The Supply-Chain Council is beefing up its Supply Chain Operations Reference (SCOR) model with the addition of business process management tools from IBM, TIBCO Software Inc., and IDS Scheer.

SCOR describes the business activities of supply chains, using process building blocks based on a common set of definitions. These standard models allow organizations to focus on the relationships among partners, suppliers, and customers. By adding BPM into the mix, the SCOR model will also simulate how different actions will impact these relationships.

Last year, TIBCO announced that the SCOR model 8.0 was available for use with TIBCO Business Studio, providing users with "living" models of their supply chains.

Separately, in February 2008, the Supply-Chain Council and BPM vendor IDS Scheer announced that they would work together to develop new versions of SCOR, as well as the related Customer-Chain Operations Reference (CCOR) and Design-Chain Operations Reference (DCOR) models. Under the agreement, Supply-Chain Council members will be able to leverage IDS Scheer's BPM tool, ARIS, which offers predefined reference content and extensive modeling and analysis to help users identify supply chain constraints and improve existing processes.

"Business process modeling shows how transactions execute," says Allen Johnson, IDS Scheer's director of partners and channels. "But [IDS Scheer reflects] the business side, where rules are defined and the effect on business are measured ... It's like the steering wheel for business, the command and control."

This new SCOR model including BPM will be an important element of the performance-driven business network, as outlined by AMR Research, because companies will need more than just a strategic plan. They'll need tools that can simulate and test changes in their business, according to Bill Swanton, AMR's vice president. "How do you take a $10 billion corporation and turn it on a dime?" Swanton asks. "Once you have a new business model, you need to turn to operational systems to help execute. That's what the tools from IBM and IDS Scheer are doing."