SAP has been working on a new set of tools to simplify the business process by enabling IT organizations to answer requests more efficiently. The SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management and SAP NetWeaver Business Rules Management will allow business process experts to design, model and implement business processes without having to develop code, the company unveiled during two events: SAPPHIRE 2008 (SAP’s international customer conference) and ASUG (America’s SAP Users’ Group) Annual Conference, both held in Orlando.

“The planned addition of business process management tools to the SAP NetWeaver technology platform will further establish SAP NetWeaver as the platform of choice for companies committed to a strategic approach to IT,” Klaus Kreplin, corporate officer and member of the Executive Council, and head of SAP NetWeaver Technology, said in a statement.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management has been developed under the code name “Galaxy” and has three main capabilities, SAP explained: the process composer, which is based on the BPMN (business process modeling notation) standard and integrated into an Eclipse development framework; the process server, based on Java EE, to executive the process models, skipping the translation between model and code; and the process desk, which grants participants interaction with running process instances and other participants by means of form, interactive screens and collaboration tasks.

SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management’s purpose is to provide a standardized, unified environment for the management and implementation of business processes, and focuses on four elements: unified modeling, which enables editing a single version of a business process, without losing details in translation; business rules management, built on the Quickrules technology; immediate execution speeds time to value, which allows a faster implementation of innovative business processes; and built-in efficiencies via Enterprise Services Repository, which enables users to track and identify ready-made process steps of SAP and non-SAP applications, the company explained.

“As business process management is increasingly adopted by organizations as an important management practice, they’re constantly looking for ways to better support process execution across people and applications,” Janelle B. Hill, Gartner research vice president, said in a statement. “Integrated composition technologies, as part of a business process platform, are required to accelerate the successful management of agile business processes.”