises, simplifies application development in a thin client tiered environment. Developed by Sun Microsystems and its partners, J2EE also decreases the need for programming and programmer training by creating standardized, reusable modular components and by enabling the tier to handle many aspects of programming automatically.

.NET is a Microsoft-developed environment. .NET provides users with a seamlessly interoperable and Web-enabled interface for applications and computing devices and makes computing activities Web browser oriented. The .NET platform includes servers; building-block services, such as Web-based data storage; and device software. It also includes Passport, Microsoft's fill-in-the-form-only-once identity verification service. .NET enhances the ability of computing devices to work together and have user information automatically updated and synchronized on all of them

Integrate and Facilitate With Web Services

Web services and BPM both benefit enterprises independently of each other, but combining them extracts increased value from the Internet and a firm's IT resources. While the Web unites all workers and the departments involved in a process, BPM tools integrate the applications needed to address the process at the programming interface and messaging levels. Web services standards make sure that the data passes between them smoothly and efficiently. Once integrated, the process eliminates the grunt work associated with a task by automating it.
 
At one Minnesota corporation, for instance, Web services and BPM automated a billing function that processed more than 450,000 transactions per month. The corporation's operating companies are billed for their shares of operating expenses. Previously, the company's enterprise resource planning system handled much of the work, but IT and accounting had to submit the batch jobs, review them and pass them through-an expensive and time-consuming effort. The BPM/Web services approach integrates several applications into one seamless and almost completely automated process, allowing staffers to focus on exceptions instead of routine operations.

In Seattle, Bank of the West, Capital Stream leveraged the capabilities of Web services to automate the manual processes of the bank's 300 branches. Previously, processes like commercial finance operations, including commercial loans and line-of-credit renewals, took as many as five days to complete. The bank replaced its manual system with a solution that provided branches with a single processing platform for commercial credit transactions. The solution integrated incompatible systems and information sources to create a true workflow commercial finance system. The bank slashed time-to-complete applications significantly, creating more satisfied customers. It also improved revenues through reduced costs and reduced risk by automating the processes.

Increasing Revenues

Most companies these days are so concerned with reducing costs that they have not yet approached their IT departments about generating revenue. With the addition of Web services to their arsenals, BPM software provides both cost-saving and revenue-generating opportunities. In addition to saving money by integrating legacy applications with new technology, thereby cutting costs, the software generates revenue by speeding time to market and increasing the firm's overall flexibility. More important, BPM software facilitates interactions with customers, partners and suppliers, providing enhanced customer service. The rationale is that increased revenues will follow as a result of solidifying those relationships.

As more and more enterprises discover the powerful capabilities of the BPM/Web services tandem, more and more will embrace this relatively new technology. And why not? With more and more CFOs scrutinizing IT spending, enterprises will look for ways to cut costs while maximizing IT resources. Thanks to its ability to dramatically cut costs and boost revenues for a firm, the BPM/Web services combination is a win-win situation for all. It is scarcely any wonder that some industry experts are labeling BPM software that feature Web services as the next "killer app."