On February 26th, EMC, a storage management leader, announced its comprehensive product offering for Business Process Management. The company, which is the sixth largest software company with annual sales of $4.25B in 2006, is bringing an impressive portfolio of integrated solutions for managing content and optimizing business processes. The solution, Documentum Process Suite, includes a number of organically grown process management components as well as the integration of ProActivity’s Business process analysis and business activity monitoring capabilities, which EMC acquired in 2006. The combined platform provides lifecycle BPM, including the ability to handle content management, business process simulation, process execution, process monitoring, and ultimately optimization.
While EMC is not currently a well-known name in the BPM market, the company does report that several enterprise customers are already seeing impressive results from using Documentum Process Suite. For example, computer manufacturer Gateway reduced its order-to-ship cycle time by 75% within six months by implementing an improved process. There are a number of other marquis customers that are building business-critical processes with EMC’s solution, including Wilmington Trust, Bear Stearns, SYSCO, and Morgan Stanley.
EMC is fully committed to entering the BPM market, and its goal is to become a leader in the space. The company puts process management at the top of its stack of comprehensive functionality, believing that it can differentiate itself within the market by providing the critical underlying infrastructure to that lifecycle BPM. For example, EMC offers content management, repository services, storage systems, and archival capabilities. It has made efforts to move BPM to the forefront through its partner network, and further investment in its marketing and sales initiatives.
Upside Research is intrigued by EMC’s endorsement of the BPM market. While we’ve seen many BMC pure-plays continue to build their niche in this crowded market, and some software giants (e.g. IBM) enter the fray, EMC brings an entirely different perspective to BPM. Could this perhaps mean that BPM is the uber killer app? This title is not new for BPM, and while that entire nickname reeks of trendiness and fads, Upside Research believes that BPM has staying power, primarily because it delivers results, within a reasonable timeframe. When Fortune 100 companies can use BPM to reduce their order-to-ship cycle time by 75%, that is worth listening to.
So, we’re glad to see EMC in this space, and believe it will only help the rest of the BPM market clarify what products and services it has to differentiate their relative offerings, making it ultimately easier for the customers to determine which solution is the best fit for them.
