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Network Automation has announced a series of enhancements to AutoMate BPA Server, the client/server multi-machine edition of its business process automation platform. The upgrade adds support for Web Services, Microsoft (News - Alert) Exchange, the grouping of agent machines for workflow assembly, and other new features and actions.

Company officials say users of AutoMate BPA Server can invoke Web Services in automation routines without scripting, making it possible – for example – to extract data on customers fitting a specific profile from Salesforce.com (News - Alert) and put it into the company’s marketing automation program, since “the product’s native support for Web Services enables tasks to interact with SOAP-based Web resources without custom APIs or hard-coded interfaces.”

 

It also lets users create, modify or delete Microsoft Outlook objects such as calendar and contact entries based on defined event triggers, and build automation workflows for groups of agent machines, company officials say, “eliminating the need to list each machine individually in AutoMate BPA Server’s visual task-building window.”

 

There’s support for PGP (News - Alert) encryption/decryption of any file for secure data transfer and the ability to send and receive e-mail using SSL authentication for SMTP, POP3 and IMAP, as well as what Network Automation (News - Alert) officials say is “a variety of enhancements that strengthen the ability to build complex automation sequences without the time and expense of coding.”

Introduced in 2008, AutoMate BPA Server is an extension of the AutoMate platform for single-machine process automation. It’s available immediately for purchase at $3,995 for new customers and $3,495 for existing clients seeking to upgrade.

 

If you’re interested in a white paper on the capabilities of the server, there’s a good one available. It describes the AutoMate BPA Server 7 as an “advance in the automation of systems and applications across multiple-machine networks. This white paper discusses the benefits it offers, as well as a detailed perspective on the underlying technology and architecture.”