US Navy's Spawar Systems Center

Contact:
U.S. Navy
Spawar Systems Center
San Diego, CA
U.S.A.

Tools Used:
i-Flow™, CORBA®, Java™.

Description:
Fujitsu® Software Corporation (FSC) announced that the U.S. Navy's Spawar Systems Center selected Fujitsu's new i-Flow™ process automation software for workflow deployments. Both customers are using i-Flow for process automation as they develop mission-critical applications for the U.S. Global Defense Systems.

Launched in Q3 of 1998, Fujitsu's i-Flow is a third-generation process automation platform designed specifically for Web-based environments. Primarily targeted at value-added resellers (VARs) and integrated system vendors (ISVs), i-Flow is a Java-based platform for automating collaborative processes and administrative business processes. Its Web-browser interface allows easier extranet and intranet participation in the workflow process, while contributing to knowledge management repositories. i-Flow is a total workflow development environment complete with a workflow analysis engine and Adapter Objects, which are Java-based source code with APIs that enables seamless integration with an existing IT infrastructure such as, document management systems, relational databases, light-weight directory access protocol (LDAP) services and scripting languages. For further customization and at no extra cost, i-Flow comes with a software development kit (SDK).

The U.S. Navy purchased i-Flow as the basis for an integrated global Software Maintenance and Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) facility for mission-critical Navy systems. "Process automation software is absolutely central to our needs, said, Barry Siegel, scientist and program manager at Spawar Systems Center, San Diego, Calif. ''We need process control over configuration management, testing, problem tracking and program management activities. i-Flow provides our solutions."

Consulting on the Global Defense System application, Tim Lindquist is in charge of a research group at Arizona State University that studies workflow technology and trends. Fujitsu received a significant endorsement when the University chose i-Flow as their workflow system to deploy internally. "We chose i-Flow for educating and as research in distributed software processes and learner-centered virtual classrooms," explained Lindquist. "i-Flow's extendible, Web-based Java and CORBA component architecture fits our needs perfectly."

One of the applications for workflow technology is in the area of Knowledge Management (KM) integration. While most KM software is focused on storing, indexing and manipulating corporate knowledge, i-Flow manages the actual corporate work processes.

"Among the many applications for process automation within an enterprise, knowledge management integration is perhaps the most significant," says Sandeep Tiwari, director of product marketing and management for Fujitsu Software Corporation. "i-Flow harnesses corporate knowledge repositories and makes it actionable -- turning static knowledge into tangible business processes."