Cloud Pak for Business Automation

We are excited to announce the IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation, version 22.0.2, is available today! The team delivered over 55 enhancements as part of this launch, including the following new bundled product releases:

• Business Automation Workflow (BAW) 22.0.2

• FileNet Content Manager (FNCM) 5.5.10

• Operational Decision Manager (ODM) 8.11.1

• IBM Content Navigator (ICN) 3.0.13

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) 23.0.0

• IBM Process Mining (IPM) 1.13.2

The new Cloud Pak for Business Automation version includes a number of install improvements, in addition to:

• Simplify deployment via 4 step deployment scripts

• Provide prerequisite templates based on customer selected deployment options (ex database scripts, secret templates, etc)

• Property file of reduced CR parameters that will used to create CR for deployment

• Prerequisite validation prior to deployment (ex LDAP check, database check, etc.)

• Azure RedHat OpenShift (ARO) support, with the exception of IBM Process Mining (IPM)

• Improvements to deployments in an Airgap environment (Airgap deployments are those not connected to the internet)

• Computer Associates Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (CA LDAP) support

This update allows for the option to deploy multiple instances in the same cluster, each with its own Common Services layer - with the exception of IBM Enterprise Records (IER).

Updates to the Support Lifecycle

Customer feedback directly impacted recent changes to the IBM long-term serviceability release (LTSR) lifecycle. Effective today, the new LTSR policy is as follows:

• An LTSR release will occur every two years

• The length of support was increased to three years of Full Support*, followed by one year of Extended Support (with an optional, additional year of paid Extended Support) *Refer to addendum

• The Cloud Pak for Business Automation v21.0.3 LTSR is included in this policy change

Read the Business Automation Workflow blog on the support update announcement here. To learn more about the software support lifecycle, or policy definitions, explore the IBM Support Product page.

Business Automation Workflow

• The WfPS authoring environment is now available via containers

• Workflow Process Service (WfPS) enablement for Business Automation Insights (BAI) is available

• New BAW authoring topologies now have a smaller footprint and fewer dependencies

• Richer FileNet Content integration

• Upgrade capability available for Workflow authoring

Operational Decision Manager

• Improvements within the Operational Decision Manager on containers shipment include:

• The management of ODM pod affinity in a multi zone environment

• Support of a horizontal pod autoscaler

• Configuration of a separate data source for Decision Center and Decision Server

• This comes in addition to many improvements and additions to ODM capabilities, in particular in Decision Center with new editors, manual locking of rules and improved snapshot comparison.

FileNet Content Manager

• Navigator and viewing enhancements

• Filter using custom properties in Simple Search

• Faster viewing of linearized PDFs

• Support for watermarks when viewing and printing

• Use External Data Service to update if a search condition is required

• Mobile browser support for iPad

• Bookmark can link to document and folder properties, including access to action menus

• Highlights of Container-related enhancements

• Geographically distributed deployments

• Support of Content Federation Services for Image Services in containers

• Fully automated configuration of LDAP

• Improvements with auto-scaling

Business Automation Application

• The Business Automation Application component highlights include:

• Internet support for external users accessing applications

• An improved experience for HTML/JavaScript edit fields

• The ability to invoke asynchronous automation services from your application

Automation Decision Services

• Automation Decision Services (ADS) adds more transparency when leveraging Machine Learning (ML) in decisions. As an alternative to connecting to remote (black-box) ML models, it’s possible to import transparent RuleSet and ScoreCard models in PMML format and translate them into either business rules or decision tables. Additionally, an interactive wizard is available to define the mapping with business data and automatically translate the rules onto an existing data model.

• In this release, business users can segment their data definitions into multiple sections, and it’s now possible to import data models through several popular formats, such as OpenAPI.

• Diagrams, business rules and decisions tables can be automatically refactored when data models are modified. For example, when the verbalization of a term is changed, all business rules using the former verbalization are updated to reflect the new one.

• For easier iterative development, branches can be created and managed from the main project page.

• It is now possible to use external libraries in development, in addition to fixed versions.

• This version of ADS integrates with more external tools, such as BitBucket, AWS Code Commit, and AWS Document DB.

• The runtime server adds more options to select which version of a decision service to execute.

• ADS now supports Java 11.

• New and enhanced samples and tutorials are provided.

Automation Document Processing

• Improvements in the Automation Document Processing (ADP) data extraction accuracy, performance, and reduced platform size are included in the 22.0.2 update.

• It is also easier to configure and train data extractions in the Designer, as well as export and import projects.

• A Tech preview of the ability to use IBM Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for processing business documents, including noisy and low-quality documents, image and photos is contained in the component.

For more information on What's New in the Cloud Pak for Business Automation 22.0.2 version, visit our release documentation. 

Stay up to date with previous announcements, links available below:

• IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation V22.0.1

• IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation V21.0.3 (December Announcement)

• IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation V21.0.3 (October Announcement)