Vendors such as Fuego, SeeBeyond Technology, and Vitria Technology have developed functionality to add these capabilities to their products. Other integration-server vendors have acquired workflow solutions to provide functionality, as in the cases of Tibco Software Inc.'s acquisition of InConcert and webMethods Inc.'s acquisition of Intelliframe. It's becoming increasingly common to see conventional workflow vendors such as FileNet and Staffware be considered for the same BPM application as integration-server vendors.

So how do you decide which vendor offers the right business-process management software for your needs? BPM products share many components, including process-design tools, process engines, and automated failover functionality, but there are key criteria for differentiating among them.

Process-management applications: Do your planned applications tend to involve more straight-through processing or human intervention? Vendors with an integration-server background tend to provide more comprehensive support for applications that emphasize straight-through processing and raw transactional throughput. Conventional workflow vendors tend to provide better functionality for applications where the need for human intervention is significant.

End-to-end transaction management: A characteristic of BPM products is their ability to manage transactions from beginning to end, even if they're initiated from, or involve, other systems and applications. Vendors with an integration-server heritage typically offer more complete functionality in this area.

Process-management design and modeling: All good BPM products provide graphical-process design, and most provide simulation and modeling tools. Some vendors have incorporated more sophisticated modeling tools through acquisitions. (IBM bought Holosofx Inc. for this purpose.) Others have relationships with modeling-tool vendors, such as Staffware with IDS Scheer AG. Some vendors, such as SeeBeyond, support leading process modeling languages like the Unified Modeling Language; FileNet, Identitech, Plexus, and Staffware have their own syntaxes.

Integration functionality: If the applications you're considering require a significant level of integration, particularly with multiple systems within a single application, integration servers provide the most alternatives. But you need to assess your company's integration standard, because implementing BPM from an integration-server vendor can mean you're buying into its platform as an integration standard. WebMethods is an example of a company that offers comprehensive integration capabilities, but those capabilities are difficult to separate from its BPM component.

Data aggregation: This criterion involves the aggregation and transformation of historical and real-time data from multiple systems for reporting and monitoring purposes. Integration-server vendors with native extract, transform, and load capabilities offer an advantage. Vendors such as SeeBeyond offer products to cleanse data residing in disparate systems before data loading.

Analytics and monitoring: Workflow vendors have typically offered out-of-the-box reports and process-monitoring tools. Staffware's Process Monitor, FileNet's eProcess Services, and Identitech's FYI Visual are examples of products with enhanced analytics. Integration-server vendors have limited tools in this area, although vendors such as Fuego have incorporated some online analytical processing process-metrics cubes into their products.

Application development: Companies are increasingly implementing BPM products as platforms to develop process-management applications. For a BPM system to deliver this benefit, it must provide a complete development environment, supporting common standards and supplying prebuilt template apps, subprocesses, and various types of process objects. Conventional workflow vendors provide this environment to varying degrees and offer more in the way of template applications and prebuilt components than integration-server vendors.