Business Process Framework Vendor-Agnostic Integration
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Solution Overview
Problem
Business process management systems across different vendors are not compatible, leading to inconsistencies and inefficiencies in managing business processes across various business units, as they use proprietary software, different architectures, and incompatible notations, necessitating a vendor-agnostic solution for consistent operation and management.
Innovation Solution
A business process framework (BPF) provides a vendor-agnostic interface for designing, deploying, and monitoring business processes using a common user interface, communicating with various BPM systems through a wrapper that translates models into compatible formats and generates standardized representations in BPMN and XPDL, allowing consistent management across different BPM systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If proprietary BPM software from different vendors is used, then each vendor can provide specialized functionality, but compatibility and consistency across business units deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal BPM framework that can interface with multiple vendor-specific BPM systems through standardized adapters. The framework provides common process definition, execution, and monitoring capabilities that work consistently across different vendors' systems, eliminating the need for separate proprietary solutions while maintaining the ability to integrate specialized functionalities through standardized interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary framework layer that sits between business units and various vendor BPM systems. This framework translates vendor-specific proprietary formats into a standardized internal representation, enabling consistent process management across different vendors while allowing each vendor system to maintain its specialized capabilities through adapter components.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple vendor-specific BPM systems are deployed, then specialized features are available, but system complexity and integration difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the BPM system into distinct modular components: a core framework layer providing standardized process management, vendor-specific adapter layers handling proprietary functionalities, and business unit application layers. This segmentation allows each component to be developed and maintained independently, reducing overall system complexity while preserving specialized features through clearly defined interfaces.
Solution Approach 2:
The framework implements universal interfaces and standardized data models that work across all vendor systems, eliminating the need for complex point-to-point integrations. The multi-functional adapter architecture allows a single framework instance to support multiple vendors through pluggable adapters, significantly reducing integration complexity compared to dedicated proprietary solutions.
3Ease of manufacture
If proprietary notations and formats are used by each vendor, then vendor-specific modeling capabilities are optimized, but interoperability and standardization deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements an intermediary translation layer that converts vendor-specific proprietary notations and formats into a standardized internal process model representation. This mediator enables seamless interoperability between different vendors' modeling capabilities while maintaining the ability to leverage each vendor's specialized modeling features through adapter transformations.
Solution Approach 2:
The framework dynamically changes the representation parameters of process models based on the target vendor system. When a process model is created or exchanged, the framework automatically transforms the model's notation, format, and structural parameters to match the requirements of the target vendor system, enabling seamless interoperability without sacrificing vendor-specific modeling capabilities.
Data Source
AI summary
A business process framework (BPF) may be used to provide a vendor agnostic interface to allow one or more business users to design, deploy, test and/or monitor an operation of one or more business processes using a common user interface. The BPF may allow a user access to a business process management (BPM) system using a common interface, regardless of a vendor or version of BPM system being used by a business organization. The BPF may include a business process modeling interface allowing the business user to model, via the common user interface, regardless of the version or vendor of the BPM system product being used. The BPF may also include an execution interface capable of communicating with an execution engine included in different BRMS products. The execution interface may include a translator to translate a business model into a format compatible with each of a plurality of execution engines.