March 4, 2004

Denver, CO - March 2, 2004 - The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) today announced that 20 companies have committed to support the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) as a standard notation for business process modeling.

BPMN is a business-oriented process modeling technique that enables organizations to standardize the modeling of business processes that span applications and business partners. With BPMN, all levels of user have greater visibility and control over their business processes, especially those related to Business Process Management Systems and their underlying Service-Oriented Architecture and Web Services. BPMN is an important development for any BPM or Web Services initiative as it provides a shared language between consultants, business analysts, technical architects and IT developers, with no part of the process model inaccessible. The business and IT communities pursuing business process improvement are therefore able to communicate using a common visual vocabulary. In addition, BPMN bridges the technical gap between business-level modeling and process operations, through a close mapping to modern execution technologies based on languages such as BPEL4WS.

Sandvik Coromant, based in Sandviken, Sweden, is the world leader in cemented carbide tooling systems and cutting tools for the metalworking field, whose customers include the world's largest automotive and aerospace companies. Nevzat Ertan, Chief Architect at Sandvik Coromant, states, “We have to build systems that can adapt in an increasingly dynamic and competitive market place. We chose BPMN not only for its ease of use and flexibility as a modeling notation, but also for its mapping to BPEL4WS. The ability to deploy business process execution schemas from the models we build will reduce development lead times and enable us to respond more quickly to changes in our business processes.”

BPMN support is currently available in the following products: aXway Process Manager™, ILOG JViews™, ITPearls Process Modeler for Visio, Popkin’s System Architect™, and SeeBeyond’s Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) Suite™. Microsoft Visio 2003™ also provides a BPMN 0.9 template.

Other vendors planning BPMN product releases later in the year include: Casewise Corporate Modeler™, Corel iGrafx™, Fuego’s Fuego 5™, Hyland’s OnBase™, IBM’s WBI Modeler™, IDS-Scheer’s Aris™, Intalio’s n³ Designer™, Lanner’s Witness™, Mega Suite™, Proforma’s ProVision™, and Staffware’s Process Suite™. A number of service providers including Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC e4 Architecture), EDS, Enix Consulting and InfoSys Technologies are including BPMN within their portfolio of services.

“Companies have struggled with competing and incompatible process modeling notations for some time – leading to confusion amongst both end-users and technologists alike. This had become even more critical with the advent of Web Services with its focus on the execution of the process. What was needed was an agreed visual notation for representing business processes. BPMN provides that capability, which should allow firms to accelerate adoption of both BPMS environments and Web Services,” says Stephen A. White of IBM, Chairman of BPMI’s Notation Working Group.

Howard Smith, co-chair of BPMI.org and CTO CSC Europe, states, “The significance of BPMN is that any enterprise architecture that supports the full lifecycle of a business process, from discovery, design, deployment and execution, to operations, interaction, optimization and analysis, necessarily consists of multiple tools that reside in a standardized Business Process Management System (BPMS) infrastructure. A common notation for processes, tied to execution, provides the business value that previously distracted business users from committing to process mapping during the era of reengineering, when there was no clear path to execution.”

The BPMN 1.0 working draft specification is available royalty free for download from BPMI.org's web site at http://www.bpmi.org/bpmn-spec.esp. The final BPMN 1.0 specification is expected to be available in the next two months. For more information about BPMN and quotes from companies supporting the standard, visit: http://www.bpmn.org.

About BPMI.org (www.bpmi.org)
BPMI.org (the Business Process Management Initiative) is a non-profit corporation that empowers companies of all sizes, across all industries, to develop and operate business processes that span multiple applications and business partners, behind the firewall and over the Internet. The Initiative's mission is to promote and develop the use of Business Process Management (BPM) through the establishment of standards for process design, deployment, execution, maintenance and optimization.

BPMI.org develops open specifications, assists IT vendors in marketing their implementations, and supports businesses in their use of business process management technologies. Currently comprising over 80 members, membership is open to all companies, non-profit organizations, and individuals.

Editorial Contact:
Layna Fischer
BPMI.org
Tel: 954-596-2077
Email: [email protected]

aXway Process Manager is a registered trademark of Axway Software
Corporate Modeler is a registered trademark of Casewise
CSC e4 is a service mark of Computer Sciences Corporation
iGrafx is a registered trademark of Corel
Fuego is a registered trademark of Fuego Technologies
OnBase is a registered trademark of Hyland Software
WBI Modeler is a registered trademark of IBM
Aris is a registered trademark of IDS-Scheer AG
ILOG is a registered trademark, and JViews is a trademark, of ILOG
n³ Designer is a registered trademark of Intalio
Witness is a registered trademark of Lanner
Mega Suite is a registered trademark of Mega
Microsoft is a registered trademark and Visio 2003 is a trademark of Microsoft
System Architect is a registered trademark of Popkin Software and Systems inc
ProVision is a registered trademark of Proforma
Integrated Composite Application Network (ICAN) Suite is a registered trademark of Seebeyond
Staffware Process Suite is a registered trademark of Staffware

Copyright (c) 2004 BPMI.org