BPEL and BPML are similar in scope, yet having two standards would probably compromise the goal of getting everyone speaking the same language. Sweeney says he's confident the two standards will merge at some point. Others, like CSC's Smith, figure BPML will win.

"They're setting a standard which kind of fits existing tech more easily so it can be more easily adopted, but I don't think it gives the full capabilities that people are looking for," Smith says. In any case, it's unlikely that users of the technology care about how business-process computing works, as long as it does. "Our clients aren't desperately interested in these esoteric standards issues. They just want to get on and manage their processes," he says.

So software vendors are building products that exploit the various standards. Siebel Systems Inc. has already built support for IBM's WSFL into its Universal Application Network, a Web services-based system that integrates its customer-relationship management software into other applications.

	BPEL is the next generation of computer languages, CEO Siebel says.

"What's going on now is a paradigm shift in the way we design applications," says Tom Siebel, chairman and CEO of Siebel Systems. "In other words, what we're going to deliver isn't screens of reports; it's actually descriptions of business processes in a language that the industry leaders believe are the standard for the representation of a business process."

Along with Microsoft, Siebel is pushing BPEL as the key standard for that revolution; versions of the Universal Application Network due next year will support the spec, among other standards. "This is basically the next generation of computing languages," Siebel says. "It's a very exciting idea."

CSC is implementing the new languages into software incrementally, Smith says. Later this year, its e3 architecture will be updated to include a full-featured business-process management engine capable of interpreting BPML.

IBM also is planning to get the technology into products. "We're started on the engineering work," Sweeney says. "It won't be in your Christmas stocking this year, but you'll start to see significant product development and announcements in 2003."

Enterprise application vendor Popkin Software Inc. aims to have BPML upgrades available for the holidays. Its flagship enterprise modeling tool, System Architect, will be upgraded by then, says Martin Owen, VP of worldwide services. "It aligns business and IT together," Owen says. "It really is a new way of working."