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Is BPM (Business Process Modeling and Execution) the SOA killer application? I had a very interesting interaction with a global VP of BPM of BPM for a major vendor.  The encounter went like this… VP on behalf of vendor demonstrates BPM tools to potential client.  Everyone oohs and ahhs at the impressive presentation, graphics, and overall possibilities of BPM.  The vendor product looks impressive, it works, and actually has reasonable (runtime) performance. Then I ask the VP “how many processes can this client create in a year?”.  After all, creating a BPM workflow / process is relatively quick and easy.  In theory a couple of days to create it, another week to test it and deploy it.  Maybe a mid-sized organization should be able to generate 26 processes per year per person assigned to BPM. The VP responded, “7”.  “Seven”, I remarked, “why so few?”  He explained first of all the BPM processes won’t have all their steps exposed (at all o...

Loraine Lawson over at the IT Business Edge Integration blog discusses Microsoft’s entry into the MDM space in her most recent post .  She notes that: “I was also intrigued to learn that the whole thing is API-based. Why does that matter? As Hayler explains, it allows ISVs to build apps on top of MDS. That's a good thing, since the description of MDS sounds pretty bare-bones at this point. The idea seems to be that ISVs will be able to build on better user interfaces and create support for things like version comparison, which, oddly, it does not provide out of the box.” I was surprised at this bit of thinking.  It’s always nice when a vendor product provides ways of extending it’s functionality.  It’s occasionally useful for enterprise IT shops, and often useful for niche vendor’s or ISV’s looking for opportunities to extend a major vendor’s product(s).  But that’s some old school thinking. Since the early days of COM (Microsoft’s Common Object Model),...

Reader Francesco Annunziata asked the following excellent question... ERP Vendors are embracing the field of BPM e and SOA. Sooner or later their solutions will catch up with those of current leaders. On the one hand, if they can’t show much deeper integration with their ERP suite than any other BPMS vendor can offer, they will be just another behind-the-curve BPMS struggling for market share (a quote from the Column 2 blog ). On the other hand, If they can take advantage of their ERP by showing a superior capability of integrating their applications I think the BPM deals will by default go to them. Those considerations boil down to my question: Is SOA, among other things, leveling the vendors' playing field in terms of integration and composite applications? In other words, will a potential Client be able to choose a BPM system (and other applications) only considering its capability to meet the company needs, "taking for granted" that the well implemented Service Orient...

Jim Sinur at the Gartner Blog Network notes that Application Package Vendors and BPM Vendors are beginning to encroach on each other's territory. How so? Package Vendors are beginning to incorporate some level of process control, and exposing the fact that they have tremendous vertical market expertise in the business processes incorporated into the application (exposing as SOA services and exposing as marketing). Who better than a vendor that's been creating CRM software for 20 years to understand the automation of CRM business processes? BPM vendors are beginning to accumulate some significant libraries of business processes. As such, they're beginning to arrive with "industry kits" that contain common process sets for specific vertical markets - turning the BPM system into a partial package application for that industry. Further enhancing this is BPM's primary focus at allowing easy adjustments to the process - equivalent to complete customization of t...

Jim Sinur at the Gartner Blog network writes... BPM portends to make process work easy and some activities / technologies are fairly simple to work with in process improvement. Process modeling is a great example of this principle. While getting the correct process model and getting all stakeholders to agree to it is certainly a challenge, but the BPM tools supporting process modeling are deceptively easy to work with in the modeling arena. Business professionals get real excited when they see their processes and find ways to cut costs and time out of them. It’s all good, right? The problem is that this gives business professionals the impression that this is pretty easy stuff. When the processes involve composite processes that require significant IT support to complete, things do not move that fast. BPM actually gives the false impression that things are easier than they look... It gets much more difficult when the some of the process goes below the water line a needs web service or...

One of the repeated topics of the Innovation World conference was the world economic downturn. As a vendor, Software AG is looking at customers and prospects across the conference table that have scaled back IT projects, cut IT staff, and are hunkering down in survival mode. During the conference, Software AG worked hard at building a marketing case that SOA is the way to go during an IT downturn... BPM lets IT and the business whip up new business functionality with a few clicks. BAM (Business Activity Monitoring) lets IT create a window for the business to see key operating metrics in a dashboard like setting (with the potential for detailed drill down). Sounds good in theory, though they struggled a bit as they haven't yet clearly formulated their message. What's the reality? BPM relies on a platform of services and functions which can be readily tapped to drive the process. Further, and this is the failing in many a BPM installation, it relies on the processes being w...