Workflow automation, an important subset of BPM, has been around for more almost two decades. However for years it existed in isolation. The cost and complexity of early solutions thwarted widespread adoption. Even in the technology-savvy IT community there is much confusion about workflow automation, and how it relates to and interacts with other technologies. For the lay businessperson, coping with the constant deluge of new technologies and products spawned by the information revolution, workflow automation is a perplexing subject to comprehend. This is ironic since every businessperson today participates in or manages business processes that are the very target of workflow automation. The introduction of new buzzwords such as “e-process”, “knowledge management”, and “work management” has further confused the subject. The emergence of enterprise application integration (EAI), the second subset of BPM, has caused more confusion about BPM. Propelled by rapid advances in software technology, the pervasive growth of the Internet, and more recently the rapid acceptance of Web Services, BPM is moving quickly to the business mainstream. It is therefore imperative for anyone concerned with improving productivity in a modern organization to understand the basic facts about this technology and how it is changing the way business is conducted.
                                        <<--Previous  Next-->>