BPMI.org Press Release

COMPUTER SCIENCES CORPORATION HELPS DEFINE CRITICAL NEW STANDARD FOR NETWORKED ENTERPRISES

Global IT Leaders Release Specification for Business Processes

Las Vegas, Nev. - March 08, 2001 -
Computer Sciences Corporation (NYSE: CSC), a global provider of information technology (IT) consulting, systems integration and outsourcing services, today announced its support for an important new Business Process Modeling Language (BPML). The BPML specification will be released today by a consortium of more than 75 global IT leaders and vendors, known as the Business Process Management Initiative (BPMI.org), during a member meeting in Las Vegas.

BPML will, for the first time, provide a standard way to represent end-to-end business processes, allowing direct deployment, management and transformation of these processes among multiple business partners and enterprise applications. Providing a common language of process is a critical step in creating the next generation of collaborative business models and bringing greater agility and innovation to Global 2000 companies, software vendors and consulting firms.

The diversity of participation in the BPMI consortium reflects the potential significance of BPML to the information technology industry. CSC, one of the key architects of the new language, joined Intalio, Inc. and 14 other companies in August 2000 to found BPMI.org. BPMI.org is an independent organization devoted to developing open specifications, such as BPML and Business Process Query Language (BPQL), to manage e-business processes across multiple applications, corporate departments and business partners, behind the firewall and over the Internet.

“BPML represents the next generation of systems and enterprise integration, and will do for process management what standards such as SQL and XML have achieved in the world of information and data management,” said Howard Smith, CSC’s European chief technology officer, and one of the drivers behind the development of BPML “The new standards will revolutionize enterprise collaboration and create networked enterprises constructed on a comprehensive web of internal and cross-enterprise business processes.”

BPML guarantees consistency of a business process throughout its lifecycle, allowing business unit leaders, process analysts and technical staff to share ownership of the design, deployment and improvement of business process, according to CSC.

Until now, end-to-end e-business integration has proven difficult, or nearly impossible, due to the lack of a standardized process language. BPML allows processes to be represented in a manner whereby they can be directly deployed, executed and manipulated, allowing businesses to share and participate in processes regardless of the systems architecture they use. BPML will bridge the gap between the needs of internal systems integration and emerging business-to-business collaboration protocols such as ebXML, RosettaNet, and BizTalk.

“Business processes today are embedded in the applications that govern them,” says Doug Neal, director of innovation research for CSC Research Services.” BPML allows business processes to be managed separately, fostering cross-enterprise collaboration that will increase innovation, productivity, efficiency and, ultimately, maximize business performance and agility. BPML could eradicate the stovepipes that exist between businesses and across enterprise applications in much the same way that re-engineering did within companies a decade ago.

Using BPML, companies will no longer have to work within the confines of imposed shared systems, common standards or the processes inherent in vendor solutions. Companies will be able to read, write, integrate and adapt business processes to their specific needs and to those of their partners. This will open the door to new forms of business process outsourcing and will enable a more fluid relationship among collaborating organizations and service providers, says Smith.

CSC is committed to advancing large-scale cross-enterprise collaboration based on shared business processes enabled by the Internet (see related announcement, March 6, 2001, at www.csc.com/about/news_stories/20010306.html). CSC has deep-rooted expertise in designing, integrating and managing business processes across companies, and is also a recognized leader in building and launching collaborative e-marketplaces.

CSC is actively engaged in ongoing process management research, and is examining how to leverage BPML to support rapid deployment across the entire supply chain within forthcoming Business Process Management Systems. A leader in Knowledge Management, CSC is also identifying how BPML can be leveraged to represent and manage process knowledge.

“CSC has been one of the most active contributors to the development of BPML,” said Ismael Ghalimi, CEO of Intalio. “CSC recognized the importance of business process standardization even before BPMI.org was formed.”

Computer Sciences Corporation, one of the world's leading consulting and information technology services firms, helps clients in industry and government achieve strategic and operational results through the use of technology. The company's success is based on its culture of working collaboratively with clients to develop innovative technology strategies and solutions that address specific business challenges.

Having guided clients through every major wave of change in information technology since 1959, CSC combines the newest technologies with its capabilities in consulting, systems design and integration, IT and business process outsourcing, applications software, and Web and application hosting to meet the individual needs of global corporations and organizations. With more than 68,000 employees in locations worldwide, CSC had revenues of $10.2 billion for the 12 months ended December 29, 2000. It is headquartered in El Segundo, California. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.csc.com.