 |
|
 |
|
| Home > BPM Vendors / Consultants > Software Suites | Search: | for |
|
| Highlights: |   | | |  |
| |  |
| |  |
| |  |
| |  |
| |  |
| |  |
|
|
|
BPM Software Report: Tibco iProcess Suite 10.5
By Lou DiToro and Dian Schaffhauser BPM is discovering data. If you're new to business process management (BPM), this information may come as a mild surprise. After all, isn't integrating data through business intelligence (BI) with workflow a given? Actually, as The Data Warehousing Institute's Wayne Eckerson has pointed out, some BPM vendors have made an effort to set themselves apart from BI vendors. Why? BI has had a reputation for being a "technical activity" handled by business analysts rather than the C-level executives the BPM companies want to appeal to. That's why Tibco's latest edition of its BPM software, iProcess Suite, packs such a punch -- it has a strong legacy in the integration arena while also offering the features that organizations evaluating BPM tools include on their shopping lists. In this article, we provide an overview of the Tibco product. BackgroundTibco was originally founded in 1987 as Teknekron Software Systems to introduce technologies of use in the securities trading business. In the early 1990s, the firm was acquired by information and news services firm Reuters and renamed to its current moniker, which stands for "The Information Bus Company." Tibco Software was spun off to address general markets, particularly in the area of messaging-based middleware and enterprise application integration (EAI). Tibco Software, based in Palo Alto, CA, acquired UK-based Staffware in mid-2004, which added products and customers in the BPM/workflow sector. And that leads to the latest version of Tibco's BPM software, iProcess Suite 10.5, released in November 2006. This edition more fully integrates technologies from both companies (including surgery to remove "Staffware" from the product's name). Tibco's BPM is designed to automate the flow of documents and activities performed by humans or machine and involving information from multiple systems, with business rules set up as bumpers to guide the business process along its tracks. Beyond that, it now offers monitoring tools to measure performance and pinpoint areas for improvement. Overall, Tibco's offering is a strong contender to give companies greater visibility into their processes and better management over operations. The Tibco BPM SuiteOverall, the iProcess Suite employs two of the company's servers for process execution -- BusinessWorks for data integration and iProcess for human-centric BPM. Synergies between Tibco's system-centric products and the iProcess Suite will only increase over time as the company continues refreshing the Staffware technology acquired in 2004. iProcess modules include:
In addition, Tibco offers a number of process frameworks for vertically tailored solutions. Its Claims Management Framework enables design, management and tracking of claims processes, while its Fulfillment Framework offers out-of-the-box definitions for the major order processes required by a telecommunications operator. Business StudioThis is the user face of the product. Business Studio encompasses tools for modeling, managing and simulating business processes. Best of all, the company's latest version, 1.1, launched in June, is free. Key features of the program (aside from its great price) include:
Another line in Tibco's software portfolio, BusinessWorks is the integration platform that brings the data from all of its various homes in the organization to the BPM activities. That said, iProcess doesn't require BusinessWorks for data integration operations. This module is also where BPM and service oriented architecture (SOA) intersect in the Tibco world. It includes tools and the framework for the creation and provisioning of services. As you might expect, BusinessWorks and the Business Studio components are two-way. They can interact and have an impact on each other's process or service functionality. In early January 2007 the company released a new version of BusinessWorks. Release 5.4 implements the OASIS Web Services Business Process Execution Language (WS-BPEL) 1.1 specification and provides support for BPEL 2.0 schemas (not ratified officially at the time of this publication). BPEL provides a language for specifying business process behavior. Additional enhancements include the following:
iProcess EngineTibco's engine manages the activities of the software, including keeping track of what the individual servers are up to (because this software will, in its largest expression, run on multiple servers in the environment) as well as individual transactions (when a rollback needs to be done, the engine does the heavy lifting). iProcess AnalyticsThis reporting tool provides analytical information (both real-time and historic) on processes to users in a customizable dashboard form. It includes out-of-the-box metrics that the user can customize for specific needs. iProcess InsightLike the analytics tool, this module handles business activity monitoring (BAM, in the popular lexicon). The distinction is that this tool is supposed to spur action on the part of the user, vs. analysis. It shows managers what's happening at the moment through a dashboard interface. The program includes a wizard so users can put together their own set of metrics to monitor. What it doesn't include -- because this sort of intelligence hasn't begun surfacing in BPM tools -- is an advisory wizard that will help the user understand what the most important metrics are to measure for a given situation. What it will do, however, is help the user automate the remediation of bad situations or the exploitation of advantageous ones. The user has to know what these are in order to set up the program's radar. iProcess ConductorThe Conductor is a unique tool that allows for the creation of runtime-like processes (vs. compiled ones) into "components," which can be reused, monitored and modified. The company says the tool addresses more "goal oriented" processes, but perhaps a better way to describe it is a BPM system for on-the-fly or project processes. For example, perhaps a publishing company deals with authors and wants to "templatize" those interactions. It may be that the processes an editor follows with each writer has slight variations, but the overall goal is the same -- to get a contract signed and eventually get a publishable manuscript in hand in a timely manner. This tool can help in tracking the interactions necessary for making that happen. iProcess DecisionsThis optional component of iProcess is where users build and maintain business rules -- independent of the platform. (Users can also handle a limited amount of business rules activity through the primary product itself.) iProcess in ActionTypical applications for Tibco's iProcess Suite include loan origination, application processing, dispute management and account management in the financial industry and claims management, case management and account servicing and management in the insurance industry. Additional applications include supplier management and employee on-boarding in the retail industry as well as order management and account management in the telecommunications industry. A European bank using Tibco has over 10,000 users executing 2 million transactions daily. A telecommunications company employing the process suite handles over a million transactions an hour. In terms of cost, iProcess is geared for large enterprise deals. The company declined to provide more specific pricing information, though a press release on BusinessWorks said that pricing for BusinessWorks starts at $75,000. The CompanyTibco has 2,500 customers around the world -- 800 of which use its BPM solutions. The company has a large installed base in the energy, financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications and transportation industries. It has offices in the United States and Canada, as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and other locations in the Pacific Rim. Major clients include UnumProvident, CitiBank, ADP, and ING. In June 2006, Tibco topped the 2006 Waters Rankings, winning the category for "Best Business Process Management" for the third consecutive year. (Published monthly, Waters magazine covers the practical implementation of technology in the financial industry.) Tibco's technology partners include Sun Microsystems, Intel and Hewlett Packard. Tibco Useful LinksTIBCO Software A Tibco whitepaper, "Introduction to TIBCO iProcess Suite" Free download of TIBCO Business Studio: TDWI's "The Myths of BPM" About the Authors: Lou DiToro is a freelance writer who specializes in writing about business processes and competitive strategy. He welcomes feedback on his articles for BPMEnterprise.com. Contact Lou DiToro at louditoro (at) hotmail.com.Dian Schaffhauser is the former editor of BPMEnterprise.com. She writes about business and technology for a number of publications and websites. Contact Dian Schaffhauser at dian (at) dischaffhauser.com or visit http://www.dischaffhauser.com.Reproduction Without Permission Is Strictly Prohibited – Request Permission Publish an Article: Do you have a process management tip, learning or case study? Share it with the largest community of Business Process Management professionals, and be recognized by your peers. It's a great way to promote your expertise and/or build your resume. Read more about submitting an article.
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
| Home | Discussion Forum | Event Calendar | Job Shop | |
 | |
| Link To BPMEnterprise.com | Report A Problem | Submit Article For Publishing | |
| |
| Terms of Service. ©2003-2008 BPMEnterprise.com, CTQ Media LLC. All rights reserved. v1.0, 0.2 |
About BPMEnterprise.com · Contact Us · Privacy Policy · Site Map. |