VOSibilities

We are pleased to post the latest edition of Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights podcast. This time, Dana and his panel tackle possibly the toughest problem of all: resistance to change. There’s lots of discussion about this with respect to both SOA and the broader concepts of social networking.

A PDF transcript of the podcast is also attached to this post.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #47: Pragmatic Enterprise [54:05m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3148)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #47: Pragmatic Enterprise - transcript: Download (144)

Attached to this post is a news release announcing availability of a new case study describing how ActiveVOS has been used to improve information classification in a government security agency.

 ActiveVOS BPMS Automates Information Sharing for Government Security Agency: Download (234)

Attached to this post is Upside Research’s implementation study of ActiveVOS at a North American government security agency. While the agency is not named for security reasons, the agency’s staff participated in the gathering of data for this report. The report documents the power of BPM to automate and enhance core processes — in this case, classification of information coming into and going out of the agency.

 ActiveVOS government security agency case study: Download (334)

We are pleased to present a recording of a webinar originally delivered on November 19, 2009 entitled Modeling Process Applications with BPMN 2.0. The webinar features Forrester Research Principal Analyst Jeffrey Hammond who delivers a talk called Balancing the Costs and Benefits of Software Modeling.

Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley then demonstrates using a BPMN 2.0 modeler to create executable BPEL processes.

A panel with Jeffrey and Michael follows the presentations.

Attached to this post are three files. An iPod-encoded .m4v file, a Windows Media 9-encoded file and a PDF of the slides that Jeffrey and Michael presented.

 VOSibilities podcast #39: Modeling process applications with BPMN 2.0 [80:03m]: Download (326)
 VOSibilities podcast #39: Modeling process applications with BPMN 2.0 [80:03m]: Download (4350)
 VOSibilities podcast #39: Modeling process applications with BPMN 2.0: Download (286)

In episode #5 of our continuing webinar series on technical topics of interest to developers, architects and business analysts working with SOA-based business process management systems (BPMS), Dr. Michael Rowley, CTO, Active Endpoints compares and contrasts two different styles of message correlation. In episode #4, Michael outlined message correlation as defined by the BPEL standard. In this episode, Michael illustrates a different style of correlation, which relies on the execution engine to correlate incoming messages to specific processes. Michael also describes when and how each style (BPEL-managed vs. engine-managed) can be used and notes some pros and cons for each style.

There are two attached versions of the webinar replay (an iPod-formatted .m4v and a DivX-encoded .avi). As always, you can register for the next episode of CTO Tuesdays at http://www.activevos.com/ctot. We look forward to your comments, suggestions and feedback.

 CTO Tuesdays #5: Engine-managed correlation [30:10m]: Download (325)
 CTO Tuesdays #5: Engine-managed correlation [30:10m]: Download (265)

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we (finally) have replays of episode #4 of CTO Tuesdays, our regular weekly webinar on BPM topics of interest to process designers and developers. The subject of this webinar is message correlation, an interesting topic that details how systems match up running processes and the messages for those running processes.

The bad news is that due to a technical issue, the audio for the host, our own Sonal Rajan, wasn’t recorded. This is shame because at the end of each topic, we always have an open Q&A session on the current topic to amplify the technical discussion. Unfortunately, these replays won’t have that Q&A because there’s no audio for the moderator. However, the actual presentation about message correlation was recorded just fine.

In the two attached versions of the webinar replay (an iPod-formatted .m4v and a DivX-encoded .avi), I have edited most of the silent introduction and the Q&A.

As always, you can register for the next episode of CTO Tuesdays at http://www.activevos.com/ctot.

 CTO Tuesdays #4: Message correlation [35:53m]: Download (367)
 CTO Tuesdays #4: Message correlation [35:53m]: Download (372)

In the latest episode of Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect Analyst Insight series, Dana covers the concept of business commerce clouds. Panelists commenting on this topic include: Tony Baer of Ovum, Brad Shimmin of Current Analysis, Jason Bloomberg of ZapThink and independent IT analysts Sandy Kemsley and JP Morgenthal. Have a listen to this podcast for these experts’ perspectives on SaaS, SOA, BPM, reliability, security and community as related to business commerce clouds.

In addition to the audio file, we have also posted a PDF transcript of the podcast, for your convenience.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcas [50:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1597)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast : Download (156)

This week on CTO Tuesdays Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley presented how events are represented in BPMN 2.0 and BPEL.

I think you will find Michael’s explanation of BPMN 2.0 event notation especially valuable.

I have attached two versions of the recorded webinar to this post. The first is an iPod-formatted .m4v. Also attached to this post is a Windows Media format .wmv file.

We have also made signing up for CTO Tuesdays and accessing the replays much easier. You can always sign up for the upcoming session of CTO Tuesdays at http://www.activevos.com/ctot. Replays are always available at http://www.ctotuesdays.com. And, an RSS feed of the replays is available at http://www.ctotuesdays.com/feed.

 CTO Tuesdays #3: BPMN and BPEL events [43:57m]: Download (389)
 CTO Tuesdays #3: BPMN and BPEL events [43:57m]: Download (4425)

This week’s topic on CTO Tuesdays was an introduction to the new WS-HumanTask standard for workflow. In this informative session, Michael Rowley describes the importance of the new standard for workflow, how it separates tasks from processing and how WS-HumanTask enables human activities to be seen as services in a process application.

Attached to this post are three files. A PDF of the slides Dr. Rowley presented, an iPod-formatted .m4v file (which requires QuickTime or iTunes to be installed) and a more-or-less standard .avi file. The .avi is the larger of the two video files.

Due to a technical error (I didn’t press “show” on GoToMeeting), the first few minutes of the video show Michael’s slides, not the ones I am discussing. Since this is just an introduction, you won’t miss anything. I’ve put those “missing” slides into the .pdf file, so you can follow along if you want to.

We had a very lively panel discussion at the end of the presentation; I hope you’ll have the time to listen to the discussion that follows the presentation.

As always, we are very interested in your feedback, comments and topic suggestions.

One more note: you can always register for the upcoming CTO Tuesdays session by visiting http://www.activevos.com/ctot. We hope you join us for next week’s webinar.

 CTO Tuesdays #2: Introduction to WS-HumanTask [49:03m]: Download (8419)
 CTO Tuesdays #2: Introduction to WS-HumanTask [48:56m]: Download (995)
 CTO Tuesdays #2: Introduction to WS-HumanTask: Download (245)

ActiveVOS and SoftConEx have announced that their products have been combined to deliver a revolution in airline ticketing workflow for distributors, business travel service companies and travel portals. Details are in the press release attached to this post.

 ActiveVOS BPM and SoftConEx Revolutionize Airline Ticketing: Download (259)

We are pleased to present the latest episode of Dana Gardner’s BriefingsDirect Analyst Insight. This time Dana talks with noted industry analyst Dave Linthicum about his new book on SOA and cloud computing.

We hope you enjoy this fascinating interview. Also, in case you’re interested, you can also access a white paper Dave recently wrote on SOA development tools here.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #45: Dave Linthicum's new book on SOA and cloud computing [45:40m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (2079)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #45: Dave Linthicum's new book on SOA and cloud computing: Download (152)

At Gartner’s BPM Summit in October, ebizQ’s Peter Schooff talked with me (Alex Neihaus) and Active Endpoints CTO Michael Rowley about ActiveVOS 7.0 and its new BPMN 2.0 modeler. A link to the podcast is below and it is included in our podcast feed in the iTunes Store.

 

 eBizQ podcast:How BPMS Delivers Value to Today's Business [4:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (126)

We are very pleased to post the recording of the first episode of our new weekly webinar on BPM technology called CTO Tuesdays.

Every Tuesday, Active Endpoints’ CTO Michael Rowley, will present a topic of interest to BPM users. Our inaugural topic was an explanation of the meaning and uses of the BPMN 2.0 diamond symbol. If you are interested in learning BPMN 2.0 — or if you just want to brush up on some of the more advanced considerations in using this basic BPMN symbol — you will find this recording very instructive. Concepts are demonstrated in ActiveVOS 7’s new BPMN 2.0 modeler.

Attached to this post are two versions of the webinar: an iPod-formatted .m4v file our podcast subscribers will automatically receive and an H.264-encoded .avi file (which is much larger at about 113MB).

We welcome your input and suggestions for CTO Tuesdays. Contact us via email at editor at activevos dot com. Today, the best way to be notified of upcoming CTO Tuesdays is to be on our mailing list. And, the best way to get onto our mailing list is to download a trial of ActiveVOS. You can also register for upcoming CTO Tuesdays by clicking on the link in the right hand column of any interior page on www.activevos.com.

We are working hard on making registering for CTO Tuesdays easier. But because of the demand for education on topics like BPMN 2.0, we started the webinar series without waiting to dot all the “i’s” and cross all our “t’s.”

Update: You can now register for CTO Tuesdays by clicking the link in the right-hand column of any page on www.activevos.com except the home page. So, just navigate into the site a little and you’ll get a little reward: easy access to registration for CTO Tuesdays.

Updated update: You can now always register for the upcoming CTO Tuesdays at http://www.activevos.com/ctot.

We hope you enjoy this recording and that you will join us as your schedule permits for the live CTO Tuesdays every Tuesday at noon ET, 9am PT, 16:00 GMT (17:00 GMT after the end of US daylight savings time in November, 2009).

 

 CTOT #1: The BPMN diamond [39:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (4515)
 CTOT #1: The BPMN diamond [39:30m]: Download (7300)

Well, it’s the day after our big push to liberate Oracle SOA Suite 11g users during Oracle “Open”World in San Francisco.

And I am almost at a loss of words to describe our experience and the effect we seemed to have had. But, I gotta try. Here are some semi-random comments.

We are extraordinarily grateful for IDG News reporter Chris Kanaracus’s story, which perfectly captured the reasons we stood on a street corner for two days to make sure people understand that alternatives to high costs and lock-in exist.

Our social media meetup was a great success…and a lot of fun. We shared photos and videos of the event. (Here’s a video of the main reason for the party. ) I kid you not, the coolest people are the people who you befriend first online and then have the pleasure of meeting in the real world.

On Tuesday, October 14, we were hit with a rain storm that dumped a month of rain on San Francisco in about six hours. In spite of the high winds and Biblical downpours, we persisted in our mission of liberation from Oracle SOA Suite 11g.

You can check out videos on our YouTube channel (you have to see…and I mean you really have to see — the video titled “In the rain”), see stills in our Flickr photostream and, for our podcast subscribers, I’ve enclosed a short iPod-formatted video in the RSS feed. There’s also an HD-version of the video, for those that want to “be there” with us. Both are attached to this post.

Finally, you might find Otis Maxwell’s post about our attack on SOA Suite interesting. Otis’s description of how he found our meetup is very interesting. He calls what we did “suitcasing.” I think it’s simpler: we poked Oracle in the eye…and people loved it.

In case you are one of the folks who didn’t get the cards we handed out with the 11 things to consider before using SOA Suite 11g, here’s an image:

As you can imagine, pulling something like this off takes planning and dedication. I want to thank Sonal Rajan and Leslie Minasian, both of Active Endpoints, and Pat Flanders for their hard work and dedication.

 Active Endpoints at Oracle "Open"World 2009 - iPod [6:10m]: Download (711)
 Active Endpoints at Oracle "Open"World 2009 - HD [6:10m]: Download (407)

Today, we are very pleased to announce another customer success story for ActiveVOS. Details are in the press release attached to this post.

This story is of particular note because we are showing ActiveVOS 7 this week at the Gartner BPM Summit. In this morning’s opening keynote, I listened as Janelle Hill and Jim Sinur described the benefits of BPM: speed, flexibility, responsiveness, business-owner-driven change, competitive advantage.

I was all smiles. See, I had the pleasure of interviewing the customer for this press release. As Janelle and Jim  described the possibilities of BPM — how it can fundamentally change businesses — I remembered the interview with TheWatchery.Com and our excitement when they told us that ActiveVOS had allowed them to make millions of dollars overnight because they could change their processes so quickly. I think this story embodies much of what we are hearing about at the BPM Summit.

 TheWatchery.Com makes time using ActiveVOS: Download (320)