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 Workflow Workflow has traditionally been defined as human facing interacting processes. These human facing processes often involve forms, approvals, escalations, exceptions and corresponding data flow. Workflow products come out of the box with robust process modeling and form generation tool capability. Most Workflow solutions interact with applications using SQL, LDAP, ODBC and/or JDBC as necessary to accommodate the specific data flow required for a given process. Large applications vendors such as PeopleSoft, SAP, Oracle, Siebel and Microsoft provide workflow within their respective applications for specific functionalities, but do not have seamless solutions for cross-application processes and workflows. This has been unacceptable for businesses trying to build processes that span multiple applications, departments and companies. For example; Order to Cash processes often span CRM (customer resource management), Finance, Contracts and even HR applications. Companies looking for a seamless manageable process across these applications must resort to some kind of Workflow solution. On the surface stand alone Workflow solutions are solid, until you’re trying to manage 20 of them, each requiring its own proprietary connectivity for application integration. The fundamental flaw of traditional Workflow solutions therefore, is their lack of an application integration platform that can be leveraged by multiple processes. Most Workflow vendors are not in denial of this fact and are either building application integration functionality into their product or hoping for a lucrative marriage with an EAI (enterprise application integration) vendor. |