You are looking to solve a business problem. You have determined that there are software alternatives that will reduce or solve the problem. Often, you will discover a couple different approaches to solving that problem - Software Suites/Platforms vs. a Complete Solution.

An enterprise BPM suite or platform will be sold in modules. The most common modules include: Process modeling, Process [business rule] engine, Process analysis tools, Process simulation and an Integration server [or toolkit, or…]. Each of these modules are sold separately and may require some integration to get them all to work together.

A complete solution is just that – you purchase one piece of software that has some or all of the elements of each of the modules [identified above] built in.

Our Thoughts...

The enterprise BPM suite or platform approach…

The decision to sell the software by modules is a marketing decision. They hope to gather more revenue from their customer by selling the software in pieces. These more expensive suites or platforms may have more features than the alternative – as a matter of fact; they may have features that you will never need to use. Often, getting all of these modules to work together will require some software services.

If you haven’t noticed, the companies selling modules will also have a large professional services organization.

A complete solution…

Selling a complete solution is also a marketing decision – they target a specific market. They intend to service their specific market particularly well so that they can dominate their space. Their software will include all of the features necessary to create an application that will put them on top.

So, you have to decide…

You could go with SAP or Oracle, for example, and spend big bucks now to solve a not so expensive problem. The upside - this may enable you to solve other business problems in the future; The downside – it does lock you into purchasing lots of software services.
Or, you can go with a complete solution today that will solve your problems rather inexpensively. The upside – the solution is less expensive and the solution will be implemented sooner; The downside – you may have to buy more software in the future.

Your Thoughts...

Since we made a marketing decision to be a complete solution, I am very interested in your thoughts…

Forrester recently interviewed 164 IT Architects – some of the results follow…

13% said that they had no plans for implementing BPM. The primary reasons were: high project costs; lack of proven benefits; lack of technical resources; and the complexity of the project.

The 87% that are implementing BPM expected: increased productivity for process workers; real time visibility into key processes; consistent process execution across business units; and optimization of their business processes.

As a result of their interviews, Forrester noticed a strong correlation between a BPM Center of Excellence and BPM project success. The premise – if senior management is willing to support a BPM Center of Excellence, then they are definitely supporting this BPM effort.

Our Thoughts…

Regarding those not implementing BPM – I have talked with many companies that have reflected those same findings. I have seen project costs and lack of technical resources as the biggest obstacles.

Regarding expectations – I see these expectations as the reasons companies buy into BPM to begin with. If you didn’t believe your process cycles take too long, you wouldn’t be looking into BPM. The 2 biggest elements of shortening cycle times are to control how long process steps take and to have visibility into the process to see that it is on time. If the process is late, you will be able to quickly see that fact and make resource adjustments.

A key requirement for the success of any large enterprise solution is management support. I am not convinced that a BPM Center of Excellence is the way to go, but I am convinced that you need management support. So, you know your company – choose a path that will garner management support.

Your Thoughts…