Posts by DavidKelly

Integrated Information for Stronger SOAs

Posted on by DavidKelly

It’s not easy being digital. Even from a personal perspective, the range of digital devices I’ve accumulated and use over the past few years has grown exponentially. From digital cameras to (multiple) wireless phones to PDAs to (again, multiple) laptops to on-line services such as gmail, I have my fingerprints all over the digital world.
While the results have been great – I’m able to manage, communicate and produce more effectively than I ever have before – I spend a much larger portion of my time managing and integrating data, even at this personal level. Instead of an old-fashioned and single address book, I have multiple digital address books. I have email directories duplicated (and perhaps out-of-synch) across multiple systems. Try as I might, it’s simply not simple to keep information integrated and in synch.
Unfortunately, over that same period of time, most organizations have been experiencing the same type of problems, but on a much larger scale.

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Why Good Product Data Matters

Posted on by DavidKelly

Product data is more important now than ever before. Of course it’s always been important. It’s been the basis of all types of sales, inventory and manufacturing systems since the beginning of IT. But now, with the advent of SOA and a wide range of ever-broader business requirements, having the right product data in the right form at the right time is more important than ever before. In addition, it can’t be just any product data – it has to be consistent, reliable and accurate. For most organizations, that’s no easy task.
Let’s take a closer look at the issue of product data reliability and business needs.

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E2E Bridge

Posted on by DavidKelly

COMPANY OVERVIEW
E2E is a relatively new entrant in the enterprise integration product space, but the company brings with it deep roots in enterprise model-driven integration. Founded more than 10 years ago as a systems integrator in Switzerland, the company quickly built its reputation as a provider of integration services for UBS. As the company continued to support critical enterprise integration projects, it decided in late 2005 to offer the product it had developed for its customer projects to the global market.

In January 2006, the company made the switch to a pure product company and since then has been building traction in the model-driven integration market worldwide. With more than 12 customers today, many of them multi-billion dollar enterprises, E2E is bringing its solution, the E2E Bridge, to the global market. The E2E Bridge is a UML-based enterprise service bus (ESB) that provides code-free, model-driven integration with a company’s existing back-end systems. The E2E Bridge supports service-oriented architectures (SOA) and is fairly lightweight because of its UML virtual machine, which does not require a Java application server.

COMPANY STRATEGY

• Educate the market about the success of bringing model-driven integration to enterprise-level SOA initiatives.

• Expand global presence beyond Europe and Asia into the North American market.

• Continue to provide customers with integration adaptors as they demand, beyond the more than forty that are available today

• Build out extensive partner network to sell through the channel predominantly, especially boutique system integrators.

UPSIDE ANALYSIS
E2E is adding new life to a saturated market – enterprise integration. The company has the background and credentials to stand up as an expert in the space, and Upside Research believes that the creative use of a UML virtual machine and XML-based technology for an enterprise service bus is unique and sets E2E apart from other solutions. The largest hurdle that the company faces from a technology perspective is convincing the existing integration teams, often full of expert developers, that it is possible to achieve enterprise integration without extensive coding, instead using a purely model-driven approach. If E2E can use its customer references to exhibit the success of this new approach to an ESB, then it stands to build its customer base.

From an execution standpoint, E2E needs to continue to build momentum in the North American market with some lighthouse customer wins and strong success stories. In addition, the company needs to continue to build out its channel with regional, vertically-focused ISVs and OEMs to expand its geographic reach and market share. Continuing to develop technology partnerships with other enterprise software vendors will also assist E2E in its efforts to build a presence in the North American market.

Download the full E2E Bridge Upside Research Product Brief.

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Supply Chains and SOA

Posted on by DavidKelly

Supply chains are nothing new. In fact, over the past ten years, most organizations have spent an awful lot of time making sure their supply chains are efficient. In many cases, this meant not only automating the supply chain and building tighter electronic relationships with business partners and suppliers, but it also meant looking at supply chain processes and identifying areas where time, costs, or waste could be reduced.
But, as I’ve noted in my previous columns, there’s a real need for organizations to also think about their information supply chain and their underlying data, particularly when they start to implement SOA.

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BPM Vendors Embrace Software as a Service

Posted on by DavidKelly

Because business processes are often similar in workflow, they are easy to offer as services
Services-based software has been around for a while. Back in 1999, during the Internet hype, several companies offered hosted applications for everything from enterprise procurement to sales force automation. After the Internet market crashed, several of these companies managed to survive, primarily because they filled a niche in the market that was economical and effective: enabling departments of large enterprises to utilize an electronic procurement solution, for example, while paying a monthly fee that did not require the IT sign-off or budget approvals that an in-house, enterprise-scale solution would.

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Managing Request Management

Posted on by DavidKelly

HandySoft was an early player in the pure-play BPM market. The company’s BizFlow solution gained attention early as a flexible process management tool that was particularly adept at helping organizations manage their compliance needs. After releasing several SOX-based and compliance solutions, BizFlow gained a large following in the government vertical, and currently 35% of its customers come from this market segment, including 40 agencies of the U.S. Government. Recently, HandySoft released OfficeEngine, a thin client application that is designed to enable all corporate users to bring workflow and task optimization to their existing business productivity environment, namely Microsoft Outlook. With OfficeEngine, HandySoft is positioning itself to bring BPM to every corporate user through a vehicle they are already using. The company hopes to recharge its BPM market visibility and add to the more than 300+ customers it has around the globe
Upside Uptake
The positioning of OfficeEngine is an important departure from traditional BPM solutions, where enterprises need the entire platform to enable the process automation and optimization. With OfficeEngine, HandySoft is encouraging all business users involved in workflow situations to capitalize on the promises of BPM without the heavy structure that is typical. By introducing a thin-client BPM application that can be embedded into the all-pervasive Microsoft Office, HandySoft is offering business users the ability to become their own process creators and optimizers. The challenge lies in adoption, because it is always difficult to convince someone to use a new productivity tool. However, if HandySoft can get business users to try OfficeEngine and they are able to easily accomplish what the product promises, than HandySoft may be able to recapture the attention of corporate process managers who are tired of the longer, more traditional route to business process optimization. Building referenceable customers will be a key to the success of OfficeEngine, and the faster HandySoft can do this, the more quickly adoption of OfficeEngine will be poised to take off.

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Why Reliable Data is the Key to Your SOA

Posted on by DavidKelly

Over the past few years, many organizations have invested heavily in service oriented architecture (SOA) as an approach for creating a more agile, responsive and re-usable IT infrastructure that can respond effectively and efficiently to business requirements.
But as organizations continue to focus on SOA and building services that can be re-used and shared across different business processes, there’s one issue that’s often overlooked; the reliability of the underlying data.

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Upside Research’s Business Process View

Posted on by DavidKelly

NEWTON, MASS—May 15, 2007. David A. Kelly, president of analyst firm Upside Research Inc., has announced that Upside Research has partnered with Software Magazine to create the Business Process View column. The column will run in each issue of Software Magazine (www.softwaremag.com).

About Upside Research, Inc.
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.

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Media Contact:
David A. Kelly
Upside Research, Inc.
(617) 969-6886
dkelly@upsideresearch.com

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HandySoft OfficeEngine and BizFlow

Posted on by DavidKelly

HandySoft was an early player in the pure-play BPM market. The company’s BizFlow solution gained attention early as a flexible process management tool that was particularly adept at helping organizations manage their compliance needs. After releasing several SOX-based and compliance solutions, BizFlow gained a large following in the government vertical, and currently 35% of its customers come from this market segment, including 40 agencies of the U.S. Government. Recently, HandySoft released OfficeEngine, a thin client application that is designed to enable all corporate users to bring workflow and task optimization to their existing business productivity environment, namely Microsoft Outlook. With OfficeEngine, HandySoft is positioning itself to bring BPM to every corporate user through a vehicle they are already using. The company hopes to recharge its BPM market visibility and add to the more than 300+ customers it has around the globe.

Download the full HandySoft Upside Research Product Brief.

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BPM Software as a Service Continues to Develop with Lombardi Blueprint

Posted on by DavidKelly

The emergence of BPM software as a service is continuing with an announcement by Lombardi recently. On April 30th, Lombardi released its new Blueprint solution for general availability. The software is available in a hosted model to business customers, and reflects the move in the enterprise computing market to leverage software as a services-based solutions. Lombardi Blueprint is designed to promote collaborative process discovery, which equates to providing operational-level business managers with a tool to help determine the best place to start with a BPM initiative. As a hosted application, Lombardi Blueprint is free on a personal basis, or for a team account of up to ten members, is available for $500 a month.
According to Lombardi, the genesis for this product came from the goal to help customers shorten the average three to six months it takes for a business to prioritize its business processes and select one for an inaugural BPM project. Part of the time is spent discovering the business processes and determining which one will be best for BPM. Blueprint provides collaboration tools among team members for the discovery process, as well as a repository for users to document their regulatory needs. All of this information is stored in XML, making it easily exportable into any other BPM suite. Of course, Lombardi also provides seamless connectivity to Lombardi for Teamworks, the company’s comprehensive BPM suite.
The Upside Uptake
Software as a service is taking off in a big way, and it is no surprise that the BPM market is hopping on board.There are BPM companies that are considering or launching similar initiatives around hosted services, as a means of testing the waters. Upside Research has felt that this is a viable model for some time, and is encouraged by the recent attention to this model in the BPM space, especially by a pure-play BPM leader like Lombardi.
The advantages for the customer are significant, including the ability to get up and running quickly, the lower costs, and the flexibility of a web-based service. While a full-blown BPM suite would be difficult to offer in a hosted model, especially with all of the necessary integrations to back-end systems at the customer site, Upside Research believes there are a number of peripheral services and tools in the BPM arena that lend themselves well to a hosted or services-based model. We look forward to seeing the BPM market get creative with this software delivery channel as businesses become more comfortable using this model for enterprise-scale business tools.

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