Adobe LiveCycle 7.0 brings to fruition Adobe Systems' May 2004 acquisition of Q-Link Technologies, maker of Java-based business
process management software. Finally incorporating Q-Link's component-based workflow engine into Adobe's Intelligent Document
Platform, LiveCycle 7.0 promises not only to streamline PDF-based workflows, but also to extend document-centric processes
to back-end systems and to users and systems outside the firewall. The revamped process management suite now also includes
BAM (business activity monitoring) capabilities, allowing end-users to configure thresholds and alerts, and to keep an eye
on key performance indicators through Web-based dashboards.
In an online demo, Adobe showed off a nice graphical designer that allows business analysts to assemble processes by dragging
together logical components called QPACs (Quick Process Action Components). More than 50 prebuilt QPACs make it a snap to
insert decision points, branches, task delegations, data transformations, etc., and to integrate processes with directory
servers, e-mail, FTP, Web services, databases, message queues, and other systems. As you might expect, QPACs also offer ready-made
integration with Adobe Document Services such as PDF generation, bar coding, digital signing, document policies, and rights
management. For scenarios not supported by stock and third-party QPACs, LiveCycle includes an Eclipse-based development environment
for creating and debugging your own QPACs.
The results can be spectacular. In the demo, when a customer clicked a Get Help button in an invoice PDF, this launched a
connection to a customer service Web site, offered an interactive 3-D view of the product to identify the problem, and dynamically
generated a trouble ticket populated with the relevant data from customer, product, and sales databases. Once a customer service
rep clicked his approval, a digitally signed, password-protected and bar-coded RMA (return merchandise authorization) -- set
to expire in 30 days -- arrived in the customer's e-mail in-box.
For enterprises willing to standardize on Adobe, the combination of LiveCycle, PDF, and Adobe XML makes a powerful cocktail.
Adobe LiveCycle 7.0
Adobe Systems
Cost: Starts at $65,000 (pricing by CPU or by user)
Available: Now
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