Workflow and Business Process Management Comparative Study 2003
Launched by W&GS

Paris, France: Thursday, June 4, 2003: Workflow & Groupware Strategies (W&GS) announces the publication of the 2003 edition of the highly acclaimed Workflow and BPM Comparative Study. It includes a competitive analysis of 9  workflow products developed by Akazi, COSA Solutions, FileNet, Fujitsu, IBM, SAP, TIBCO Software,  Staffware, and W4.

The Workflow and BPM Comparative Study is the only in depth and technical comparative analysis of workflow and BPM products available worldwide. The target audience includes IT Directors and Chief Architects, Workflow consultants and analysts, and Workflow Vendors and VARs, Product Marketing and IT Sales Directors.

The comprehensive 2003 edition introduces three new products: SAP WebFlow the production workflow and BPM engine used by SAP application developers to deliver application processes, i-Flow from Fujitsu all developped in Java for OEM integration in Java environments, and FlowMinf from AKAZI relying also entirely on Java technologies to provide RAD for process automation.

"The 2003 edition is a major revision and extension to carefully selected products from the 2001 edition. The new Workflow and BPM Comparative Study is built on the worldwide success of the previous edition with sales in five continents, 36 countries, and across all economic sectors, it recognizes the new orientation of the workflow market towards more global Business Process Management requirements satisfaction" says the author, Martin Ader, former workflow developer and now leading industry analyst and researcher.

The new Study incorporates a major review of offerings from other vendors: Staffware’s completely new server with even higher performance and production applications support features; the renovated offer from Filenet with FileNET BPM Suite, IBM complete integration of MQ Workflow into WebSphere with integration of BPM features at both analysis and reporting levels, better support of Internet and XML by COSA Workflow, and extension of W4 in the direction of production workflow applications and BPM with its new analysis and development component W4 Studio.

"While workflow products progress rapidly to cover Business Process Management needs, they also continue their consolidation as the foundations for enterprise wide process engines in parallel with AEI middleware layers from which they take directly more and more benefits" says Ader.

The Workflow Comparative Study is called "comparative" because each product is analyzed and ranked using the same checklist. It is a very detailed study that looks at 200 features, grouped into 12 criteria. Since each item is scored for each of the products, this provides a total of 2,000 individual scores, each one precisely justified. Because investigation was made into the smallest detail provided in the technical documentation of each product, resulting in over 10,000 pages of research covered, the readers receive extremely in-depth information. The resulting Study comprises a total of 400 pages and over 100 diagrams.

"We see this report as a vital key to understanding how workflow products stack up against each other, "says Layna Fischer, Workflow And Reengineering International Association (WARIA) Chair and General Manager of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). "It is a unique work and will certainly contribute to increased user awareness, an essential goal of both associations. In my opinion, the 1999 edition is already the best comparative study of workflow products available in the industry today."

The Workflow Comparative Study will be available for subscription from June  10 2003 with immediate delivery in a printed version (US$ 1,500 - Euro 1 500), and two electronic versions; single user (US$2,400 - Euro 2 400), and a company license (US$ 4,500 - Euro 4,500).

The Study is distributed by W&GS (www.wngs.com) in Europe, and by the WARIA Bookstore in all other countries (www.waria.com), orders can be taken from respective web sites.

ABOUT Martin Ader (ader @ wngs.com)

Martin Ader set up and managed the Bull Workflow research team in 1987. The team was later transferred to Wang Software (now Eastman Software), where Martin Ader became responsible for European Workflow Marketing. In 1996, he created his own consultancy firm, Workflow & Groupware Stratégies (W&GS). Martin Ader represents W&GS (a funding member) at the WfMC steering committee with voting right. Ader participates in the Workflow and Reengineering International Association (WARIA) and is WfMCs' France Chapter Chair. He has published books, articles, papers, and participates to conferences in Europe, USA and Asia. Martin Ader runs intensive workshops on workflow engines selection world-wide, and had workflow projects consulting assignments in France, England and USA.

ABOUT Workflow & Groupware Strategies (www.wngs.com)

W&GS provides consultancy in the area of group technologies. The company’s major offerings are: to establish adequate strategies for best usage of group techniques for enhanced productivity and better service quality to clients; to conduct opportunity analysis to detect most profitable ones in the short term; to establish master plan over a three-year period to deploy applications and measure results; to follow pilot and deployment projects in their achievement of projected results.

W&GS insists on early identification of most probable targets, precise analysis of costs and benefits before any decision, seriousness of the infrastructure project (network and servers), and validation of hypothesis based on short pilot projects.