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Force.com + Visual Process Manager = Vanilla Layer Cake Theory

Salesforce.com just added a powerful new tool to its Force.com development platform, a Visual Process Manager:

“The Visual Process Manager brings the power of Cloud Computing to Business Process Apps. Now you can visually draw any business process and instantly deploy it in the cloud with no code, no software and no infrastructure.  The Visual Process Manager helps companies easily automate specific business process like call center scripting, sales quotes, and new employee on boarding.” 

According to a post on TechCrunch:

“The technology powering the Visual Process Manager is based on technology acquired from Informavores, call scripting startup Salesforce bought last year.

The Manager has several different components. The Process Designer essentially helps businesses sketch out applications with established set forms, questions, and choices, and logic components, like task assignments, decision trees, and approval processes. These components can be dragged and dropped into a visual process design diagram/ The Process Wizard Builder enables companies to design a “wizard” to help walk end-users, step-by-step, through their business process. The Process Simulator lets customers test out and review processes before they are deployed. And lastly, the real-time process engine will run all of a company’s sophisticated processes and provides realtime scalability.”

The Visual Process Manager introduction gets a bit deeper on functionality.  [emphasis is mine]:

“Using our cloud-based workflow software solution, you can specify the retrieval, creation, update, or deletion of any object in a salesforce.com application or any Force.com object (including custom objects). You can also call any Force.com API. In practice, this functionality means that sales and service agents can work with simple, easy-to-follow scripts—while underneath, embedded business rules and salesforce.com data drive what the agent sees and automatically update CRM records. These are textbook examples of successful workflow software applications.

After you’ve optimized a specific process using the Visual Process Manager workflow software tool and the process is running inside your salesforce.com application, operations become much more efficient. The newly automated workflow carries out all the administration work behind the scenes. It may control the interaction of an agent in a call center or a customer on a Web site, as it silently interacts with other systems, processes, and Web services to deliver the required actions.

Because our workflow software tool is designed with integration in mind, you can link to databases, dialers, and IVRs; initiate workflows; control exceptional events or surge conditions; and handle the “stop and save” process required to manage escalations and call transfers. All in all, our workflow software frees sales reps and support agents from administrative grunt work, quickly giving them the situation-specific information they need for effective selling and top-notch customer service.”

As I read about Visual Process Manager, I was reminded of my Vanilla Layer Cake Theory paper from 2005. 

“There are classic rules of thumb used in buy/build decisions. Buy in situations of parity. Build for competitive advantage/differentiation. In a buy scenario, you willingly cede control of the end product (functionality, architecture, technology) for the promise of a lower price tag, ease of implementation, and quicker time to market. For success, you must actually cede that control—in other words, no modifications. But, that’s not always realistic. So, how can you reap the advantages of a buy, while providing a solution that actually fits your business (modifications and extensions), without getting trapped? Think Vanilla Layer Cake.”

An excerpt published on elemental links, November 2005:

“The vanilla layer cake theory is simple. Do vanilla (out-of-the-box) installations of all new application packages. Then, customize and extend the application functionality using abstraction layers, rather than in the application package itself.

[Click on picture to enlarge]

 

In essence, the application package installation performs the role of a provider in a service-oriented architecture. In some ways, the application package is more valuable for its building blocks, than how the vendor assembled it.

The abstraction layers implement your business architecture, in the form of an enterprise information model, business services, business scenario composition (process, events, service orchestration), and user interaction (portal, user interface, unified in-box).”

Of course in the SaaS world of Salesforce and Force.com, you can skip the “Do vanilla (out-of-the-box) installations of all new application packages” step, and proceed right to “customize and extend the application functionality using abstraction layers”.  Now, that’s intriguing… 

For those with a sense of nostalgia, you can read the entire Vanilla Layer Cake Theory on ebizQ.  Otherwise, dig in at Salesforce.com.

 

[Cross-posted from Elemental Cloud Computing].

Believe it or not, this is an actual customer service response to 'where is my order' inquiry

My first reaction to a snippet of this customer service response that was forwarded to me was "that's a joke, right?".  Sadly, it's not.  I then received the entire email chain between the customer and this customer service representative.  My favorite part is the caveat on using the proffered store credit.

Though an apology cannot compensate for your disappointment in our company, we do wish to say how very sorry we are that your experiences were so negative; from ordering, to your interaction with our customer service staff. Although our staff is well trained (though this particular agent was quite new) to represent our company, there are circumstances beyond even their expertise. Namely, our web commerce system which takes orders, but does not accurately determine inventory, nor does it correctly and efficiently notify our customers of out of stock or sold out items. Unfortunately, the customer service representatives are not aware of this unless a customer inquires about the delayed shipment of their orders; in turn, leaving them unable to give a satisfactory reason as to why this occurred.

However, I have forwarded your email to [redacted] to be used as a prime example of the effect that this particular defect in our web commerce system is having upon [redacted] valued customers and the staff who serve them, and we should see major improvements over the next few days. I also spoke with [redacted] regarding this matter, and she would like to offer you a $20 in-store credit to be used towards future merchandise if you so choose. It will be credited to your account immediately; however, it can only be accessed by phone order due to the web system being unable to determine available credit.

We sincerely hope that you find our response to your message satisfactory, for you are considered a highly valued customer of [redacted].

It was sent to me as 'a potential lead', but I'm taking a big time pass on this one.

LogicBlaze Releases FUSE 1.2 - Focus on Accessibility

Yesterday, LogicBlaze announced the availability of FUSE 1.2 and a related technology partnership with eCube Systems.  FUSE, as I’ve written about previously, is an open source SOA platform, designed to serve three (interconnected) areas: high volume integration, service-oriented solutions and web 2.0. 

Over the last four months, since the initial FUSE release, LogicBlaze has made good progress on both the product and business fronts, to make FUSE, and the idea of an open source SOA platform, more accessible to the enterprise. 

On the product front, there are both new features and changes to the FUSE code build.  The new features (from the press release):

Improved Security:

-- Single sign-on is now delivered through the Java Authentication and Authorization Service;

-- Support for the WS-Security standard in the Apache ServiceMix enterprise service bus.

Improved Ease-of-Use:

-- Eclipse-based tooling for Apache ServiceMix and FUSE 1.2 provides end-users with a convenient, GUI-based solution to deploy and configure FUSE 1.2 components;

-- Integrated support for Apache Maven enables developers to package and deploy services, assemblies and components, and manage dependencies among components.

Business Information Portal:

-- LogicBlaze FUSE 1.2 now incorporates the LifeRay portal, providing end-users with a graphical interface for real-time visibility into business processes and information.

Of the new features, I think the tooling is critical for enterprise evaluation and adoption.  While I applaud the LogicBlaze team for initially focusing on delivering a solid execution engine, the requisite XML hacking had to go.  The tooling will undergo continuous development, FUSE 2.0 (October) will include BPEL designers and process flow designers.  Beyond tooling improvements, next items on the FUSE roadmap are improvements for high availability (clustering at the message layer) and continuous availability (restart automations). 

Rob Davies, LogicBlaze’s VP of Product Development, shared that he is very excited about the changes to the code build in FUSE 1.2.  In previous releases, FUSE used the defined releases from Apache for ServiceMix, ActiveMQ, etc.  This meant FUSE was dependent on the Apache community schedule, for new features, as well as bug fixes.  In FUSE 1.2, LogicBlaze is doing its own code builds, based on the Apache software, and as appropriate adding some extensions.  This change gives customers the best of both worlds.  The talent of the Apache community, combined with vendor responsiveness and predictable packaging.

For those (like me) that prefer pictures, here is an Illustration of FUSE 1.2.  I outlined the additions from the prior version in red.

[click on picture to enlarge]

On the business front, there are compelling (think innovation and cost savings) customer stories, customer success oriented services (CoRE network and quickstart training), and early partner agreements. 

Customers: LogicBlaze has customers solving SOA, integration and/or Web 2.0 problems for a variety of industries (finance, telecommunications, defense, utility, SaaS).  For some details, listen to the ebizQ podcast of Gian Trotta interviewing Rob Davies. 

Partners: One of the features of FUSE’s JBI architecture is the ability to embed it into other applications.  I asked the LogicBlaze team if any (application or infrastructure) vendors were currently doing this.  Because we all know, a first step to wider enterprise adoption is getting the product in the door, in one form or another.

This question connected me with Peter Marquez of eCube Systems.  eCube specializes in ‘technologies that are old and hard to deal with’, offering consulting and software solutions to extend the ROI of legacy technology. 

eCube will be embedding FUSE 1.2 into the next version of its NXTware Evolution Server.  This allows eCube to focus on its core technology solution (legacy side), yet have visibility into, and contribution input to, the technology for the modernization side.  Peter’s response to my “Why FUSE?” was the modularity (pick and choose components to deploy) and supporting community.  When I asked how the eCube team was doing learning JBI, he indicated they were just starting now.  Their first project was building an adapter, which didn’t require any JBI knowledge.

As an aside, for anyone living with legacy Unix applications (TCP/IP or RPC) that wants to move to virtualization, eCube will be making an announcement in the next few weeks of a software solution to this problem.  If that’s something of interest, keep an eye on eCube’s news.

So, enough talk.  If the latest, more accessible, version of FUSE sounds intriguing, go check it out.  Download FUSE here.  After you try it, let me know what you think.

Global Integration Summit, Boston May 22-24

Next week I’ll be attending the Global Integration Summit in Boston, Monday May 22 – Wed May 24. My attendance is centered on Tuesday’s Integration Solution Showcase – I’m on the review panel.

The solution showcase pits SOA/integration vendors against each other to solve a live integration problem in a fixed time frame. Getting to “the answer” is only part of the criteria. Each participant must also share “the how” and then “sell their solution” to the conference participants, and the review panel.

Here’s the Problem Description taken from the GIS site:

The purpose of the Showcase this year will focus on the challenge of integrating standards-based web services and using orchestration to provide business flexibility. We will be solving a problem for Anybank who is in the business of underwriting home mortgages. Our challenge will include:

•  Parsing and interpreting standards based Web Services
•  Discovering and utilizing a vendor's Web Service
• Choreographing Web Services to enable rapid business change

The challenge will be to create an orchestrated application that implements a part of the business process of processing a mortgage application. You should be able to automate the following process steps.:

1. Start.

2. Receive a mortgage application via a Web service.

3. Interface with an external agency to verify data on the application via a Web service.

4. Run an internal Web service to determine a proposed interest rate.

5. Update the Mortgage via a Web service.

6. End.

7. The real challenge begins after demonstrating your basic composite application when you will demonstrate how you would change the application to modify step 4 to call the original or a new Web service (with similar content but different data representation) based upon data values verified in Step 3.

In addition to the Showcase, I intend to take-in some conference sessions on Monday afternoon and Wednesday. Topping my list is Annie Shum’s Wednesday afternoon session Leveraging city planning and other social metaphors to guide SOA - Why Meta Matters.

If you are attending the GIS and want to connect, comment here or send me an email: bda at elementallinks dot com.

If you are a vendor participating in the Solution Showcase, I’ll be happy to meet with you on Wednesday - after the votes are in!

I intend to blog from the GIS, and will definitely be writing about it for the  PSG Service.

LogicBlaze FUSE - Open Source SOA Platform

LogicBlaze, the company behind the (now Apache incubating) ServiceMix ESB and ActiveMQ messaging solution recently announced the availability of FUSE - an Open Source SOA Platform.  FUSE is centered on ServiceMix (which I posted on here), aggregating components from several open source projects:

   

       
• Apache Incubator’s ServiceMix ESB, providing the fundamental runtime fabric for SOA processes, and the point of integration SOA components.
       
• Apache Incubator’s ActiveMQ messaging system, for guaranteed reliable and high performance messaging, and connectivity to existing MOM solutions.
       
• Apache Derby database, for message persistence in ServiceMix and ActiveMQ.
       
• Apache jUDDI Directory Server, for service registry and lookup, enabling composite Web services.
       
• Apache Incubator’s Ode Orchestration engine, for orchestration of composite services through BPEL-defined processes.
       
• Jetty HTTP Server, for scalable Web 2.0 applications built on Ajax (Asynchronous Javascript and XML), with complete integration into the SOA framework.
   

For those that prefer pictures, click on the Illustration to see Logic Blaze's depiction of FUSE:

FUSE is intriguing for several reasons:

   
• In FUSE, the ESB (ServiceMix) is migrating to its more natural role as the backbone for a SOA Platform and enterprise integration.  The ESB is critical, but not omnipotent.  This aligns with my ESB view.  FUSE might be the first, but not the only, ESB centered SOA Platform appearing in 2006.
   
• FUSE is standards based!
   
• FUSE is open source (Apache Software License 2.0).  However, FUSE is NOT "just another open source project".  Winston DaMarrillo, Logic Blaze's Executive Chairman, was the founder of Gluecode - which was acquired by IBM, and is now offered as Websphere Community Edition.  [FUSE will have a Gluecode -- oops - IBM WAS CE distribution].
   
• FUSE is positioned to serve three (interconnected) areas: high volume integration, service-oriented solutions (composite and flow styles), and web 2.0 (rich interfaces (AJAX, Flex), mashups, LAMP).
   
• FUSE has a variety of support subscription levels, not just for production run-time, but also development support, and peer-to-peer interaction.  Developers with CORE subscriptions will even be able to deposit their integration code in the FUSE repository, for inclusion in future build testing.
   
• FUSE will be incorporating the Eclipse SOA Tools project in a future (1.5) release.  Until then, expect a lot of XML hacking.  While this isn't optimal from a development perspective, better the team focused on delivering a solid run-time, rather than a pretty interface.   
   
• FUSE is available for download now.

I will be testing FUSE (mostly ServiceMix, ActiveMQ and Ode) as part of my enterprise service bus ride series.  For more information on FUSE, check-out the whitepaper, or just start playing.  If you do take it for a spin - let me know what you think.