Posts by DavidKelly

Supersized BPM

Posted on by DavidKelly

Business process management (BPM) is a great approach for automating, managing and optimizing a wide range of business processes. But that’s the problem.
Many BPM solutions can be used to manage and optimize a wide range of processes. On the surface (and for many companies) that’s a good thing-organizations can invest in one (BPM) platform to handle both horizontally- and vertically-oriented processes. Over the past five years, most BPM products have broadened to point where they’re platforms more than products-supersized BPM, if you will-which is a very good thing.

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The Promise of BPM Collaboration

Posted on by DavidKelly

“Plays well with others,” and perhaps sometimes, “Doesn’t play well with others,” were comments that I remember from report cards growing up, with the more negative evaluation coming the same year I spent dealing (not terribly effectively) with a boy named Thomas who spent the majority of the year following me around and imitating everything that I did. After a while, that kind of behavior can get on your nerves.
However, these types of evaluations can also be applied to enterprise BPM projects (as well as many other types of projects). The more effectively the business, IT and project participants can “play well with others,” the more likely the BPM solution will be effective and productive.

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The BPM Gap

Posted on by DavidKelly

I was never much of an artist. It didn’t matter what media I used – crayons, pencils, the occasional paint-by-numbers oil paint – I simply couldn’t create a realistic, compelling or even interesting piece of art. The story in sculpture class was even worse-most of my projects devolved into awkwardly-shaped bowls or inelegant renderings of animals that looked like they escaped from some mad scientist’s Botox laboratory.
In short, in my art projects, there was a gap between the goals I set out to achieve and the work (or implementation) that I did.
Unfortunately, that same type of gap can exist when it comes to IT projects. Or business projects. Or business and IT projects-especially business and IT projects like business process management (BPM), which typically require a wide variety of involvement from different IT and business stakeholders

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BPDM — Yet Another Standard?

Posted on by DavidKelly

BPM is about business and technology, but it’s also increasingly about standards. Over teh years different BPM-related standards have been developed and are continuing to be developed. One of the latest is OMG’s BPDM, approved in March at OMG’s San Diego meeting. While Phil Gilbert, CTO of Lombardi has a good analysis of this event in his blog, I think the topic is worth a few words of discussion.
BPDM, or Business Process Definition Metamodel, is a specification that works in conjunction with BPMN and provides the specfiication for how to serialize (or save) BPMN in a platform-independent way. In other words, it will provide a way to export, save, and import BPMN across different products and platforms. That’s a very good thing. Of course, it won’t solve anyone’s immediate process problems, nor will it necessarily make it easier for companies to select or deploy BPM-based solutions in the short term. But I believe that it’s an important step in the right direction for businesses (and software vendors) in the BPM space.

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Consolidation In BPM/SOA Space: Software AG to Acquire webMethods

Posted on by DavidKelly

In an interesting development last week, webMethods announced that it would be acquired by Software AG in a cash buyout deal valued at $546 million in cash, roughly a 26-percent premium over its stock price. The combination of the two formidable software companies is an interesting one, and brings with it many rich areas for discussion. At the highest levels, it appears that Software AG views this acquisition as a way to gain a stronger foothold and greater visibility in the US Market, something it has been less successful with in the past.
Software AG has a strong basis in SOA, enterprise integration (especially legacy integration) and has developed XML-based servers in recent years to match customer demands. In contrast, webMethods has done a remarkable job in the U.S. since its founding in 1996, growing its enterprise application integration (EAI) solution into a market-leading BPM/BAM composite application platform with SOA support.
The combined forces of the two companies will have 4,500 customers (doubling Software AG’s North American customer base) and potential revenues of about $1.3 billion/year. The combined company will focus on five technology areas: SOA governance, BPM/BAM, application composition, application integration, and legacy modernization. webMethod’s flagship product, webMethods Fabric, is positioned as an application composition platform, although it also incorporates the company’s strong integration capabilities with its equally impressive BAM solution. Fabric will be the second application composition platform for Software AG, which currently offers its own under the brand Crossvision.
Upside Uptake
What does this mean for the BPM/BAM market? In general, Upside Research has been a fan of webMethods’ solutions and its increasing foothold in the BPM market the past several years. webMethods Fabric has gained momentum and has become more recognized in BPM circles in the past several quarters. Software AG is a powerful company that has had limited success growing its visibility in the US, and the webMethods acquisition could position it well to be a major player. However, this will require a US-focused marketing approach and presence with a cohesive story to existing customers and prospects about how the newly merged technologies and products will meet market demands.
Key to the success will be the need for Software AG to establish a clear and concise direction to maintain the momentum that webMethods has achieved in the U.S. market. In short, we believe it’s critical for both companies that webMethods not fall into the “acquisition black hole.??? If the companies are successful in their merging of technology and product lines and plans, then Upside Research believes the new company will be a formidable competitor in the converging SOA/BPM/BAM markets. With strong enterprise and legacy integration capabilities, a composite application development environment, business process optimization functionality, and BAM tools, the new Software AG may finally have what it takes to step into the ring with some of the biggest enterprise software vendors in the U.S. Market (IBM comes to mind.). For this to happen, though, the execution of this acquisition will need to be seamless and the webMethods brand may need to be preserved and leveraged to its greatest potential.

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SOA and Governance: Why It Matters

Posted on by DavidKelly

Recently, I moderated an ebizQ Webinar featuring Ann Manes Thomas from The Burton Group and Ed Horst from Amberpoint. The focus of the Webinar was governance and SOA.
There were so many great topics discussed during the Webinar that I thought it made sense to spend some time exploring them in greater detail and raise some additional points not covered.

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Doing SOA Right: Why Is It So Hard?

Posted on by DavidKelly

I like doing things right; It’s extremely satisfying when you know you’ve accomplished a task successfully, and have done so in a way that will stand the test of time.
The problem is, I don’t always do things right. Sometimes I don’t have time to do something right. Other times I’m not sure I know the right way to do something, so I make up a solution as I go along. Or perhaps I simply think that this time, there’s no one watching me, so it doesn’t make a difference how I do it. It won’t matter, as long as it gets done.

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Upside Research Releases Insider’s Guide to BPM ROI

Posted on by DavidKelly

NEWTON, MASS—March 12, 2007. David A. Kelly, president of analyst firm Upside Research Inc., has announced that Upside Research has released The Insider’s Guide to BPM ROI. The report is available for purchase and download from Research and Markets website at www.researchandmarkets.com.

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.

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

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Savvion BusinessManager 7.0

Posted on by DavidKelly

Savvion has continued to prove itself as a BPMS leader since Upside Research last featured the company in 2003. Still privately held, the company had revenues of more than $25 million in 2005, and is backed by a number of investment firms. Savvion has evolved its BusinessManager BPM platform to include a suite of tools that provide full-service process management and optimization. With more than 300 customers, including 25 of the Fortune 100, Savvion is a formidable BPM competitor. Savvion’s ProcessXchange is a new online user community designed to share best practices for BPM, including processes and techniques. Savvion’s strategy to seed the market with its Process Modeler for free has garnered more than 55,000 downloads and put the BusinessManager platform in the spotlight with BPM adopters.
COMPANY STRATEGY
• Seed market with free process modeler software to encourage widespread adoption and purchase of entire BusinessManager BPM platform.
• Leverage customers’ existing corporate best-of-breed technology for Business Intelligence, integration, and SOA to ensure status as “good corporate citizen???
• Support industry standards, including RDBMS, UDDI, XML, and J2EE
• Build on-line BPM best practices portal to encourage information exchange and process sharing among customers and prospects.
• Continue to develop partnerships with technology leaders, business process outsourcers and systems integrators to increase market penetration.
IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY
Savvion has seen a shift from its early days of focusing primarily on product. The company now offers a skilled professional services arm that helps many of its customers see faster return on their investment in BusinessManager. While the product is still arguably straightforward enough for a business manager to model a business problem into a process, those companies that have made the commitment to BPM and want to see fast results have used the services available from Savvion to get their processes automated more quickly. Savvion’s consultants are subject matter experts in helping customers implement specific types of processes as well as establish “centers of excellence??? within a large enterprise to encourage the widespread adoption and reuse of business processes. Savvion also values its partnerships with business process outsourcers and systems integrators to assist customers with whatever level of service they need to get the solution up and running quickly.
The average time for complex processes to be fully operational is three months, with some going live in 30 days. Savvion offers 24×7 global support to its customers. In many cases, customers come to Savvion to solve a specific business problem, and once that process is up and running, they expand to include other business units and many times enterprise-wide licensing.
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
• Drive customer-wide adoption of process modeling as a way to build business-wide adoption of process improvement
• Continue to expand customer references to reflect ability to provide more than workflow processes.
• Differentiate from other pure-play BPM vendors through ProcessXChange portal, customer advisory board, and other community-building exercises.
• Use latest product release to re-energize marketing message and continue building momentum in BPM market.
UPSIDE ANALYSIS
Savvion has been very successful making the transition from a BPM pure-play start-up to a formidable competitor in the extensive BPMS market. The company has remained true to its roots, focusing on mission-critical, human and machine-involved processes and how to optimize them in the context of the greater enterprise infrastructure. With more than 300 customers, Savvion’s claim that it has the largest footprint in the Fortune 1000 reflects its market success. Release 7.0 offers a number of new features that balance the needs of both business and technical users, maximizing the benefits of the Savvion platform. By representing the needs of both types of users, Upside Research believes that Savvion has a good understanding of how important it is to bring business and IT together in BPM projects.
An interesting component of Savvion’s market traction is the increased amount of business process outsourcers that have chosen Savvion BusinessManager as the foundation for their BPM offerings. Companies like Intellinet are using Savvion to help their customers successfully outsource processes that have been automated and provide maximum efficiency. Upside Research believes this is an indicator of the strength of the Savvion platform. Similarly, Upside Research believes that Savvion understands exactly what its strengths are, and applauds its strategy to partner closely with “best of breed??? technology partners (e.g. business intelligence subject matter experts such as Cognos) rather than re-creating the wheel. By providing customers with tight integrations to market-leading tools in the areas of BI, BAM, and data analysis, Savvion is making it easy for its customers to leverage their existing environment when creating new business process projects. In the coming year, Upside Research expects that Savvion will continue to gain market momentum and be a contender in the BPM space.

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