Web Services Choreography Interface

BEA, Intalio, SAP, Sun Publish Web Services Choreography Interface, Take Web Services Collaboration to New Level

New XML-Based Specification Helps Developers Build Web Services for Open Application to Application Collaboration

Santa Clara, California, USA. June 26, 2002.

BEA Systems, Intalio, SAP AG, and Sun Microsystems today announced the publication of the XML-based Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI). This new specification is available for public comment at the companies' respective Web sites. WSCI provides an important foundation for realizing the promise of Web services to deliver automated, application to application collaboration.

"Interoperability of Web services needs to extend beyond basic messaging, and WSCI enables Web services to interact with each other in specified ways to accomplish the needs of complex business processes," said Richard Green, vice president and general manager, Java & XML Technologies, Sun Microsystems. "This is a major step forward for the industry and will provide a key piece of technology to support Sun's Java Web Services software initiatives."

WSCI describes the flow of messages exchanged by a Web service in a particular process, and also describes the collective message exchange among interacting Web services, providing a global view of a complex process involving multiple Web services. Today's service description languages are adequate for simple information retrieval, such as a stock quote, but they do not provide the rich behavioral detail that describes the role the service plays as part of a larger, more comprehensive collaboration. One of the key benefits of WSCI is that it bridges the gap between business process management and Web services by describing how a Web service can be used as part of a larger, more complex business process. These business processes may reside entirely within the confines of a single company, or span across multiple organizations or companies.

After a public review period, WSCI will be submitted, on a royalty-free basis, to an industry standards body.

"Web services need to be flexibly combined to drive collaboration," said Karl-Heinz Hess, member of the Extended Management Board of SAP AG. "SAP contributes its long-standing business expertise to WSCI ensuring that comprehensive automated business processes can be adequately described."

"BEA believes that a workflow interface language is a key next step in the evolution of the Web Services architecture," said David Orchard, W3C Lead and W3C Architecture Group member, BEA Systems. "This work is clear indication of BEA's support for community and other efforts in Web Service technology development."

"Intalio is delighted to co-author the WSCI specification with a distinguished group of leading software companies that share the vision of bridging the gap between business process management and Web services. With its strategic participation in WSCI, Intalio builds on its commitment to open standards," said Ismael Ghalimi, Intalio co-founder and chief strategy officer. "Our collective efforts on the WSCI specification will enable customers to more easily and cost-effectively deploy end-to-end processes across value networks. Intalio will leverage the WSCI specification in its strategic product offerings to help customers reduce process design-to-production cost, control total cost of process ownership, and deliver strategic return on process investment."

The WSCI specification is available royalty free for download from each co-editor's Web site:

About BEA

BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, with nearly 12,500 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic(R) brand are among the most trusted names in business. Businesses built on the award-winning BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform are reliable, highly scalable, and poised to bring new services to market quickly. BEA's platform is the de facto standard for more than 2,100 systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and application service providers (ASPs) to provide complete solutions that fast-track and future-proof businesses for high growth and profitability. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 93 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at http://www.bea.com.

About Intalio, Inc.

Intalio, The Business Process Management Company, is a leading provider of Business Process Management Systems that help Global 2,000 firms reduce their process design-to-production cost, control their total cost of process ownership, and increase their strategic return on process investment. Intalio is the founder of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) and the main author of the BPML and WSCI industry standards. Intalio is a privately held company headquartered in San Mateo, CA. For more information, contact Intalio at 650-577-4700, info@intalio.com or http://www.intalio.com.

About SAP

SAP is the world's leading provider of e-business software solutions. Through the mySAP.com e-business platform, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today, more than 18,000 companies in over 120 countries run more than 50,000 installations of SAP software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol SAP. Additional information at http://www.sap.com.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

Contact

Jim Grisanzio of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Tel: +1-408-276-6059
Email: jim.grisanzio@sun.com

Jeff S. Chang of SAP Corporate Communications,
Tel: +1-650-320-3197
Email: jeffrey.chang@sap.com

Heather Dickinson of BEA
Tel: +1-408-570-8746
Email: heather.dickinson@bea.com

Alpana Arora of Intalio Inc.
Tel: +1-650-577-4700
Email: arora@intalio.com

Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See: "Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI)."

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WSCI provides an important foundation for realizing the promise of Web services to deliver automated, application to application collaboration. "Interoperability of Web services needs to extend beyond basic messaging, and WSCI enables Web services to interact with each other in specified ways to accomplish the needs of complex business processes," said Richard Green, vice president and general manager, Java & XML Technologies, Sun Microsystems. "This is a major step forward for the industry and will provide a key piece of technology to support Sun's Java Web Services software initiatives." WSCI describes the flow of messages exchanged by a Web service in a particular process, and also describes the collective message exchange among interacting Web services, providing a global view of a complex process involving multiple Web services. Today's service description languages are adequate for simple information retrieval, such as a stock quote, but they do not provide the rich behavioral detail that describes the role the service plays as part of a larger, more comprehensive collaboration. One of the key benefits of WSCI is that it bridges the gap between business process management and Web services by describing how a Web service can be used as part of a larger, more complex business process. These business processes may reside entirely within the confines of a single company, or span across multiple organizations or companies. After a public review period, WSCI will be submitted, on a royalty-free basis, to an industry standards body. "Web services need to be flexibly combined to drive collaboration," said Karl-Heinz Hess, member of the Extended Management Board of SAP AG. "SAP contributes its long-standing business expertise to WSCI ensuring that comprehensive automated business processes can be adequately described." "BEA believes that a workflow interface language is a key next step in the evolution of the Web Services architecture," said David Orchard, W3C Lead and W3C Architecture Group member, BEA Systems. "This work is clear indication of BEA's support for community and other efforts in Web Service technology development." "Intalio is delighted to co-author the WSCI specification with a distinguished group of leading software companies that share the vision of bridging the gap between business process management and Web services. With its strategic participation in WSCI, Intalio builds on its commitment to open standards," said Ismael Ghalimi, Intalio co-founder and chief strategy officer. "Our collective efforts on the WSCI specification will enable customers to more easily and cost-effectively deploy end-to-end processes across value networks. Intalio will leverage the WSCI specification in its strategic product offerings to help customers reduce process design-to-production cost, control total cost of process ownership, and deliver strategic return on process investment." The WSCI specification is available royalty free for download from each co-editor's Web site: http://dev2dev.bea.com/techtrack/wsci.jsp http://www.intalio.com/wsci http://ifr.sap.com/wsci http://www.sun.com/software/xml About BEA BEA Systems, Inc. is the world's leading application infrastructure software company, with nearly 12,500 customers around the world, including the majority of the Fortune Global 500. BEA and its WebLogic(R) brand are among the most trusted names in business. Businesses built on the award-winning BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform are reliable, highly scalable, and poised to bring new services to market quickly. BEA's platform is the de facto standard for more than 2,100 systems integrators, independent software vendors (ISVs) and application service providers (ASPs) to provide complete solutions that fast-track and future-proof businesses for high growth and profitability. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., BEA has 93 offices in 34 countries and is on the Web at http://www.bea.com. About Intalio, Inc. Intalio, The Business Process Management Company, is a leading provider of Business Process Management Systems that help Global 2,000 firms reduce their process design-to-production cost, control their total cost of process ownership, and increase their strategic return on process investment. Intalio is the founder of the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) and the main author of the BPML and WSCI industry standards. Intalio is a privately held company headquartered in San Mateo, CA. For more information, contact Intalio at 650-577-4700, info@intalio.com or http://www.intalio.com. About SAP SAP is the world's leading provider of e-business software solutions. Through the mySAP.com e-business platform, people in businesses around the globe are improving relationships with customers and partners, streamlining operations, and achieving significant efficiencies throughout their supply chains. Today, more than 18,000 companies in over 120 countries run more than 50,000 installations of SAP software. With subsidiaries in over 50 countries, the company is listed on several exchanges including the Frankfurt stock exchange and NYSE under the symbol SAP. Additional information at http://www.sap.com. About Sun Microsystems, Inc. Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com. Contact Jim Grisanzio of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Tel: +1-408-276-6059 Email: jim.grisanzio@sun.com Jeff S. Chang of SAP Corporate Communications, Tel: +1-650-320-3197 Email: jeffrey.chang@sap.com Heather Dickinson of BEA Tel: +1-408-570-8746 Email: heather.dickinson@bea.com Alpana Arora of Intalio Inc. Tel: +1-650-577-4700 Email: arora@intalio.com Prepared by Robin Cover for The XML Cover Pages archive. See: "Web Service Choreography Interface (WSCI)."