WfMC Announces Keith Swenson as 2004 Recipient of Manheim Award for Significant Contributions in the Field of Workflow.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

AIIM 2004

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 9, 2004

The Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC) is pleased to announce here today that Keith Swenson, United States, is the 2004 recipient of the Marvin L. Manheim Award for outstanding contributions in the field of workflow. The Marvin L. Manheim award is presented annually by the Workflow Management Coalition to recognize an individual or a group for their influence, contribution, or distinguished use of workflow systems.

Keith Swenson has significantly influenced the field of workflow through workflow design innovation, and his long-standing contributions to industry workflow standards have helped to give users the confidence to move forward with their workflow strategies.

Notably, Keith presented the first "Web Services" proposal called Simple Workflow Access Protocol (SWAP), later integrated into a standard known as Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) developed at W3C. He also helped propose and form the OASIS Asynchronous Service Access Protocol Technical Committee (ASAP TC), has been an active member of the Workflow Management Coalition, is heavily involved in the development of standards such as Web Services Composite Application Framework (WS-CAF) and Asynchronous Service Access Protocol (ASAP), and was part of the technical committee for the Object Management Group (OMG) workflow interface effort.

Keith also has advanced workflow processes through his work at leading technology firms. Currently, Keith serves as chief architect at Fujitsu Software and has previously held positions at MS2 Inc., and Netscape. As a recognized authority on workflow technology, Keith is a published author and featured speaker at industry conferences.

"It is really an honor to receive this award. This is a key time for workflow and BPM standards," said Keith Swenson, chief architect of Fujitsu Software. "The original vision behind the work of the WfMC was to increase the effectiveness of information systems to support organizations and their business processes. In the eleven years of progress, we have seen standardization in most of the areas lower in the stack, which has led, in the past year, to an increase in the amount of attention on automating business processes. The industry is now ready for standards for business processes. Amazingly enough, our vision remains the same, and our goals are as important as ever as we find ourselves at a time where we can make a real difference in helping businesses do more with less."

"Keith has played a significant role in defining and promoting process-based standards for a number of years. His work has benefited not only the WfMC, but the entire community of BPM and workflow users," said Jon Pyke, WfMC Chair and CTO, Staffware. "I view this award as richly-deserved recognition for his unselfish effort on behalf of many standards groups, not just the WfMC."

About Marvin L. Manheim

Marvin L. Manheim was the William A. Patterson Distinguished Professor of Transportation at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University from 1983 until his death in August 2000. Prof. Manheim was also associated with Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, Transportation Center, Steel Resource Center, Institute for Learning Studies and Center for the Study of United States/Japan Relations, and taught executive management programs at Kellogg's James L. Allen Center. Prior to joining the Kellogg School, he held faculty positions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Prof. Manheim's major area of interest was information technology and its uses strategically, competitively, and organizationally. It included strategy formulation and implementation processes; the management of globally competing organizations; and international transportation and logistics. He was also interested in computer assistance to human problem solving and decision-making, including decision support systems (DSS) and artificial intelligence.

About the Workflow Management Coalition

The WfMC, founded in August 1993, is a non-profit, international organization of workflow vendors, users, analysts and university/research groups. The Coalition's mission is to promote and develop the use of workflow through the establishment of standards for software terminology, interoperability and connectivity between workflow products. Comprising over 300 members throughout the world, the Coalition is the primary standards body for this significant software market. The creation of the WfMC Standards Reference Model has proved its importance in other areas of technology, most notably the ISO Seven Layer reference model for computer communications.