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Contacts:
Rich Scheffer
Forte Software, Inc.
(510) 869-3422
Rodger Weismann
Forte Software, Inc.
(510) 869-3435
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Forte Software Announces Forte Conductor
Production Workflow Offering Automates Mission-Critical Business Processes
OAKLAND, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Forte Software Inc today
announced Forte Conductor(TM), the first production workflow product for
building a new generation of high-performance, workflow- style
applications. Conductor will greatly simplify the development and
maintenance of applications that automate multi-step business processes. An
order entry application, for example, might include several steps, such as
checking a customer's credit and verifying product inventory levels before
accepting an order. Other example applications include 911 emergency
response systems, trading floor automation and manufacturing floor
applications.
Gerald Metals, Inc. is using the Forte Application Environment(TM) and
Forte Conductor to build an enterprise-wide, mission-critical application
to support trading, back-office, accounting and treasury functions for its
worldwide precious and base metals and financial services businesses.
According to Jason Cohen, vice president and CIO of Gerald Metals, "Instead
of having 50 big processes, the application has 500 discrete tasks that are
strung together as 50 workflows. This approach allows us to reuse these
workflows in different applications. For example, we can go from trading to
merchant-banking and reuse the workflow logic and task logic where
appropriate. This gives us tremendous flexibility and extensibility."
"Based on discussions with our customers, we estimate that 70 percent of
Forte(R) applications automate multi-step business processes," said Marty
Sprinzen, president and CEO of Forte Software. "Forte Conductor is a
natural fit for these applications. In addition, as component-based
development becomes more widely used, we expect that customers will use
Conductor to automate business processes that span pre-built components."
Applying Workflow to Mission-Critical Applications
Over the past several years, workflow products have demonstrated the
benefits of automating the otherwise manual routing of documents or images
from one person's outbox to the next person's inbox. These products
typically have reduced information hand-off times on average from days or
hours to minutes.
Workflow support for on-line transaction processing applications, however,
requires an even higher level of performance and reliability. The
traditional solution is to code the business process rules (i.e., the
routing logic) directly into the application, along with the business
function rules that specify what actions are permissible. For example, a
business process rule might state that if the credit check is approved,
send the request to inventory for a stock check; if credit is denied, route
the request to the sales manager. Meanwhile, a business function rule might
allow for a 20 percent discount to any customer ordering more than $1000
worth of product.
Programming both types of business rules into an application can present
two major problems. First, whenever the business process changes, the
entire application must be revised and re-tested. Second, applications do
not automatically track the status of all items in progress, let alone
provide answers to such questions as "On average, how long did it take us
last month to process an order request?" Forte Conductor provides a
solution to these problems without compromising the performance and
reliability of the deployed application.
"With Conductor, Forte has enhanced its application development environment
by providing a context for creating process-oriented applications,
including the definition of workflow sequences, tracking and business
rules," said Ronni Marshak, vice president, Patricia Seybold Group.
"Further, the tight integration of the Forte development environment and
Conductor allows developers to leverage their existing applications,
reusing components in new and strategic ways."
Forte Conductor Overview
Forte Conductor includes four major components:
-- Process Design Workshop _- This graphical environment is used to define
business processes. The workshop includes a built-in wizard for generating
simple flows along with the ability to express complex flows using the
Forte 4GL.
-- Process Engine -_ The engine tracks the status of all active business
processes and orchestrates the routing of work according to the flow
definitions. The engine supports multiple queuing models for offering work
to specific individuals, a pool of individuals or an automated subsystem.
-- Process History Database -_ All status changes for each flow are
recorded in this database. A set of pre-formatted reports is provided to
track the status of individual pieces of work and to provide aggregate data
for historical analyses.
-- System Administration Console -_ From this console, the system
administrator can start and stop engines, see who is logged on and
determine what each person is authorized to do. The console also is used to
monitor the overall status of the engine, including the amount of work
assigned to each user.
Conductor Advantages
Because Conductor was developed using the Forte language, it leverages
Forte's key strengths of mission-critical support, an open infrastructure,
and a powerful integrated development environment.
Mission-Critical Support. While traditional workflow products use a
monolithic engine, Conductor uses a distributed server architecture that
supports multiple process engines. This approach provides both scaleability
and reliability. When an engine is fully utilized, flows can be assigned to
multiple engines so that the system will continue to scale. And, in the
event of a hardware, network or software failure, active flows can be
processed by a back-up engine rather than bringing the entire system to a
halt. Conductor also utilizes such technologies as compiled flow
definitions, intelligent caching, high-speed inter-engine communications,
and business events to further increase performance.
Open Infrastructure. Non-Forte application components are easily integrated
with Conductor using a broad range of APIs:
-- ActiveX API for PC software products such as Visual Basic or Delphi
-- Web API for Java applets via IIOP or for standard HTML forms via HTTP
-- C++ API for any C++ or C program
-- CORBA API for any CORBA application
Conductor's Process Engine runs on all the major open systems server
platforms and supports the major relational databases for the storage of
process status information. Conductor's client-based components, including
the Business Process Designer, run under Windows, Macintosh and Motif.
Integrated Development Environment. While other workflow products require a
separate development environment with its own tools and repository,
Conductor uses the same language and repository as the Forte Application
Environment. Thus, when building applications, developers do not have to
exit one environment to work in the other. This strong integration between
application and business process programming minimizes learning curves and
increases productivity for both the development and ongoing maintenance of
applications.
Pricing and Availability
Forte Conductor began beta testing in March 1997 and is targeted for
general release in the fourth quarter of 1997. The product will be priced
from $2600 to $4000 per developer license.
Forte Software, Inc.
Forte Software, Inc. designs, develops, markets, and supports a set of
products for building, deploying and managing production applications in
distributed environments, including client/server and the Internet.
Headquartered in Oakland, Calif., Forte Software has direct operations in
North America and subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and
Australia. Forte is also marketed and sold worldwide through distributors
and value-added resellers. For additional information, contact Forte
Software via the Internet at [email protected] or on the World Wide Web at
http://www.forte.com.
NOTE: Forte is a registered trademark, and the Forte logo and Forte
Application Environment are trademarks, of Forte Software, Inc.
###
Copyright 1996 Forte Software, Inc. Forte is a registered trademark, and
Forte Application Environment and the Forte logo are trademarks of Forte
Software, Inc. Other brand or product names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies.
The statements in this release that relate to future plans, events or
performance are forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ
materially due to a variety of factors. Additional information about these
factors is contained in Forte Software's Registration Statement on Form S-1
filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and effective as of March
11, 1996, under the section entitled Risk Factors, and in Forte Software's
Annual Report on Form 10-K under the section entitled Business Risks, and
in Forte Software's Reports on Form 10-Q under the section entitled
Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of
Operation.
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