Data Modelling update for Activiti BPM
Alfresco Software is adding extensive data modelling features to its flagship Alfresco Activiti 1.5 BPM platform, promising one-click access to any connected database, and the ability to process, or “model,” that data for use in new corporate applications.
Modelling data has become a key component to enabling the integration of data within key business processes. However, accessing important data from external databases and data sources for use in a business process can be complex due to wide variations in database structures.
Alfresco makes integration of BPM with external data a routine process, enabling users to model any database as an object within Alfresco Activiti 1.5. Users can then query the database to retrieve, for example, pertinent information about a customer, patient, client or employee, and the role the individual plays in the business process. What’s more, in changing the data, users can “persist” that data – or write those changes back into the underlying database.
Users can also access Alfresco One’s integral content rule functions to develop automated rules that will manipulate content as part of a business process under specific, stated conditions. For example, a rule can automatically convert a file into a PDF, add customer information (metadata) to the file and then declare the file as a record to help comply with information governance needs.
The flexibility designed into Activiti 1.5 enables process application creators to invoke content management features across the Alfresco platform. And even casual or infrequent users can perform their own data modelling, develop and run their own content-rich business process applications, and automate repeatable business processes.
In addition, Activiti 1.5 integrates rich documentation functionality, enabling users to document the content and flow of business processes – a vital step for ensuring compliance in regulated industries such as government, financial services, healthcare and manufacturing.
Additional enhancements in Activiti 1.5 include:
- Enabling end users to process forms for inline viewing of content attachments
- Empowering groups to better manage team-based tasks and to support group-based escalation
- Extending Activiti’s forms library, analytics and reporting capabilities
- Improving production staging
- Enabling multi-schema support for multi-tenancy
“BPM system developers traditionally target either the professional app developer requiring extensive feature sets and high performance, or the more casual ‘citizen developer’ who favours faster application delivery and ease of use of design tools,” said Paul Hampton, Senior Director, Product Marketing, at Alfresco.
“We refuse to make that compromise. It’s a basic tenet of our design philosophy that an inherently powerful, full-featured but complex application must be made easy to architect by non-professional developers. That’s what we have accomplished with Alfresco Activiti 1.5 – allowing developers of all levels to tap content to enrich existing or new business processes.”