Fujitsu Joins WfMC in ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Business Process Interoperability Demo

Fujitsu to Join WfMC in Demonstrating Real-World Business Process Interoperability Via ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Web Services Standards

With Interstage Business Process Manager, Fujitsu is First Global Application Infrastructure Suite Provider to Demonstrate Support and Practical Applications of ASAP and Wf-XML

Sunnyvale, California, USA. June 16, 2004.

Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that it will participate in a demonstration of real-world business process interoperability being hosted by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) on June 23. WfMC will feature Fujitsu Interstage Business Process Manager among the products using Wf-XML 2.0 and the Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) to automate Internet commerce processes. The live demonstration will take place at the Brainstorm Group Business Process Management Conference at the Airport Hyatt in Burlingame, CA. Reflecting strong interest in the potential of the two protocols, some 600 observers have signed up to obtain the results of the demonstration.

Fujitsu is a leader in driving the standards that are enabling business process interoperability through support on its award-winning Interstage Business Process Manager engine. Fujitsu also serves on both the OASIS ASAP Technical Committee and WfMC Wf-XML Working Group — playing a central role in shaping standards to address today's Web-based business demands.

"We are proud to participate in the Workflow Management Coalition demonstration, which shows how companies can use ASAP to realize the real-world benefits of business process interoperability without programming," said Keith Swenson, chief architect of Fujitsu Software Corporation. "ASAP provides a standard, which companies can use now, to provide quick, easy connections between systems supporting long-term processes. Soon Wf-XML 2.0 will be available to extend ASAP with functionality specifically for BPM engines." Swenson is the 2004 recipient of the WfMC Manheim Award, largely in recognition for his contribution to the two protocols as chair of the OASIS ASAP Technical Committee, lead author of ASAP, and chairman of the WfMC Wf-XML Working Group.

"Wf-XML 2.0 addresses the significant hurdles that companies have faced in attempting to optimize business processes across organizations using different BPM engines," said Jon Pyke, WfMC chair and CTO of Staffware. "We value Fujitsu's active support in the development of Wf-XML 2.0 and the Web commerce demonstration that we will use to highlight the role of Wf-XML 2.0 and ASAP in enabling business process interoperability across some of the industry's most widely recognized BPM engines."

Web Services Standards for Business Process Interoperability

Together ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 enable the business process interoperability that allows enterprises to fully harness the power of the Web for optimizing their businesses.

ASAP, the Asynchronous Service Access Protocol developed by OASIS is an extension to the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Where SOAP only supports synchronous Web services requiring immediate response, the ASAP standard supports asynchronous services. ASAP can be viewed as a simple, fixed choreography making use of the other standards being developed for Web services that handles about 80 percent of the typical business interactions. In practice, ASAP provides a standardized "plug" that allows one long-running service to be easily plugged into another long-running service using SOAP calls — without any programming — making the functionality both simple and cost-effective to implement. Asynchronous services supported by ASAP are critical for interactions that require human intervention or approval; support for mobile devices that move in and out of range, and complex computations in which it is not possible to provide an instant answer.

Wf-XML 2.0, developed by the Workflow Management Coalition extends ASAP with additional information for those instances where the service is a BPM engine. It provides an interface to send new or updated process definitions to the BPM engine. Additionally, for any BPM engine that implements a process as a sequence of activities, it provides a call to find out what activities are running. As a result, Wf-XML 2.0 both simplifies and strengthens the implementation of asynchronous services to support business process interoperability.

For more information on the protocols, visit:

OASIS ASAP TC: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=asap
WfMC Wf-XML 2.0: http://www.wfmc.org/standards/wfxml_demo.htm

About The Workflow Management Coalition

The WfMC, founded in August 1993, is a non-profit, international organization of workflow vendors, users, analysts and university/research groups. The Coalition's mission is to promote and develop the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products. Comprising over 300 members throughout the world, the Coalition is the primary standards body for this significant software market. The creation of the WfMC Standards Reference Model has proved its importance in other areas of technology, most notably the ISO Seven Layer reference model for computer communications.

About Fujitsu Software Corporation

Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) family. The wholly owned subsidiary delivers one of the world's broadest lines of application infrastructure software products, including the Interstage Suite and NetCOBOL. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions, including more than 4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about the Interstage Suite, visit http://www.fujitsu.com/interstage. To learn more about Fujitsu Software Corporation, visit http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com.

About Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting technologies, highly reliable computing and communications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$45 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com.

[Source: http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com/news/year2004/pr06-16-2004.html]

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See other details in the news story: "Workflow Management Coalition Hosts ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Interoperability Demo." General references in XML-Based Workflow and Process Management Standards: XPDL, Wf-XML."

SEARCH Advanced Search ABOUT Site Map CP RSS Channel Contact Us Sponsoring CP About Our Sponsors NEWS Cover Stories Articles & Papers Press Releases CORE STANDARDS XML SGML Schemas XSL/XSLT/XPath XLink XML Query CSS SVG TECHNOLOGY REPORTS XML Applications General Apps Government Apps Academic Apps EVENTS LIBRARY Introductions FAQs Bibliography Technology and Society Semantics Tech Topics Software Related Standards Historic	Fujitsu Joins WfMC in ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Business Process Interoperability Demo Fujitsu to Join WfMC in Demonstrating Real-World Business Process Interoperability Via ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Web Services Standards With Interstage Business Process Manager, Fujitsu is First Global Application Infrastructure Suite Provider to Demonstrate Support and Practical Applications of ASAP and Wf-XML Sunnyvale, California, USA. June 16, 2004. Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced that it will participate in a demonstration of real-world business process interoperability being hosted by the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) on June 23. WfMC will feature Fujitsu Interstage Business Process Manager among the products using Wf-XML 2.0 and the Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP) to automate Internet commerce processes. The live demonstration will take place at the Brainstorm Group Business Process Management Conference at the Airport Hyatt in Burlingame, CA. Reflecting strong interest in the potential of the two protocols, some 600 observers have signed up to obtain the results of the demonstration. Fujitsu is a leader in driving the standards that are enabling business process interoperability through support on its award-winning Interstage Business Process Manager engine. Fujitsu also serves on both the OASIS ASAP Technical Committee and WfMC Wf-XML Working Group — playing a central role in shaping standards to address today's Web-based business demands. "We are proud to participate in the Workflow Management Coalition demonstration, which shows how companies can use ASAP to realize the real-world benefits of business process interoperability without programming," said Keith Swenson, chief architect of Fujitsu Software Corporation. "ASAP provides a standard, which companies can use now, to provide quick, easy connections between systems supporting long-term processes. Soon Wf-XML 2.0 will be available to extend ASAP with functionality specifically for BPM engines." Swenson is the 2004 recipient of the WfMC Manheim Award, largely in recognition for his contribution to the two protocols as chair of the OASIS ASAP Technical Committee, lead author of ASAP, and chairman of the WfMC Wf-XML Working Group. "Wf-XML 2.0 addresses the significant hurdles that companies have faced in attempting to optimize business processes across organizations using different BPM engines," said Jon Pyke, WfMC chair and CTO of Staffware. "We value Fujitsu's active support in the development of Wf-XML 2.0 and the Web commerce demonstration that we will use to highlight the role of Wf-XML 2.0 and ASAP in enabling business process interoperability across some of the industry's most widely recognized BPM engines." Web Services Standards for Business Process Interoperability Together ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 enable the business process interoperability that allows enterprises to fully harness the power of the Web for optimizing their businesses. ASAP, the Asynchronous Service Access Protocol developed by OASIS is an extension to the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Where SOAP only supports synchronous Web services requiring immediate response, the ASAP standard supports asynchronous services. ASAP can be viewed as a simple, fixed choreography making use of the other standards being developed for Web services that handles about 80 percent of the typical business interactions. In practice, ASAP provides a standardized "plug" that allows one long-running service to be easily plugged into another long-running service using SOAP calls — without any programming — making the functionality both simple and cost-effective to implement. Asynchronous services supported by ASAP are critical for interactions that require human intervention or approval; support for mobile devices that move in and out of range, and complex computations in which it is not possible to provide an instant answer. Wf-XML 2.0, developed by the Workflow Management Coalition extends ASAP with additional information for those instances where the service is a BPM engine. It provides an interface to send new or updated process definitions to the BPM engine. Additionally, for any BPM engine that implements a process as a sequence of activities, it provides a call to find out what activities are running. As a result, Wf-XML 2.0 both simplifies and strengthens the implementation of asynchronous services to support business process interoperability. For more information on the protocols, visit: OASIS ASAP TC: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=asap WfMC Wf-XML 2.0: http://www.wfmc.org/standards/wfxml_demo.htm About The Workflow Management Coalition The WfMC, founded in August 1993, is a non-profit, international organization of workflow vendors, users, analysts and university/research groups. The Coalition's mission is to promote and develop the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products. Comprising over 300 members throughout the world, the Coalition is the primary standards body for this significant software market. The creation of the WfMC Standards Reference Model has proved its importance in other areas of technology, most notably the ISO Seven Layer reference model for computer communications. About Fujitsu Software Corporation Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) family. The wholly owned subsidiary delivers one of the world's broadest lines of application infrastructure software products, including the Interstage Suite and NetCOBOL. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu's international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions, including more than 4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about the Interstage Suite, visit http://www.fujitsu.com/interstage. To learn more about Fujitsu Software Corporation, visit http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com. About Fujitsu Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting technologies, highly reliable computing and communications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts uniquely position Fujitsu to deliver comprehensive solutions that open up infinite possibilities for its customers' success. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.7 trillion yen (US$45 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com. [Source: http://www.fsw.fujitsu.com/news/year2004/pr06-16-2004.html] Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See other details in the news story: "Workflow Management Coalition Hosts ASAP and Wf-XML 2.0 Interoperability Demo." General references in XML-Based Workflow and Process Management Standards: XPDL, Wf-XML."