Oracle yesterday moved to extend the business process management (BPM) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) management capabilities of its Fusion Middleware line, inking a major original equipment manufacturing (OEM) agreement with BPM software specialist IDS Scheer.

Under the deal, Oracle's BPM product portfolio will now include IDS Scheer's BPM Aris platform, providing customers with functionality for modelling, deploying and optimising business processes across multiple IT systems.

The alliance will also see Oracle develop a new Business Process Analysis suite, featuring Aris functionality, which will be integrated with Oracle's existing BPM products as well as its SOA management toolsets and Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) Process Manager.

David Keene, director of Fusion Middleware Solutions at Oracle, said the new suite would be launched in the autumn and would include: business architect tools to allow business users to model processes; a business process collaboration environment; a business process simulation toolset to help users simulate the impact of process changes; and process publishing tool to allow users to distribute finalised process plans.

Keene said tight integration with the BPEL process manager, which provides developers with a process design environment, would allow business users to communicate their requirements effectively to development teams looking to modify applications in line with process changes.

The alliance is also likely to extend Oracle's SOA governance functionality. BPM has emerged as a critical part of SOA governance toolsets, helping IT directors ensure the SOAs they build fit into the process requirements of the business. In a separate move, BEA acquired BPM specialist Fuego earlier this year to improve its own SOA suite.

Oracle’s move also underlines IDS Scheer's burgeoning reputation as a provider of BPM software. The BPM vendor is a long-standing technology partner of SAP, recently inked a major alliance with IT management specialist BMC, has been the subject of speculation about an extended relationship with Microsoft's business applications arm, and has now added Oracle to the roster of partners embedding its software.