BPM concerns the software and tools required to model and execute an organisation's business processes, through the orchestration and integration of the necessary people, systems, applications, and application components.Business processes are the defining characteristics of a particular organisation - they control and describe precisely how business is conducted internally and externally, in terms of data and information flow, and the interactions between individuals and the organisation.
This can relate to customers placing an order, goods requisition from partners and suppliers, or employees updating internal systems.
It is the responsibility of the organisation to deploy applications and solutions that support or facilitate these complex business processes.Applications are not, however, designed with cross-functional business requirements in mind - they are developed to perform a particular function or solve a particular problem.
ERP suites have gone a certain way to facilitate the flow of information across business functions within the back-office, delivering basic workflow capabilities.
CRM suites attempt to provide similar facilities for the front-office, but like ERP solutions, they do not and cannot address the real cross-enterprise requirements.
Furthermore, when processes change, as they inevitably do, hard-wired application architectures are unable to respond adequately, without massive additional investment.
Butler Group believes it is necessary to fundamentally challenge the rationale of Business Process Management (BPM) solutions, in terms of what, when, why, and how they should be used.
Over the past decade, we have seen wave after wave of IT fad.
From ERP, to CRM, and SCM, organisations have thrown good money after bad in a bid to gain competitive advantage from IT.
Such investments have, not surprisingly, failed to generate the predicted returns, yet each time a new wave emerges, chequebooks are readied and bandwagons loaded.
There is no denying how powerful the 'me-too' force of following the crowd can be, but reality is that no piece of software or dumb application has ever single-handedly revolutionised any business: not before, certainly not now, and the same holds true for the foreseeable future.
We are not dismissing BPM out of hand - indeed this Report discusses at length the value and benefits that can be gained from its proper use.
However, the fact that something is technically attractive and feasible is not enough.
Against a backdrop of dramatic, attention-grabbing vendor claims relating to potential Return On Investment and benefits, BPM needs to be critically challenged in terms of discovering exactly how and where it will add value to the business.The Report Reveals:A critical and fundamental challenge to the rationale of BPM.
Why process efficiencies may be hard to come by.
Why BPM needs to be tied in with the overall information strategy.
How BPM can provides a framework to aid regulatory, compliance, and governance initiatives.
Why BPM should not be used for the re-engineering of vanilla processes under the auspices of enterprise applications.
How BPM can provide a framework for helping the business manage change in a process- and information-centric manner.
Butler Group's model of verticalisation as a mechanism for realising rapid Return On Investment.
A comparative analysis of the leading vendors and their solutions.
How the market is likely to mature over the next five years.
We have evaluated a number of different BPM products on the market.
There are a number of vendor profiles as well as the in-depth comparisons.Fourteen top-range solutions have been compared and positioned alongside a detailed checklist:-The vendors and products included in this Report are:BISIL - Enj FileNet - FileNet P8 for BPM V2.0.1 Fuego - Fuego 4.5 Fujitsu Software Corporation - Interstage Business Process Manager V6.1 Handysoft - BizFlow V8.7 IBM - WebSphere Business Integration Metastorm - e-Work Version 6 Plexus division of Banctec - eFIRST process V1.2 SeeBeyond - ICAN Suite 5.0 Staffware - The Staffware Process Suite V2 TIBCO - BusinessWorks Workflow Ultimus - Ultimus BPM Suite version 6.0 Vitria - Vitria:BusinessWare webMethods - webMethods BPM Solution