BPMI.ORG AND WFMC ANNOUNCE HISTORIC FIRST JOINT STANDARDS MEETING

Companies will be able to develop end-to-end processes, says Ismael Ghalimi

Denver, CO - May 08, 2002 - The Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org) and the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) have announced that both groups have agreed to a first-ever formal joint meeting to be held in London Wednesday June 26, 2002.

Joint work will spotlight development of standards for Business Process Management and Workflow, with collaboration focusing on the use of BPMI.org's Business Process Modeling Language (BPML) for describing workflow processes, according to the workflow model defined by the WfMC.

"Workflow, which can be defined as the interface between automated and manual processes, is one critical facet of Business Process Management. While BPMI.org has defined with BPML a generic language for the modeling of collaborative and transactional business processes, the WfMC has for the last ten years built a very strong model for end-user workflow," said Ismael Ghalimi, BPMI.org Chairman and Intalio Chief Strategy Officer. "By projecting WfMC's workflow model onto BPML, companies will be able to develop end-to-end processes that include reliable back-end transactions and rich front-end user interfaces, in a standards-based manner."

Within such collaboration, BPMI.org meetings would be open to WfMC members participating in this joint effort, with reciprocity by the WfMC to BPMI.org members. The outcome of such an effort would be shared by BPMI.org and the WfMC from an intellectual property standpoint and branded in such a way that the contributions of the respective organizations would be emphasized appropriately.

To attend the joint meeting, members of each organization should register online at their respective websites. The meeting is exclusive to members only.

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 130 members, BPMI.org was initiated by Intalio, Inc. and created in August 2000 by a group of 16 enterprise software vendors and consulting firms. Membership is open to all companies, non-profit organizations, and individuals.

About the Workflow Management Coalition (www.wfmc.org)
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, in part through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products. Consisting of over 300 members, spread throughout the world, the Coalition has become established as the primary standards body for this rapidly expanding software market.

The Workflow Management Coalition (wfmc.org) has worked strenuously for the adoption of standards throughout the industry. Standards allow process definition and modeling tools to be used to specify the business process implemented by a different workflow engine, allow business processing systems to invoke and be invoked by workflow systems, and allow multiple workflow systems (within a single or multiple organizations) to operate together. They provide a fertile environment for workflow component development to grow and flourish, giving a rich array of options for user organizations.

PRESS CONTACT:
Philip Lee, Director of Operations, BPMI.org
Tel: (1) 303-364-8595
plee@bpmi.org


Layna Fischer, General Manager, WfMC
Tel: (1) 954 782 3376
layna@wfmc.org


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