1. WfMC Tokyo Conference
2. Minutes of the third WfMC Japan SIG meeting (In Japanese)

WfMC is a nonprofit international standardization organization founded in August 1993.
WfMC members include workflow vendors, users, consultants and university people: participants coming from various fields.

WfMC was founded to encourage the use of workflows. Main goals include defining workflow terminology and standardizing specification used for interconnecting workflow products.
At present, more than 200 members from 25 countries are participating in WfMC, with those numbers increasing every year. WfMC is becoming one of the most important standardization organizations in the rapidly changeable software market.

In November 1995, the standardized specification for workflow client application programming interface (Interface 2) was released. This enables users to construct flexible systems.
In November 1995, the standardized specification for interconnecting workflow systems in different environments (Interface 4) was also released. Actual interconnections based on Interface 4 were built for demonstration in Toronto Canada, in June 1996, and in Amsterdam Holland, in October 1996.
In early 1997, the standardized specification for statistical information is scheduled for release to be followed by a fixed standardized specification for recording performance data from workflow engines.

Please refer to the following WfMC homepages for the further information about WfMC activities:

- WfMC homepage (English) http://www.aiim.org/wfmc/
- Japan SIG homepage (Japanese) http://www.wfmc.gr.jp/

WfMC provides a workflow model called a production-type workflow. In practice, a process should be defined in advance in the production-type workflow, and this workflow then applied to repeat business processes.

Typical examples are a purchasing system and an insurance assessment system.
Hitachi provides an integrated groupware product "Groupmax Workflow" that targets these fields.

Among the standardized specifications set by WfMC, Groupmax Workflow attaches importance to standardized specification Interface 4, used to interconnect workflow engines in different environments. Interface 4 is verified using prototypes in Groupmax Workflow. In the near future Interface 4 will be considered an important technology for inter-company business such as EC (Electric Commerce) and VE (Virtual Enterprise).