Intalio Releases Open Source Workflow Framework

Tempo Project Offers Support for BPEL4People Workflow Model

WebKnowHow
Thursday, November 30, 2006; 06:35 AM

Intalio, Inc., The Open Source BPMS Company, today announced the release of the Tempo workflow framework under the Eclipse Public License. The project is hosted on Intalio.org.

"While BPEL is a very efficient process execution language, it does not provide any semantics for human workflow," said Ismael Ghalimi, founder and CEO of Intalio. "This need has been addressed by the BPEL4People paper jointly drafted by IBM and SAP, and today's release of the Tempo project marks the first Open Source implementation of this emerging standard."

"Real business processes include human tasks, but they were somehow left out of the BPEL specification," said Bruce Silver of BPMS Watch. "IBM and SAP outlined a standard way for BPEL to embrace human workflow, called BPEL4People, but to my knowledge Tempo is the first implementation of that proposal. To make that part of an Open Source BPM framework is pretty amazing."

Intalio's implementation of the BPEL4People model is made without any extensions of modifications to the standard BPEL 2.0 specification. Instead, ad-hoc task management services are deployed on top of the J2EE platform and are made available as Web services through WSDL interfaces, while using standard BPEL processes for advanced workflow patterns such as multi-channel notifications and alert escalations.

"The release of Tempo under an Open Source license further demonstrates Intalio's industry leadership and commitment to making BPM 2.0 a reality," said Vernon Stinebaker, everse corporation. "Tempo promotes the adoption of open standards, using XForms to implement the BPEL4People model. Tempo raises the bar on what organizations should expect from a human interaction workflow component, and simultaneously eliminates cost as a barrier to adoption. I strongly encourage all interested parties to download, evaluate, and collaborate on enhancements to this significant contribution to the BPM and Open Source communities."

The release of Tempo under an Open Source license follows the donation of Intalio's BPMN modeler to the Eclipse Foundation and Intalio's BPEL engine to the Apache Software Foundation, both made earlier this year. All three components form the foundation for Intalio|BPMS, the first BPM solution to support a Zero-Code development model.

"Last year, we started a major renovation project for our product platform, and selected Intalio's Zero-Code BPM platform as underlying infrastructure for it," said Alessandro Fredianelli, ITAL TBS Group. "We adopted a step-by-step substitution process in order to integrate the new solution with pieces of the old one still alive. Support for Open Source and open standard have been critical in helping us complete the migration within a short timeframe, while supporting complex and dynamic integrations points. Tempo, Intalio's Open Source workflow framework, played a key role in making this project a success."

The Tempo Project is available at http://www.intalio.org/