Services as business process start point

A properly built service-oriented architecture (SOA) could serve as a platform for developing and managing business processes. So it's no surprise that business process management (BPM) software vendors are embracing the SOA concept.

A prime example is IDS Scheer, scheduled to release a tool by year's end that promises to make it easier for companies to design and execute service-based business processes.

Service-based business processes involve connections between application components that have been configured according to a set of industry standards. The standards represent a lingua franca through which application components exchange the information necessary to complete the designated business process.

The credit-checking function on a retail Web site is a common service-based business process. A customer pushing the “purchase now” button on the site triggers that function to check credit and deliver an answer about the customer's credit status to the application running the Web interface.

The new tool, called ARIS SOA Designer, will make it easier for companies—including manufacturers—to create much more complex service-based processes, says Mathias Kirchmer, IDS Scheer CEO for the Americas and Japan.

A big advantage to developing processes with ARIS SOA Designer, adds Kirchmer, is the ability to automatically generate the business process execution language (BPEL) code that, in effect, orchestrates the interaction among services typically housed in a central repository.

“Once services were designed, they could be loaded into SOAs or ERP platforms, but the BPEL models couldn't be generated or defined automatically,” explains Kirchmer. “Developers still had to do some translation in executing the code changes within SOA infrastructure.”

ARIS SOA Designer will be part of IDS Scheer's ARIS Platform for BPM, a suite of tools for process implementation, control, and ongoing monitoring and analysis. With SOA Designer, users will be able to model business processes through a graphical interface, with details and descriptions of relevant services built directly into the models. Then they can transform the process into executable, platform-independent BPEL code, which can be transferred directly to relevant IT systems.

ARIS SOA Designer will be compatible with existing ERP-based services repositories, or users will be able to create their own services from the ground up, Kirchmer says.

Compatibility with leading ERP packages is critical, Kirchmer points out. “Manufacturers usually rely on the preset process definitions of ERP packages for 70 percent to 80 percent of process steps,” he says. “But differentiation and competitive advantage often come through the add-ons, extensions, and customizations in the remaining 20 percent to 30 percent.”

Kirchmer expects current IDS Scheer customers to use SOA Designer to tailor supply chain, field service, customer service, and R&D processes.