We are pleased to announce that IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation version 24.0.0 is available June 28, 2024. The release features the following software components, each introducing numerous new features:

• Business Automation Workflow 24.0.0

• Business Automation Insights 24.0.0

• FileNet Content Manager 5.6.0

• Operational Decision Manager 9.0.0

• Automation Decision Services 24.0.0

New platform capabilities include the following:

Installation Improvements

This release includes the following enhancements to the installation process, aiming to streamline deployments and reduce setup time:

• Separate CP4BA operators and CP4BA production deployments to improve governance

• Faster and simpler production deployments with EnterpriseDB (EDB) Postgres

• Huge pages support

• New operator for Workflow Runtime and Workstream Services

• New operator for Business Automation Insights

Security and Compliance Updates

This release includes the following security & compliance enhancements:

• Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) support

• Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 support for internal and outbound communication

• FIPS-compliant by using a FIPS Wall approach

• Footprint Analyzer - a new Linux-based shell script to get comprehensive insights into the allocation of resources in a OpenShift cluster.

Software Component Enhancements

Business Automation Workflow

The new software release enhances BAW with features such as JSON schema import for business objects, advanced search capabilities in Workplace, server-side validation in Workflow Designer, and improved task and case management. Additionally, it introduces Intelligent Task Prioritization enhancements, new auditing logs in the Process Admin Console, and OAuth 2 support for REST service invocation.

Enhancements available in Business Automation Workflow 24.0.0 include, but are not limited to:

• You can now import JSON schemas to quickly create business objects in your projects

• Work efficiently with tasks, workflows, and cases

• Easily modify multiple process tasks at once in the case task list and in-basket in Case Client.

• Create advanced searches and build complex queries with keywords such as AND, NOT, and OR in Workplace in addition to using basic searches.

• Build process applications and case solutions

• Easily create case pages based on new human service-based solution layouts, or manage classic pages based on widgets.

• New configuration option on the Case Stages view to display stages in a vertical orientation, allowing more flexible layout designs.

• Process Admin Console: Track changes that administrators make across the product with a new auditing log file.

• Intelligent Task Prioritization: The training data for Intelligent Task Prioritization and Workforce Insights in Business Automation Insights is now hosted in OpenSearch

• OAuth 2 client credential flow support for REST service invocation

Automation Decision Services

The new software release enhances ADS with generative AI models for processing unstructured data, supports Business Automation Insights, introduces the ADS cross-platform command-line tool for developing decision services.

Enhancements available in Automation Decision Services 24.0.0 include, but are not limited to:

• Generative AI models are now available in decision services. Using the new models help to process unstructured data and plain text within your decision models and task models.

• Automation Decision Services now supports Business Automation Insights.  

• You can now conduct a completeness analysis on your rule project, which you can use to generate missing rules.

• You can now use the Automation Decision Services command-line tool, which is a cross-platform toolchain for developing, building, and running decision services.

Operational Decision Manager

The new software release enhances ODM with IBM Machine Learning integrations for predictive modeling, and offers a new ruleflow editor in Rule Designer.

Enhancements available in Operational Decision Manager 9.0.0 include, but are not limited to:

• IBM Machine Learning integration: Machine learning extracts key characteristics, patterns, and anomalies from your historical data to create predictive models.

• New ruleflow editor: Bringing improved features to Rule Designer, the new ruleflow editor addresses stability and interface issues in the legacy editor.

• Support for Java 17, Eclipse 4.30, and Java servlet 4.0.1.

Business Automation Insights

The new software release includes support for Automation Decision Services, replaces Elasticsearch with OpenSearch, introduces a Business Automation Navigator emitter, enhances error handling with Kafka integration, and upgrades the Business Performance Center with improved customization, data visualization, and navigation features.

Enhancements available in Business Automation Insights 24.0.0 include, but are not limited to:

• Automation Decision Services are now supported, enabling automated complex decision-making processes

• OpenSearch replaces Elasticsearch, streamlining operations and removing Kibana support.

• A new Business Automation Navigator emitter enhances event integration and data flow within the system.

• Enhanced error handling provides options to continue processing or analyze problematic events by sending them to a dedicated Kafka topic.  

• The Business Performance Center now allows customization of value displays in pie and bar graphs, enhancing data visualization and readability.

FileNet Content Manager

Enhancements available in FileNet Content Manager 5.6.0 include, but are not limited to:

• New FileNet Content Services Deployment API for handling data definitions

• Content and Workflow server trace configuration in the administration console - You can use the Administration Console for Content Platform Engine (ACCE) to configure server logs for both the FileNet Process Engine and the Content Platform Engine.

• Set the location, file size, and the number of trace log files to keep for the Content and Workflow servers

• Enable Content server trace logging for selected subsystem threads that you want to investigate.

• Enable Workflow server trace logging for selected trace options.

Learn More

See the detailed 'What’s New' section of our Product Documentation