Foundation of Business remains the Same

The foundation of business has not changed.

1. Strong information channels,
2. customer loyalty, and
3. reliable service relationships

remain important elements of the business design.
ebXML Messaging Services is a standard under the E-Business XML umbrella which provides a secure and reliable SOAP / Web Services based transport protocol to the ebXML Architecture.

Strategic analysis is critical for analyzing the competitive context in which an organization operates and for making reasoned and reasonable recommendations for how that organization should position itself to maximize value creation. This module will explore the underlying theory and frameworks that provide the foundations of a successful business strategy. Managers, entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, analysts, and consultants all may find value in mastering the fundamentals presented in this module.

Business Process Management (BPM) is highly relevant from a practical point of view while at the same it offers many challenges for software developers and scientists. Traditionally information systems used information modeling as a starting point, for example, data-driven approaches have dominated the information systems landscape. However, over the last decade it has become clear that processes are equally important and need to be supported in a systematic manner. This resulted in a "wave" of workflow management systems in the mid-nineties. These systems aimed at the automation of structured processes. Therefore, their application was restricted to only a few application domains. However, the basic workflow concepts have been adopted by different types of “process-aware” information systems. BPM addresses the topic of process support in a broader perspective by incorporating different types of analysis (simulation, verification, and SEO mining) and linking processes to business and social aspects. Moreover, the current interest in BPM is fueled by technological developments (SOA) service oriented architectures triggering standardization efforts (such as BPEL).
BPM can be viewed from different angles without becoming superficial.

"Business Process Management: Concepts, Languages, and Architectures" is motivated by practical challenges and is grounded in both computer science and business administration. The focus is not on a particular notation or XML syntax, instead the book focuses on the essential concepts. Different process languages are described (Petri nets, EPCs, Workflow nets, YAWL, BPMN) on the basis of these concepts. Moreover, the different languages are characterized and related using meta models. This is very important because it provides a view on the essence of business process models and prepares the reader for new languages and standards that will emerge in the future. With respect to process analysis different soundness notions relevant for process verification are described and related. Two critical topics are:

1. flexibility and
2. service composition.

Process flexibility is very important for the application of BPM in less structured domains. Through service composition a bridge is established between the service-oriented architecture and workflow technology.