NEWTON, MASS-March 2, 2004—David A. Kelly, president of analyst firm Upside Research Inc., announced his predictions about the market for Business Process Management (BPM) solutions in 2004. In a series of research briefs, Kelly outlines what he feels are significant indicators that “2004 will be the year for BPM.”
“Over the past two years, we’ve seen the business process management (BPM) market continue to grow, as more and more organizations look for BPM products to automate and manage their business processes,” says Kelly. “BPM products have evolved into more sophisticated offerings, with broader coverage and increased support for business developers and users.” Kelly believes this metamorphosis from emerging technology toward mainstream enterprise solutions sets up BPM to make significant inroads in global corporations this year.
Among the trends in BPM for 2004, Kelly highlights the following in his research briefs:
Increasing modularity. According to Kelly, in many cases in the past, BPM products have been all-inclusive, requiring significant investments in one company’s BPM architecture and vision. “Upside Research believes that 2004 will bring some (but not complete) relief in this area,” predicts Kelly, “as product vendors continue to open up their BPM architectures to support standards and 3rd-party tools. Primarily, we’ll see more flexibility in modeling, reporting, business rules, and possibly simulation capabilities, as well as deployment.”
Kelly cites vendors such as Fuego, Handysoft, Metastorm, and others contributing to this trend. Movement on standards. Kelly highlights the current standards battle being waged in the BPM market over standards such as BPMN and BPEL. “As with any early standard, don’t expect standards to work across products—it’s much too early, except in limited cases,” cautions Kelly. “In addition, vendors such as Collaxa are starting to offer support for standards such as BPEL, potentially offering ways to avoid BPM vendor lock-in.”
Increased reporting/business monitoring capabilities. Upside Research believes there is significant demand from corporate customers for increased reporting and monitoring capabilities. According to Kelly, “Upside Research expects many BPM products to make significant advances in this area in 2004, in tandem with their increased push toward creating more business-usable and business-relevant products.” Kelly states that vendors including Intersystems, Lombardi, and Pegasystems are all offering increased functionality in this area.
In summary, Kelly states, “2004 will be a good year for BPM. With the glimmerings of at least a mild economic upturn in the air, BPM solutions will be more important than ever before.”
The complete 2004 Predictions are available to Upside Research clients and subscribers to the Upside Update, an e-newsletter that offers analysis and insight into the latest BPM and application infrastructure trends.
About Upside Research, Inc.
Launched in 2003, Upside Research is a research, consulting, and content development firm focused on helping enterprises manage technology adoption, solution development, deployment, and management from a business perspective by putting application development, business process management (BPM), integration, and enterprise infrastructure challenges in perspective.
For more information or to schedule a briefing, contact Upside Research by at info@upsideresearch.com,
(617) 969-6886, or www.upsideresearch.com.
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Media Contact:
David Kelly
Upside Research
(617) 969-6886
dkelly@upsideresearch.com
