Here's a transcript of our May 21st live chat with BPM experts Bill Lawton and Brian Safron. Read on to learn about IBM Blueworks Live and IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud.
Joshua Whitney Allen: Thank you for registering for the May 21 live chat “Considerations for when to choose IBM Blueworks Live or IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud: A live Q&A with BPM experts Bill Lawton and Brian Safron”.
Bill Lawton: Hello this is Bill.
Brian Safron: Hi this is Brian.
Question:
Joshua Whitney Allen: Good morning. Welcome to today's live chat with Bill Lawton and Brian Safron of IBM. Bill and Brian will be discussing IBM Blueworks Live and IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud. To start I'll ask Bill and Brian to explain their products.
Answer:
Brian Safron: Thanks Josh. Blueworks Live is a SaaS-based collaborative tool for mapping your company's business processes and operational decisions. Teams of business users can use Blueworks Live to discover the processes currently used in their organization and to work together to improve those processes.
Bill Lawton: IBM Business Process Manager (IBM BPM) on Cloud is a comprehensive and consumable business process management cloud service that delivers visibility and management of your business processes in a cloud environment. It includes tooling and runtime for process design and execution along with capabilities for monitoring and optimizing work executed within the platform. It is specifically designed to enable process owners and business users to get started with business process improvement quickly with a ready-to-use cloud-based environment that is hosted in IBM SoftLayer cloud data centers and managed by IBM.
Question:
Joshua Whitney Allen: Does BPM on Cloud have the same capabilities as IBM BPM on-premise?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Yes! BPM on Cloud has the full capabilities of IBM BPM—compatible with BPM Express Standard and Advanced. BPMoC has 100% portable of Process assets with IBM BPM on-premise.
Question:
Juan Abbud: (JPA): Hello we are currently using Blueworks live and are interested in learning more about the IBM BMP solution. Can applications built on the platform read and write from/to multiple systems from a single form/step?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi JPA. Thanks for being a Blueworks Live user. I'll pass your question about BPM on Cloud to Bill.
Bill Lawton: Hi JPA from IBM BPM or BPM on Cloud you can connect to multiple systems from a process step.
Question:
Juan Abbud (JPA): Excellent can I also apply different business rules to the incoming and outgoing information for each of the target applications? Is this something that is within the core functionality of IBM BPM?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi JPA IBM BPM and the cloud version both had business rule capability built in.
Question:
Irina Singh: Sample of operational decision modelling in BWL?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Irina. Yes in addition to process modeling Blueworks Live also does decision modeling. For example business decisions have input and outputs and sub-decisions. Blueworks Live lets you model those according to the DMN (Decision Model and Notation) specification.
Question:
Joshua Whitney Allen: Brian who are the typical users of Blueworks Live?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Josh. Blueworks Live users are often business people and business analysts. Our customers tend to have anywhere from 10 to 500 users who use Blueworks Live as an intuitive business-friendly tool to collaborate on business process mapping.
Question:
John: Does either product have model check-in/checkout capabilities with version control?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi John. Blueworks Live does not need check-in/checkout. As the word "Live" in the name implies all changes are live and all users can see the changes simultaneously. This makes it much easier for users than a check-in/check-out model. We never hear of users having conflicts or problems with this approach.
Juan Abbud (JPA): Hello John as a user of Blueworks Live I concur with John's statement. We have found version control very straightforward and you can also go back to any point in time very easily. We often use the feature to see how processes have changed over time.
Brian Safron: John on your version control question. Blueworks Live allows you to easily manage version control. Also you can roll back to any previous version very easily.
Bill Lawton: Hi John for IBM BPM and BPM on Cloud we do have built-in version control called snapshots. It is flexible for going backwards to any prior version or forward with a simple slider mechanism.
Question:
Javier: Hi Bill to continue with JPA’s question how should the interoperability between BPMoC and external systems like a DB or ECM be managed? In terms of connectivity security etc.?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi Javier Yes! The BPMoC provides a VPN connection for this purpose. There are also other products that can fit into this role - IBM CastIron product can bridge between cloud and on-premise. Each client gets a separate instance of BPM that is completely isolated and very secure behind a series of gateways that require user authentication on any in-bound communication.
Question:
Irina Singh: So - what part of the decision modelling can be exported and reused in our ODM tooling?
Brian Safron: Hi Irina. Do you use IBM ODM?
Irina Singh: Yes.
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Irina. Currently you would reproduce your decision model in ODM which should only take a few minutes.
Question:
Jay: Does each solution offer isolation options to further secure critical/proprietary business process data?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Jay. Blueworks Live offers a Private Cloud option that is hosted on dedicated hardware and software at any SoftLayer data center.
Jay: Great!
Juan Abbud (JPA): At the other end of the spectrum we are also curious to know if BPM can be used as an application platform to build a user centric application that is not predominantly process based.
Bill Lawton: Hi JPA We have a BPM on Cloud Trial let me know if you are interested.
Juan Abbud (JPA): Thanks Bill what are the details/terms of the trial?
Brian Safron: In terms of a Blueworks Live free trial you can get a 30 day free trial at www.blueworkslive.com.
Bill Lawton: Hi JPA or anyone interested in the trial can send a request to Salesbpc@us.ibm.com and request access to the BPM on Cloud Trial. IBM BPM or BPM on Cloud are platforms for building process based applications. User interaction is a key capability that we call coaches.
Question:
Rick Waltermate: Hello does IBM Monitor work with either Blueworks or IBM BPM?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi Rick. Yes IBM Business Monitor does work with IBM BPM and BPMoC.
Brian Safron: Hi Rick. Since Blueworks Live is a primarily a design tool it would not have a need to integrate with Business Monitor.
Question:
John: Is standard BPMN notation being used for all the modeling in these tools? What versions of the BPMN standard are supported?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi John. Yes both of these products use BPMN 2.0.
Question:
Jay: Do these tools support BPEL?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi Jay - Yes BPEL and BPMN is supported in the IBM BPM and BPMoC.
Question:
Jay: Blueworks as well?
Brian Safron: Hi Jay. Blueworks Live does not support BPEL since BPEL is focused more on integration and Blueworks Live is focused on modeling.
Question:
Javier: Thanks Bill. Related to the available VPN connection should there be an IBM VPN client installed at each external system? Or have we another options for this like Cisco AT&T etc.?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi Javier on the VPN we leverage the SoftLayer VPN service via IPSEC connection. You can find more information about it here knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/faqs/200.
Question:
Juan Abbud (JPA): On BPEL does IBM BPM work well with it? We are running an Oracle DB and use BPEL for system integrations.
Answer:
Bill Lawton: JPA IBM BPM has supported BPEL very well for many releases. BPM can connect to Oracle or other DB yes.
Question:
Joshua Whitney Allen: Again great questions. Brian what do customers see as the main benefits of Blueworks Live?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Josh. First Blueworks Live is easy and intuitive to use. That's why we encourage people to sign up for the free trial so they can experience it for themselves. Second Blueworks Live provides a single source of the truth for all process models. Since it has a central repository there is no such thing as file check-in/checkout or old versions of files being out of date.
Question:
John: Is there a shared repository within these tools for elements such as applications roles and data elements?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Blueworks Live uses a shared repository for everything. Not only are all the process and decision models in their central repository but all the supporting details (the metadata). Those details would include information about roles time cost risk problem areas etc.
Bill Lawton: Hi John. On the repository yes IBM BPM BPMoC both have a repository that is the basis for the version control and you can manage process application assets. For more information see http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/dmndhelp/v8r5m0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.wbpm.main.doc%2Fic-homepage-bpm.html.
Bill Lawton: Hi John Check out this blog post as well. https://www-304.ibm.com/connections/blogs/aim/entry/why_should_you_build_your_business_processes_in_the_cloud?lang=en_us
Question:
Joshua Whitney Allen: Hey Brian you listed ease of use as a key benefit of BW Live. What are some examples of that simplicity?
Answer:
Brian Safron: Hi Josh. Blueworks Live automatically generates process diagrams (and decision diagrams). The layout is automatic and fast which lets business people focus on their real work (the hard job of modeling their company's business processes) rather than fighting a tool. In general Blueworks Live makes process modeling simple and intuitive. Training is generally not required. All work is automatically saved and backed up every few minutes by the tool and it is very easy to roll back to any version in case you make a mistake or need to revert to earlier work.
Question:
Rick Waltermate: Hi Bill - What would the benefits of using IBM BPM vs BMPoC?
Answer:
Bill Lawton: Hi Rick - IBM BPM is on premise. BPMoC is the same product provides as a fully managed cloud service. Some reasons for why you might want cloud: get access to a full BPM environment in less than 48 hours; you don't have skills or hardware to install BPM and run it; you want a subscription model.
Rick Waltermate: Thank you Bill.
Brian Safron: Bruce Silver a noted analyst in the BPM space recently wrote a great paper on Blueworks Live that I would encourage everybody to read. Here's the link (sorry the link is long): http://www-01.ibm.com/common/ssi/cgi-bin/ssialias?subtype=WH&infotype=SA&appname=SWGE_WS_BU_USEN&htmlfid=WSW14224USEN&attachment=WSW14224USEN.PDF
Joshua Whitney Allen: Thanks everyone for a lively discussion! Thanks to Brian and Bill for their insights. We'll post the transcript of this chat to the GWC. Thanks again!