Business Process Integration (BPI) is shifting from a tactical to a strategic issue. According to the market research firm Forrester Research, by 2002 companies expect 78 percent of their customers and 65 percent of their trading partners to demand global electronic connections with them.
BPI encompasses defining, enabling and managing the exchange of business information within the organization and beyond organizational boundaries. It is a strategy that strengthens your organization and its relationships with other organizations by integrating entire business processes not only within your organization but also with your customers, suppliers and business partners (e.g. logistics providers).
The “big picture” indicates how various current technologies are related to each other. For reasons of simplicity, only the run time aspects are shown.
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BPI is part of a greater context and can be easily mapped to a comprehensive architecture model, such as the Jenz & Partner Business Performance Architecture (BPA) model.
BPI takes a top-down approach, rather than the bottom-up approach of application integration. It comprises three core elements: process modeling, process execution (brokering) and process management.
BPI systems will not make current software technology obsolete. Organizations that already have implemented a componentization strategy will find BPI an almost natural fit. BPI systems will happily coexist with components, such as JavaBeans and Enterprise JavaBeans. The business process execution engine just appears as an additional integration layer. Also, the move to thin clients plays well with BPI systems.
XML is a key factor in the advancement of BPI technology. XML offers a method for integrating business processes by providing an open, extensible structure for data exchanged. XML can be used for defining processes, the user interfaces of applications, and business documents. Beyond that, messages exchanged between two logical partners (e.g. client and business process engine) can be XML documents. Yet, XML documents can be used to transport Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs). The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) can be used this way.
We expect Application Server vendors, such as BEA Systems and IBM, and start-up companies with a very strong focus on BPI to dominate the market. From our point of view, Workflow Management Software vendors will play a minor role.
Click on the graphic for an overview of the prominent components of a Business Process Integration System
For an overview of current solutions, see our list of BPIS products.
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