Hewlett-Packard Co, which established its first worldwide software sales force unit earlier in the week, now has a new product to sell, and has already signed up its first major OEM customer in the shape of Netscape Communications Corp. HP Changengine is described as a process management and workflow engine that works across multiple applications and systems in real-time, rather than the batch approach used by most workflow systems. It separates business process logic out from the applications themselves, enabling business analysts to change the processes without having to resort to applications coding. HP is providing a set of application programming interfaces to support the most widely used applications, but intends to work individually with software vendors to integrate Changengine within other products. The first is Netscape Communications Corp, which will add its own LDAP lightweight directory access protocol-based Directory Server software in order to offer SuiteSpot customers workgroup functionality. Others will follow, says HP, with Microsoft Corp and Peoplesoft Inc rumored to be the next in line to sign up for the product, with SAP AG, Baan NV and Oracle Corp all thought to be in the later stages of evaluation. HP itself has embedded the software in AdminFlow, its administrate automation flow package, and expects to integrate it within existing and future software products now all under the one roof of its Electronic Business Software Organization, such as the VirtualVault security package, OpenMail messaging, TopTool desktop management products and Smart Content call center software. The company promises more technical details on the product over the next few days.
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