Latest Release of Interstage Business Process Manager Enhances Full Business Process Life Cycle Control Support; Opens Processes for Collaboration with Partners and Customers

March 1, 2005 – Sunnyvale, CA – Fujitsu Software Corporation today announced the availability of Interstage Business Process Manager Version 7 (v7), the newest version of Fujitsu's award-winning Business Process Management (BPM) software. Interstage Business Process Manager offers customers rich capabilities to support all the key phases in a business process life cycle - modeling, automation, integration, management, and optimization. The enhancements in version 7 include an integrated BPM console that enables users to manage the full process life cycle from a single interface, and an enhanced Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) dashboard that can automatically invoke responses to user-defined thresholds. Other key features include a BPM application packager, pre-built process templates and functions, expanded standards support, and a new easy-to-use trial version. With Interstage Business Process Manager, enterprises can create, manage and adapt their processes as needed and take advantage of Web Services to optimize their businesses and open them up for collaboration with partners and customers.

The new functionality of version 7 builds on the proven performance of Interstage Business Process Manager to deliver unmatched ease, performance and flexibility for automating and managing processes. Fujitsu's customizable BPM software can be tailored to meet customers' unique requirements using a highly intuitive graphical user interface, and it supports both the human and application-level interactions that drive companies' business operations. Interstage Business Process Manager is also the first Java¢â technology-based BPM solution to work with all major application servers. With Fujitsu's open, standards-based BPM software, enterprises have the ability to build on their existing technology investments and extend process integration beyond the four walls of their organizations.

"In 2005, BPMS-based application templates with service extensions will start supporting applications not serviced adequately by packaged applications. Many organizations are searching for the balance between cost-effective, but rigid, application packages and the flexible, but costly, custom development alternatives. This has spawned two major threads of potentially interconnecting technologies - vertical and horizontal application templates based on BPM technologies combined with service-oriented business application (SOBA) functions and model-driven architectures (MDAs)," said Jim Sinur, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner Research. "BPM-based templates are becoming popular because they can act as a cornerstone business flow that can be augmented with SOBAs and MDA-generated services."

"Global demands for increased productivity, collaboration and regulatory compliance are driving enterprises' demands for full business process lifecycle control," said Robert Sepanloo, senior vice president of Interstage at Fujitsu Software Corporation. "Interstage Business Process Manager, version 7, delivers on these demands with greater visibility and accountability, increased automation and ease of use, and standards-based support for process integration across enterprises. With our world-class BPM solution, companies have the flexibility and power to optimize their business processes as market conditions and compliance regulations evolve."

Interstage Business Process Manager v7 Features Expanded Functionality

Interstage Business Process Manager v7 features significant enhancements to facilitate modeling, automation, integration, management and optimization of business processes.

• BAM Dashboard - The enhanced BAM dashboard in version 7 displays the status of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), providing business users with the ability to monitor business processes in real-time. Configurable dashboard views, thresholds and alarms are complemented by the ability to trigger automatic responses when user-defined thresholds are crossed.
• BPM Console - An enhanced, integrated user interface called the BPM Console enables users to manage the full process life cycle (process design, task management, and process administration) from a single location.
• BPM Application Packager - The new BPM Application Packager offers easy migration of BPM applications, such as process designs and associated forms and rules, by allowing enterprises to package them and move them to new servers and releases at the same time.
• Process Templates - Version 7 offers users several out-of-the-box process templates that help businesses accelerate the development of their financial services, healthcare, retail, HR and shared services applications.
• Pre-Built Functions - Interstage Business Process Manager brings an expanded set of pre-built, commonly used functions, which a business analyst can easily incorporate into a process step without writing any code. Examples of the new functions include escalating tasks, invoking Web Services, and making choices at a particular step in a process.
• Expanded Standards Support - Version 7 adds new standards support in three areas:
  • WebDAV support lets organizations easily connect to their enterprise content management systems that support this standard, allowing users to bring documents into their processes more easily.
  • Wf-XML 2.0 support enables integration with process modeling tools that support the standard, letting users leverage their existing process modeling environments.
  • Interstage Business Process Manager supports the import and export of BPEL.

Interstage Business Process Manager v7 Offered in Three Editions

With Interstage Business Process Manager v7, customers can choose from three available editions: Enterprise, Advanced, and Entry. The Enterprise Edition for large, mission-critical applications is designed to be deployed on leading J2EE-compliant application servers; it can run on multiple servers providing load balancing and fail-over capabilities for non-stop operation with high reliability. The Advanced Edition is optimized for standalone deployments in small to medium businesses and can operate without an application server. The 90-day Entry Edition is new to Interstage Business Process Manager. Lightweight and capable of operating without either an application server or database, this easy-to-used edition lets users model their business processes and execute them, thereby serving as an excellent environment for rapid prototyping and testing. Process applications developed in the Entry Edition can be easily imported to the Advanced Edition or Enterprise Edition.

About Fujitsu Software Corporation

Fujitsu Software Corporation, based in Sunnyvale, California, is part of the Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) family. The wholly owned subsidiary delivers one of the world’s broadest lines of application infrastructure software products, including the Interstage® Suite and NetCOBOL®. Fujitsu Software Corporation leverages Fujitsu’s international scope and expertise in developing and providing information technology solutions, including more than 4,000 software developers worldwide. To learn more about the Interstage Suite, visit www.fujitsu.com/interstage. To learn more about Fujitsu Software Corporation, visit www.fsw.fujitsu.com.

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Copyright 2005 Fujitsu Software Corporation. Fujitsu, the Fujitsu Symbol Mark, and Interstage are registered trademarks of Fujitsu Limited. All Interstage products and components are trademarks of Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu Software Corporation. All other registered trademarks, trade names, or service marks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Fujitsu Software Corporation
Lisa Schiltz
408-746-6247
lisas@us.fujitsu.com

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Lori Riedy
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