WebSphere Business Monitor

IBM WebSphere® Business Integration Monitor uses real-time data from a variety of environments - including IBM WebSphere MQ Workflow, IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker, IBM WebSphere Business Integration Collaborations running from WebSphere MQ Workflow and a number of databases - to generate statistical information about customers' business processes. It helps you track business process, organization and employee performance to deliver a real-time view of organizational achievement. The result is more informed business decision-making.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor is comprised of two HTML-based Web client applications: the Workflow Dashboard, and the Business Dashboard:

• The Workflow Dashboard enables users to monitor business processes at run-time, from anywhere, regardless of the users' machine configurations. It provides an operational view of business processes, displaying run-time business-measure values for each process instance currently running in the monitored process. It allows the user to perform administrative actions, and provides an alert system that can pinpoint problems and bottlenecks in a process currently in execution.
  
  
• Historical process-instance data is stored in the Business Dashboard. This provides a management interface into the actual performance of the business process. The information contained within the Business Dashboard provides important decision-making data from a cost, time and utilization perspective. The metrics generated can be imported back into IBM WebSphere Business Integration Workbench for continued analysis of the process.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor provides a number of key capabilities that help you:

• Compare process and performance metrics with your company's established business goals to assess the status of targeted outcomes.
• Base business decisions on actual performance data and resolve issues before they jeopardize business goals - using actual data will allow you to perform more accurate analyses to check for possible problem areas
• Feed process information and real-time data back into process modeling tools to deliver continuous business process improvement. This will help you to assess proposed process enhancements and improve the process' business measures by modifying or creating new business measures.
• Perform corrective actions based on the real-time information. Corrective actions include: Transferring work-items and suspending or terminating process instances.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor can monitor data and event flows from the following products:

• IBM WebSphere MQ Workflow (V3.4 and V3.3.2)
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker (V5 and V2.1)
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Collaborations running from WebSphere MQ Workflow
• IBM DB2 Universal Database (V7.2, with Fix Pack 5 and V8.1), IBM DB2 Universal Database for OS/390 V7.1 or higher
• Oracle 8.1.7.1 or Oracle 9i

To monitor business processes in the manner outlined above, you need the following:

• A database - either IBM DB2 or Oracle - to house the data and business measurement values to be displayed in the user views and reports
• IBM WebSphere Application Server - for deployment of the Monitor enterprise application, including the web client and the Monitor processing service
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Modeler (a bundle of IBM WebSphere Business Integration Workbench and IBM WebSphere Business Integration Workbench Server)
• A Java™-enabled browser (preferably, Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 5.0 or later)
• To monitor flow activites from IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker, Support Pac IB01 (WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker - Monitor Emitter Node) is required. This complimentary SupportPac will be available to download from the WebSphere MQ family SupportPacs page on 26 September 2003.

See the WebSphere Business Integration Monitor system requirements pages for more details.

The Business Dashboard provides a high-level, strategic view of business processes. Designed as a decision-making tool for line-of-business management, it displays process-performance measures, such as task durations, costs and so on. The Business Dashboard provides business statistics reporting by comparing comprehensive actual metrics to established performance measures. The metrics and statistical information can easily be fed back into process modelling tools for further analysis and to complete the cycle of continuous process improvement.

The Workflow Dashboard provides process managers with an operational console for a more in-depth view of business process performance. It displays process-tracking information, such as the location and status of a specific work item. The Workflow Dashboard monitors not only the data and audit trail of WebSphere MQ Workflow, but also WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker event flows and non-process data from certain databases.

In addition, it allows process managers to take administrative action - such as starting, stopping, suspending, completing or reassigning tasks - on live work items in a process, anywhere in the world. This enables managers to track and determine the performance levels of employees, organization units or entire processes.

To display business process data in the WebSphere Business Integration Monitor, as outlined in this document, the WebSphere Business Integration Workbench must be installed. WebSphere Business Integration Monitor uses process models defined in the WebSphere Business Integration Workbench. It can also use the business measures defined in WebSphere Business Integration Workbench.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor can work in conjunction with any one of the following products:

• IBM WebSphere MQ Workflow
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Message Broker
• IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server
• IBM DB2 Universal Database
• Oracle 8.1.7.1 or Oracle 9i

It is not a pre-requisite to have WebSphere MQ Workflow to run WebSphere Business Integration Monitor.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor provides an advanced alert system that can be tailored to specific process-management needs. It allows business and technical users to define, display, and receive instant alerts on operational results.

Notifications can be sent to multiple people (or to just one), via e-mail or through the Monitor Notifications section, and can include business related information.

Yes. WebSphere Business Integration Monitor allows the customer to create custom report views that clearly display trends. These can be presented in a variety of chart types, including 3D bar charts, pie charts and line charts, for user-specified periods.

WebSphere Business Integration Monitor offers a Web application that enables users to manage their processes from an Internet connection anywhere in the world. Designed for deployment using WebSphere Application Server, it uses EJBs, Servlets, JSPs, COBRA, IOOP, RMI, and IBM DB2.