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by Jeff Moad, MA Editorial Staff Posted on Monday, January 07, 2008 11:04:35 AM   | Abstract: | As enterprise vendors push aggressively into business process management waters, manufacturers face a decision: Go with pure-play providers or wait for BPM tools from the ERP vendors to mature. |
FACT: The centerpiece of SAP AG's recently upgraded NetWeaver 7.1 release, NetWeaver Process Integration server, significantly enhances NetWeaver's business process management (BPM) capabilities. FACT: SAP, at its recent TechEd conference in Munich announced its acquisition of privately owned Yasu Technologies Inc., a maker of business rules management software. The Yasu technology will become another key piece of SAP's BPM offering. At the same conference, SAP previewed a new business process modeling tool it is developing and plans to roll out in mid-2008. FACT: Oracle Corp. in October launched a bid for BEA Systems Inc., a maker of middleware software, including BPM tools. It should come as no surprise that major enterprise application providers SAP and Oracle are aggressively moving to beef up their BPM tools and market presence. BPM tools and methodologies will play a critical role in the transition of traditionally monolithic, rigid enterprise systems into more flexible, adaptable systems based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) technologies. While SOA technologies provide a way for developers to decompose traditional applications into more modular pieces — or services — BPM tools are the key to recomposing those services into applications that support and change with real-world business processes. BPM platforms such as IBM's WebSphere Process Server and Business Modeler allow manufacturers to model and test business processes, automatically deploy new software — composed of services — to support the business processes, and monitor the operation of business processes. BPM tools will play such a key role in the transition to the next generation of enterprise systems that the market for such tools is expected to grow rapidly. Forrester Research, for example, predicts that BPM software licenses, services, and maintenance revenues will grow from $1.6 billion in 2006 to $6.3 billion by 2011. Manufacturers' Choice The entry of enterprise software vendors into the BPM space, however, raises a question for manufacturers: Should they look to dedicated, pure-play providers for BPM tools and methodologies or should they rely on ERP software vendors? The answer for some companies may be both. Since ERP software providers, at least in the short term, are unlikely to offer tools that support a wide range of process types and integrate easily with a variety of legacy systems, manufacturers may be forced to use multiple BPM tools, experts say. "Buyers of BPM tools should take a hard look at their requirements, categorize them, and do evaluations that include BPM tools from both ERP and third-party providers," says Ken Vollmer, principal analyst at Forrester Research. "If they can get all the functionality they need from a single vendor, fine. But if they need multiple BPM tool vendors to meet their requirements, that's the way they should go." Until now, pure-play software vendors have dominated the market for BPM tools and methodologies. Many of the leaders — such as BEA, Software AG's webMethods unit, TIBCO, and IBM — got into BPM by way of the enterprise application integration market. Their products tend to support software developers in the composition of applications that use services provided by a wide range of transactional systems, such as ERP and CRM. Page : 1 2 3 ... NEXT |