Q1. What
makes Adeptia BPM Server unique?
Ans1:- Adeptia
BPM Server uniquely combines enterprise and external integration
with
business
process management functionality. It offers an easy and
simple approach to implement complex
business
process integration. Its point-and-click, wizard-driven
interface allow implementation and deployment of business
process flows without needs for any programming. It is a fully
web-based product that does not require any client program
to be installed on the desktop.
Q2. What are
the key components of the Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans2:- Adeptia BPM Server includes the following
components:
Business Process Management
Process Designer: The
Process
Designer provides a graphical environment for design of
business process flows. It allows business users to design
process flows, and IT users to implement those processes with
executable services that represent specific business tasks.
The Process Designer is used to orchestrate business tasks
and thus create process flows. It helps both IT staff and
business users to collaborate for documenting and designing
of business processes.
Process Engine: The Process Engine is a runtime component
that executes the process flows that are defined in the Process
Designer. The Process Engine supports comprehensive
BPM
functionality while offering highly scalable and robust performance.
It supports clustering of multiple nodes of BPM Servers for
load balancing and redundancy. It also includes “transaction-recovery”
capability to automatically restart and recover processes
that were interrupted by any software, hardware or network
failure.
Workflow Manager: BPM
Server provides support for human workflow tasks to be
included in the
automated
process flows. A web-based Task Manager is also provided
for business users to manage these tasks. The workflow tasks
allow business users to upload and download documents as well
as fill-out forms and make decisions. The Task Manager displays
all the tasks waiting for the users so they can view their
work list and take appropriate action. Enterprise and External
Integration
Data Transport: The Data Transport component provides
integration support to receive and send data using a wide
variety of protocols and adapters. This allows the BPM Server
to integrate process flows with any back-office applications
or database as well as with external entities such as customers,
suppliers and partners. The Data Transport component supports
assured, secure and timely delivery of data irrespective of
the data size. A differentiating capability of the Adeptia
BPM Server is its ability to handle not only message-based
communication but also the transport and transformation of
bulk-data.
Data Transformation: This component facilitates creation
and parsing of different data formats and structures or schemas.
It provides a graphical, wizard-driven
data
mapping interface that enables specification of complex
mapping rules in English, without the need for any code. Furthermore,
it enables printing and archiving of these mapping rules directly
into PDF for easy reviews and sign-offs.
Web Services: The Web Services component allows creation
of services that invoke or utilize Web services to perform
specific tasks, and then orchestration of these web services
in the process flows. This component also allows any process
flow created in the BPM Server to be published as a Web service.
Q3. What Options
/ Editions are available for Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans3:-
Please refer
Adeptia
BPM Server license guide.
Q4. Which types
of organizations can benefit from Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans4:- Adeptia BPM has been successfully
deployed in production environments at companies ranging from
$5M to $50B in annual revenue. Generally, any medium to large
sized company that wants to leverage its IT infrastructure
within an e-business scenario and automate business processes
would benefit from Adeptia BPM Server. It is ideal for organizations
that intend to deploy process automation in an incremental
approach by starting with one or two processes and then expanding
deployment of
business
process management gradually over time.
Q5.What are
the business benefits of BPM?
Ans5:-
- Document and formalize business tasks and business rules
- Manage and control key business decisions by specifying
them in the business processes
- Ensure processes are consistent & repetitive, not ad-hoc
- Enforce policies and procedures
- Enable agility while maintaining integrity
- Simplify training for new employees
- Documented and automated business functions and processes
are easy to learn
- Track tasks, monitor performance and optimize execution
==> Directly impact the bottom line -> Increase profitability!!!
Q6. What are
the IT benefits of BPM?
Ans6:-
- Reduce operational costs thru process improvement
- Implement new business solutions faster
- Improve alignment between IT activities and business
- Reduce errors and costs of fixing errors
- Reduce cost of change, simplify maintenance
- Solve business problems faster and cheaper
==> Enable IT to deliver on business strategy -> BPM
creates IT heroes!!!
Q7.
What are Adeptia’s major competitive advantages over
other integration and BPM solutions in the market?
Ans7:- Few products in the market provide
comprehensive functionality as that of Adeptia BPM Server.
Middleware products do not provide BPM functionality and pure-play
BPM
products enable only process management and workflow functionality,
thus require middleware or additional applications to facilitate
integration of diverse systems. Also, Adeptia BPM provides
its full functionality in one product, requiring just one
install, all within one, consistent interface. This is unlike
other products that offer a tool-kit approach that requires
different components to be purchased and installed separately.
Q8. What
types of business processes are best suited for using Adeptia
BPM Server?
Ans8:- Several types of process flows can
be automated by the Adeptia BPM Server. Business processes
with ANY of the following attributes are most appropriate
to be automated and will provide the maximum value to customers:
- Process flow is structured, somewhat constant and repeatable
- Many manual steps and user interventions needed in the process
flow
- Same process flow is executed repeatedly, multiple times
a day or week
- Multiple applications need to be interfaced with for sharing
or sending data
- Data integration with external parties such as suppliers,
customers or partners
- Handling of exception conditions and errors need to be automated
- Business managers need ability to “control”
decisions and ensure consistency in how a process is executed
and decisions made
Q9.Can
you give some example of business processes ideally suited
for automation?
Ans9:- Here is a short list of processes
that are well-suited for business process management:
• Automating partner
integration
processes
o Taking data from one or many partners
o Sending catalog to resellers, e-procurement systems and
marketplaces
• Integrating with hosted apps
• Integrating website (external, hosted) orders with
back-end apps e.g. order integration
• Integrating with industry exchanges
• Automating business critical process flows such as
claims management, loan processing, order management, expense
approval, leave application approval, etc.
• Automate processes that are workflow-heavy to ensure
consistency
• ETL and BI for building data marts and data warehouses
• Regulatory compliance
Q10.
Where can business users make changes and how will these be
reflected in process flow?
Ans10:- Users can influence process flows
at two times:
Design time, when the process is designed and implemented
and at Run time, when the process flow is executed.
- At design time, business users make the changes in the process
template using Process Designer. The changes are reflected
in the process flow itself and they are executed through the
process engine.
- At Run time, business users interact with the running process
flow thru the “Workflow Service”. At that time,
they can view the runtime data and documents regarding the
process being executed and make decisions.
Q11.
What user documentation is available for Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans11:- The user education documentation
includes User Manual, Installation Manual, Evaluation Guide,
Technical
Paper,
Case
Studies and Web Help. Developer Forum is also available
online to read and review comments, suggestions and discussions
among the user community.
Q1.
Which hardware and operating systems Adeptia BPM Server runs
on?
Ans1:- Supported Platforms and System Requirements
Operating Systems:-
Microsoft Windows NT SP 6 and
Windows 2000 SP1
Sun Solaris Operating Environment 7, 8
Databases:-
Oracle 7 & 8i
DB2 6.1 & 7.1
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0,
SQL Server 2000
Microsoft's ODBC connections
Minimum Memory Requirements Memory:-
512MB RAM minimum,
2GB recommended
Storage:-
512MB Hard Disk space minimum,
4GB recommended
Q2.
What platforms does Adeptia BPM Server support?
Ans2:- Adeptia BPM Server runs on Windows
2000 Professional and Server editions, and different flavors
of UNIX .
Q3.
What databases does Adeptia BPM Server support?
Ans3:- Adeptia BPM Server runs on most commercial
relational databases such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle
and DB2. It is shipped with an embedded database (HSQLDB)
for evaluation purposes, however, a commercial data store
is recommended for production environments.
Q1.
Does Adeptia BPM Server support orchestration?
Ans1:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server provides comprehensive
support for orchestration of services that represent specific
business functions or tasks. Adeptia BPM Server supports advanced
orchestration features such as decision nodes, control flows,
data flows, loops, forks and joins and sub-processes.
Q2.
Does Adeptia BPM Server support clustering?
Ans2:- A. Yes. Adeptia
BPM
Software supports clustering of multiple nodes that run
in parallel on separate servers for loading balancing and
failover capability. One node acts as a primary and the others
as secondary nodes. If any secondary node goes down in the
cluster, it is taken out of the "available list" and the process
flow execution jobs are distributed to other nodes in the
cluster. If the primary node goes down, a secondary node is
automatically assigned to be the new primary node, allowing
process execution to proceed smoothly.
Q3.
Does Adeptia BPM Server support load balancing?
Ans3:- Yes. Adeptia BPM Server supports clustering
of nodes and uses a "round-robin" load balancing algorithm.
Q4.
What failover capabilities are provided with Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans4:- Adeptia BPM Server supports a wide
variety of disaster recovery and business continuity options,
e.g. load balancing, server clustering, and/or redundant connectivity
requirements that are unique to each client. "Long-running"
transactions are also supported, meaning that these process
flows can be recovered automatically after a server goes down
and starts back up again.
Q5.
Is Adeptia BPM Server scalable?
Ans5:- A. Yes. From a functionality perspective,
Adeptia BPM Server has open, extensible environment. Custom
transports and application integration components can be easily
configured to access legacy systems. Custom parsers, schemas
can also be developed to handle file formats not supported
in the core product.
From a performance perspective, Adeptia BPM Server supports
clustering to allow for scalability both in terms of processing
large data volumes as well as large number of concurrent transactions.
Q6.
Does Adeptia BPM Server support transactions?
Ans6:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server supports the
concept of transactions using Java Transaction API (JTA).
Users implement this feature by using "JTA Aware" block in
which all activities/tasks are marked to be either successful
or if any activity fails then the others in the JTA Aware
block are rolled-back. Rollback scripts are specified for
each activity in the JTA Block and they are executed when
the function of that activity has to be reversed.
Q7.
Does Adeptia BPM Server have the ability to restart in a coherent
state after a software or hardware failure?
Ans7:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server resumes execution
of process flows through Transaction Recovery feature in the
context of "long-running" transactions.
Q8. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support continuous operations including
support for situations such as failures, routine maintenance,
backups etc.?
Ans8:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server provides continuous
support to make systems operations manageable. The BPM Server
includes load balancing and failover for both connectors and
the process engine. It supports job scheduling. It includes
information on the state of every process instance, the state
of every activity, routers and triggers for each activity
instance, timer within each process instance, values of process
attributes, etc.
Q9. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support centralized monitoring?
Ans9:- Adeptia BPM Server provides
Process
Engine console where all deployed process flows can be
viewed and all currently running processes can be monitored.
This allows a real-time view of the running process flows
and allows the user to "pause", "abort" or "restart" them.
Q10.
How does Adeptia BPM Server support long running business
processes without requiring undue resource consumption?
Ans10:- In Adeptia BPM Server all business
process instances run for an indeterminate time and comprise
of an indeterminate number of activities / nodes. Thus, the
resource consumption depends on the amount of actual work
in progress. The size/complexity of process definitions does
not impact the resource consumption.
Note: When an individual activity is encountered
during execution and needs to be discarded at the time of
its completions, internal memory objects and information in
the persistent state database are created.
Q11.
How does Adeptia BPM Server support the ability to automatically
resume a process after a failure or temporary error has occurred?
Ans11:- While designing process flows, users
may mark certain states in the flow as "sync points". At a
sync point the process engine persists a copy of all runtime
state information in a relational database. If an unexpected
down event occurs, such as hardware or software failure, the
server or a node in a cluster may go down. When that server
and so the BPM Server is restarted, the process engine automatically
checks for process flows that were interrupted and recovers
these transactions from the sync point. The process flow execution
proceeds as if no interruption had occurred.
Q1. Which
technologies are used to build the Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans1:- Adeptia
BPM
Server is built using state-of-the-art technologies and
open standards. It is a fully java-based product that leverages
the J2EE architecture and framework. It utilizes XML, XSLT,
Java (JMX, JDO, JCA, JMS etc.), Swing and Web services. XML
is the core data format used in the integration component
although the product supports a long list of disparate formats
and structures. This product is not based on some older, proprietary
message bus with a new front-end. It has been designed from
the ground up to be a powerful process management and integration
server that resides in contemporary technology environments.
Q2. How
does Adeptia BPM Server facilitate data translation and transformation?
Ans2:- Adeptia BPM Server leverages XML and
XSL to translate incoming messages and data from the applications
into an intermediate format that can be processed by the BPM
Server. This product allows Any-to-Any format conversion,
application of mapping rules and transformation into any target
format. All of this is made possible in a point-and-click,
code-free approach.
Q3. How
do users integrate their existing applications with Adeptia
BPM Server?
Ans3:- Enterprise and external integration
are the key strengths of the BPM Server. Existing application
can be integrated in a couple of ways depending on the needs
of the project and the process flow that is being automated.
(1) Data-level
integration
is usually implemented in case of a scheduled or a batch-mode
interface. This interface is deployed by leveraging direct
access to the data layer of the application either by file
import/export or by accessing the underlying database. For
example, SAP IDOC interfaces (file based) and Siebel Interface
tables (DB).
(2) API-level integration is implemented by either building
or deploying a pre-built application adapter. These adapters
provide real-time connectivity to the application functionality.
This is deployed by using either JMS for message exchange,
JCA for APIs, and Web Services client. For example, SAP BAPI
interface.
Q4. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support SOAP?
Ans4:- Yes. SOAP is the envelope format for
Web Services to provide a reliable messaging protocol for
Adeptia BPM Server Web Services.
Q5. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support Web Services?
Ans5:- Yes. Adeptia BPM Server offers both
the Web Services Consumer or client service as well as ability
to create or publish any process flow as a Web Service.
Q6. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support file attachments?
Ans6:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server has the ability
to handle ASCII and binary files data.
Q7. What
versions of XML and MSXML does Adeptia BPM Server use?
Ans7:- Adeptia BPM Server supports standard
XML documents, which support SAX2, DOM2, XSLT, and XPath.
Q8. What
file formats are supported by Adeptia BPM Server?
Ans8:- Adeptia BPM Server includes parsers
and serializers for XML, XLS, flat files (delimited or positional),
and EDI (ANSI X12 or UN/EDIFACT) documents.
Q9. What
transport mechanisms does Adeptia BPM Server support?
Ans9:- Adeptia BPM Server supports HTTP,
HTTPS, FTP, JMS SMTP, POP3, and file transports like LAN.
Q10.
Does Adeptia BPM Server include application adapters?
Ans10:- Adeptia BPM Server provides JCA interface
which can connect to any JCA compliant adapters for packaged
applications like SAP, PeopleSoft etc.
Q11.
What security does Adeptia BPM Server use?
Ans11:- Adeptia BPM Server follows Java cryptography
architecture. It uses data encryption/decryption algorithms,
digital signature to secure data and send data through secure
mode.
Q12.
How messages are routed based on message content in Adeptia
BPM Server?
Ans12:- Adeptia BPM Server includes process
designer to develop process definitions / flows, and activities
or tasks that are attached to process flows. These activities
can include recursion, routing rules, triggers and timers,
user-defined attributes with concurrence control. Routers
are used to specify the order of the activities that are fired
based on specified conditions containing the value of the
process attributes. Timers include both deadline and elapsed
time.
Q13.
Can users import existing DTD and XSD instances into Adeptia
BPM Server?
Ans13:- A. Yes, the Adeptia BPM Server can
import existing Document Type Definition (DTD) or XSD, providing
users the ability to leverage their existing investments.
The BPM server supports external references inside a DTD and
XSD. The BPM server supports namespaces on elements or element
groups in schema.
Q14.
What is included with Adeptia BPM Server Messaging Services?
Ans14:- Adeptia BPM Server includes Java
Messaging Services (JMS) for receiving incoming documents,
parsing the documents to determine their specific format,
extracting key identifiers and identifying specific processing
rules, delivering documents to their respective destinations.
The BPM Server also includes
data
mapping services, and services to ensure data integrity
and security.
Q15.
Does Adeptia BPM Server store information in a repository?
Ans15:- Adeptia BPM Server follows a store-and-forward
architecture which means that all incoming data messages and
files are stored and can be optionally archived. All information
related to services, activities, process flows, business and
data
mapping
rules are saved in a database along with detailed run-time
information.
Q16.
Can Adeptia BPM Server import and use external XML DTDs and
Schemas?
Ans16:- . Yes, Adeptia BPM Server can import
and use external XML DTDs and
Schemas.
The BPM Server uses XSLT to transform and modify the incoming
XML data. With XSLT, any object model can be utilized to choose
the DTD/Schema rather than enforce any one in particular.
All that is required to interact with a legacy application
is an appropriate two-way adapter to communicate to the applications
API on one side and XML/HTTP or JMS on the other.
Q17. Does
Adeptia BPM Server support RosettaNet?
Ans17:- Yes. RosettaNet solution including
pre-built data formats and process flows can be easily implemented
with Adeptia BPM Server.
Q18.
Does Adeptia BPM Server support ACORD standards?
Ans18:- Yes, Adeptia BPM Server supports
ACORD XML and AL3 Schema for the users in the insurance industry.
Q19.
What audit and error-tracking support exists in Adeptia BPM
Server?
Ans19:- Adeptia BPM server maintains detailed
run-time log information in a database. Logs are provided
that contain complete details, e.g. start and end time-stamp
for each activity in each process flow, number of bytes transferred,
number of records processed, error messages for point of failure
etc. The BPM Server also generates reports to show performance
of processes.
Q20.
Does the tool integrate with (or import from/export to) enterprise
applications like ERP, CRM, SCM, BPM, etc?
Ans20:- Adeptia supports a rich set of Adapters
to exchange data with any application. List of Adapters supported
by Adeptia:
Adapters for Middleware
JMS – Connect to any Message Oriented Middleware like
MQSeries, Fiorano
JDBC – Connect to any Relational database like Oracle,
SQL Server
Adapters for Servers
FTP(S) - Connect to any FTP server
SMTP/POP3 – Connect to any Mail Server
HTTP(S) – Connect to any web server
Adapter for Enterprise application like ERP, CRM, SCM, ECM
etc
iWay, NetManage, Librados - To connect to any enterprise
application like ERP, CRM etc. Note that Adeptia supports
“Java Connecter Architecture “ (JCA) specification
that makes it possible to work with any Adapter that also
uses JCA. This makes the Adeptia vendor independent
webDAV- Connect to content manage application like FileNet
Web Services consumer – To connect to any SOAP based
web service
Data Format (Schema) supported by Adapters
Delimited text, Positional, Relational Database, Excel,
EDI, Accord
Adeptia offers very rich and flexible transport and schema
capabilities that make it easier to develop any adapter
to any application
Q1.
What is a Solution Design Document?
Ans1:- The
Solution
Design Document is a high-level design report that describes
how you may implement a technical solution to your project.
This design is customized to the specific integration and
business
process management related project that you are working
on. This document includes:
-
Business and technical requirements
regarding the project as provided by you
-
High-level design approach
-
Solution design in terms of a
BPM
process flow
-
Data flow diagram describing the technical
solution
-
List of discrete services/activities
that are orchestrated in the flow
-
Best practices guidelines describing
project phases and tasks
-
Effort estimate for the project based
on Adeptia experiences with similar projects
-
Deployment scenario for the solution
in terms of hardware and software needed
This is a FREE offer, available for limited
time only.
Get
started now
View a
sample
solution design document.
Q2.
How does it help me?
Ans2:- This document will help you with
understanding how to approach a
business
integration problem, what your solution may look like
and a roadmap that leads to the complete and successful
implementation of your project.
If you are just getting started with your project, this
document will be a very useful guide in shaping the eventual
solution for your project. It will help you understand
how to gather the requirements, which questions to ask
and what issues to focus on.
If your business integration project is already underway,
this document provides a valuable comparison with the approach,
design and solution that you are currently pursuing. It will
offer ideas on alternative approaches that may accelerate
your project or validate the solution design that has been
developed. This document will not solve your IT problem or
implement a complete solution to your project but it will
provide a high-level solution design and suggest an approach
on how to implement the solution. It will not get you to your
destination but, we hope, it will put you on the path that
takes you to the destination.
Q3. How
does it work?
Ans3:- It is simple really. Step 1: You fill
out the Solution Design Request form and give us as much information
as possible about your project and the business problem that
is being solved. Adeptia guarantees to keep this information
confidential.
Step 2: The information you provide is forward
to senior solution architects at Adeptia. They will review
your project requirements and will design a
business
process management solution that meets your criteria.
They may email you if they need any clarification about the
requirements. Step 3: Within one week, Adeptia will email
you the
Solution
Design Document in the PDF format.
Q4.Who
will benefit from this?
Ans4:- This offer can help both the members
of the IT staff as well as the business users. Developers,
Architects, IT Managers and CIOs may request a Solution Design
for their current and upcoming projects. Business analysts
and managers will also benefit by requesting the Solution
Design Document so they can better understand how the
BPM
approach can automate critical business processes and
lead to higher productivity and competitive advantage.
Q5. How
do I get started?
Ans5:- It is easy to request a solution design.
Please proceed to fill out the Solution Design Request form
. This lists questions that capture the business and technical
requirements for your business process integration project.
Typically, it takes about 20 minutes to complete this form.
