VOSibilities

In our latest podcast, I sat down for a quick chat with Active Endpoints’ CEO Mark Taber to recap our recent attendance at Gartner’s BPM Summit and the company’s approach to the BPMS marketplace. Mark detailed the reasons for the success ActiveVOS BPM had in Q1, despite these challenging economic times. Note to competitors (yes, we know you’re listening (-: ): you will squirm more than a little as Mark details how customers are able to get into production with ActiveVOS BPM with only modest levels of professional services billings.

And a special treat: I got Mark to spill the beans about some of the future plans for ActiveVOS. A must-listen podcast for anyone interested in using BPM to improve their business results.

 

 VOSibilities podcast #29: CEO Mark Taber on Gartner BPM Summit, the BPMS market and ActiveVOS in Q1 [14:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (202)

We are pleased to present the latest BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights podcast with Dana Gardner and a distinguished panel of industry analysts who offer their suggestions to help IT reduce costs during the economic downturn we are experiencing today.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #38: Cutting IT Costs [49:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (330)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #38: Cutting IT Costs (transcript): Download (83)

In this new white paper, titled Leveraging Process Configuration within the Context of SOA, noted industry analyst, blogger and podcaster David Linthicum tackles perceptions that developing BPM applications in a services-oriented architecture (SOA) environment has to be difficult and expensive.  

 Leveraging Process Configuration within the Context of SOA: Download (346)

Today, we are very pleased and excited to announce ActiveVOS 6.1. The press release with all the details is attached to this post.

To view selected content about the release, visit our What’s New page on our product website. And, don’t forget to listen to Michael Rowley and Luc Clément discuss the themes and objectives for ActiveVOS 6.1 in this podcast.

 Active Endpoints Announces ActiveVOS 6.1: Download (177)

It’s my great pleasure to post a conversation with my colleagues here at Active Endpoints, Michael Rowley, director of technology and strategy and Luc Clément, senior director of products in which they discuss the themes and features in our new release, ActiveVOS 6.1.

Michael and Luc detail how ActiveVOS 6.1 has masked the complexity of BPEL, allowing developers to work more naturally to create advanced SOA-based BPM applications. Luc and Michael also discuss the capabilities of a new feature in ActiveVOS 6.1 called “process rewind” which permits new levels of control over running processes.

And, Michael and Luc give a sneak peak at what’s next for ActiveVOS 6.1, discussing how a BPMN-style canvas can improve collaboration in the development of BPM applications. You may also find the the What’s New in ActiveVOS 6.1 document we posted earlier this week on the blog informative as well.

Whether you are a current user of ActiveVOS or you are evaluating BPM systems, I hope you will find this podcast an informative update. As I am posting this podcast before ActiveVOS 6.1 is officially released, I do not yet have direct links to the new content on our website. But if you visit our home page starting March 10, 2009, you will be able to quickly find updated samples, documentation, demonstrations and, of course, a free trial of ActiveVOS 6.1.

 

 VOSibilities podcast #28: ActiveVOS 6.1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (240)

Active Endpoints’ own Michael Rowley joins Dana Gardner’s analyst round table for an update on the BPEL4People standard and the results of the recent activities that are guiding the development of this standard.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #37: BPEL4People: Human Tasks in Business Process Applications [47:20m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (438)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #37: BPEL4People: Human Tasks in Business Process Applications - transcript: Download (115)

Unlike other companies that want to keep everything a big secret until they ship a release, we can’t wait for you to discover the cool new things we’re shipping in the latest release of our BPM product, ActiveVOS.

We plan to have ActiveVOS 6.1 available on March 10, 2009. But for BPM developers and business analysts longing for a simpler, more intelligent, easier-to-use BPM system, there’s no need to keep our new release secret. ActiveVOS 6.1 is precisely what you have been waiting for. And, if the vicissitudes of QA testing cooperate, you can have it next week.

The PDF attached to this post, authored by our Director of Products, Luc Clément and our Director of Strategy and Technology, Michael Rowley, is a great overview of what’s in ActiveVOS 6.1.

Check out the very sophisticated control of in-flight processes via our new “process rewind” capability in ActiveVOS 6.1. And, for those of you who a) know that BPEL is the core language for SOA and b) have thought BPEL is too complex, be sure to read up on how ActiveVOS 6.1 automatically generate BPEL assigns and the WSDL’s necessary to create compelling BPM applications.

 What's New in ActiveVOS 6.1: Download (638)

Today, Active Endpoints announced that well-known government and industry SOA consultant Seros has made ActiveVOS the centerpiece of its offerings. Read the details in the press release attached to this post.

 Active Endpoints Announces Partnership with Seros: Download (226)

Last week, Active Endpoints’ Michael Rowley participated in the quarterly face-to-face meeting of the OASIS Technical Committee working on the BPEL4People and WS-Human Task specifications. In this very engaging podcast, Rowley describes the inner workings of TC’s (something you usually don’t hear much about), describes the work the TC has recently accomplished and articulates the grand vision for business process management (BPM) and workflow that the committee has been working  on.

If you’ve been wondering about the state of standards-based BPM and workflow systems or, frankly, if you think BPEL and BPEL4People have dropped out of sight, I strongly encourage you to listen to this podcast. You’ll hear how some the of most important thought-leaders in the IT world, including IBM, SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, TIBCO and, of course, Active Endpoints, are working towards a BPM world in which standardized systems make it possible to implement business processes in ways we haven’t been able to reach as yet.

We hope you enjoy this look at BPM today and in the future.

 

 VOSibilities podcast #27 An Update on the BPEL4People Standard [24:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (289)

Ann Thomas Manes, vice president and research director for application platform strategies at Burton Group, has created quite a stir in her recent post where she says that although the term “SOA” is dead, the requirement for service-oriented architecture is stronger than ever. In this lively podcast, Dana Gardner interviews a panel of industry luminaries to help calibrate the life span of SOA and to expand on Ms. Manes’ position on SOA being under significant pressure, in particular due to today’s abysmal economic climate. Panelists include: Anne Thomas Manes; Tony Baer, senior analyst at Ovum; Jim Kobielus, senior analyst at Forrester Research; Joe McKendrick, independent analyst and prolific blogger on ZDNet and ebizQ; Dave Linthicum, founder of Linthicum Group and; JP Morgenthal, senior analyst at Burton Group.

Have a listen to this podcast and determine for yourself whether SOA is dead or alive. Whichever camp you belong to, we hope you’ll agree that ActiveVOS is truly an affordable, 100% standards-based, all-in-one BPMS that delivers “architecturally correct” SOA-based applications easily and quickly, empowering you to achieve your services goals today.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #36: SOA - dead or alive? [58:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (234)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #36: SOA - dead or alive? (transcript): Download (145)

We are pleased to offer a recording of a webinar we delivered on January 21, 2009 in which we detailed some of the functionality included in a business process management (BPM) application that we have made available for Java developers as a learning tool. Written in ActiveVOS, the “Vintage Old Stock” application (get it….? The “VOS” BPM application?? (-: ) is available for developers who want to learn how to create BPM applications easily, afford ably and which are architecturally “correct” without additional effort.

We hope you enjoy the recordings and that you will take advantage of the fully-configured, supported trial version of ActiveVOS which includes the application for both learning and for use in your BPM applications. Many, many different techniques are demonstrated in this application, which we think makes it an excellent way to begin creating your own business process management applications.

There are many learning materials associated with the demo. This announcement gives you the best route through all off this exciting information and code. But, if you can’t wait to start, you begin with the customized ActiveVOS trial download.

There are two files enclosed in this post. The first, an iPod-formatted .m4v, which will be automatically provided to iTunes subscribers of our podcast feed, is about 144MB. The second, a DivX-encoded .avi, is about 476MB in size.

 

 VOSibilities podcast #26: Lifting the Hood on a BPM Application: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (628)
 VOSibilities podcast #26: Lifting the Hood on a BPM Application: Download (120)

Today, Active Endpoints announced that UK-based commodities trader Trafigura, Ltd. has implemented a BPM application written in ActiveVOS for its risk assessment function. This application was written by Brown Study, Ltd., an Active Endpoints partner.

The press release and accompanying white paper are attachments to this post.

 Commodities Trader Trafigura, Ltd. Redesigns Core Systems with ActiveVOS: Download (268)
 Brown Study White Paper: Download (157)

Today, Active Endpoints announced details of ActiveVOS’s success in 2008. More information is in the press release attached to this post.

 Active Endpoints Reports Record Growth in 2008: Download (348)

Today, we are announcing via press release the Vintage Old Stock demonstration application for Java developers who are interested in seeing how an SOA-based application is designed, built and deployed.

Details are in the press release attached below as well as in Luc’s previous pre-holiday post about the demo. Included in the press release are instructions on how you can download a customized version of the ActiveVOS demo to experiment with the application on your own machine.

 Active Endpoints Announces New Learning Tool for Java Developers: Download (340)

In this final podcast of the year, Dana Gardner interviews key analysts for their 2009 predictions for enterprise IT, SOA, cloud and business intelligence. The panel also discusses the economy and the Obama administration’s impact on IT.

 

 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #35: 2009 predictions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (246)
 BriefingsDirect Analyst Insights Podcast #35: 2009 predictions (transcript): Download (157)