System iNetwork

May 29, 2007

BPM: A Software Type in Search of a System i Market

Let's say you decided that what your company needed was a good BPM application that runs on the System i. If you didn't know any vendors who offered that type of software, you'd probably start by calling up your favorite search engine and be off to the races looking for web sites. Except in this case, that wouldn't work.That's because there are very few System i BPM vendors in one sense, and maybe only one in another. And yes, this is a trick question.

BPM is one of those devilish problems in IT jargon, an acronym with two meanings, both of which apply to software. But the meanings are actually about as alike as Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger were in the movie Twins. Like the two actors who have some broad common features (e.g., they're human, they're male), the two BPMs are concerned with analyzing business processes based on computer algorithms, but it's actually the overarching similarities that make things confusing.

The more common meaning of BPM is "business process management." Generally speaking, those are the acts of planning, managing, and analyzing operational business processes. In other words, coordinating business activities. You could almost say this kind of BPM is what corporate vice presidents are supposed to do. But before you try to talk your CEO into replacing your least-favorite veep with some software, realize this BPM is more technical than most corporate officers are. For example, this type of BPM has its own language, called Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), which is a modelling tool based on eXtensible Markup Language that lets users define business processes . . . but from one person's point of view rather than, for example, the organization's as a whole. So in a broad sense, BPM here means control of business activities such as workflow, coordination of timing of subprocesses, and even coordination of multiple existing software applications in a way that merges into the realm of web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA).

The other BPM is "business performance management." This is the organization and control of information and metrics for evaluating how a business overall is performing, activities that focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) (metrics that can be assigned specific values) and gathering and analysis of data from documents, databases, data warehouses, and other sources. In other words, business intelligence (BI). Except of course the practitioners of this type of BPM see it not as BI but "the next generation of BI," which means to them that all the purveyors of query tools, data miners, decision support systems, executive information systems, dashboards, and similar BI-type applications don't really offer BPM, just elements of it.

So what's this mean to a System i user? It means that there are few software offerings for the first type of BPM available that run under i5/OS. And as for the second type, while there are query tools, report writers, dashboards, and business intelligence tools of many sorts that run on the System i, there is only one that claims to provide unified "business performance management," Lawson's ( http://www.lawson.com ) Enterprise Performance Management for M3.

In the business process management area there are several System i vendors. For example, RJS Software's ( http://www.rjssoftware.com ) Enterprise Workflow helps users "design and manage electronic workflows for documents that used to be processed manually" and "map the routes documents take within a particular work process." That company's WebForms gives users "the ability to create dynamic XML forms to capture and share business information." Seagull Software ( http://www.seagullsoftware.com ) offers LegaSuite BPM, a Java-based suite that transforms applications into web services to facilitate business process management and SOA. GeneXus ( http://www.genexus.com ) provides GeneXus BPM Suite, which helps users automate and manage business processes.MNI Solutions ( http://www.mnis.co.uk ) has authored iSeries TaskCentre, a BPM suite that blurs the lines between BPM types by promising not only workflow tools for tasks such as credit limit changes, document sign-offs, and production schedule changes, but also offers KPI alarms, workload exceptions, and financial warnings. Oracle/PeopleSoft/J.D. Edwards' ( http://www.oracle.com ) World Express is an ERP package that includes workflow and a number of other capabilities that give it a claim to business process management chops, if not an aspiration to be the BI type of BPM.

If there are additional vendors with products that qualify in this area, please make a post and add yourselves to this list!

My final question is why there should be so few BPM vendors of either type for the System i. Don't businesses using the platform need to coordinate and model internal processes? Couldn't every business use something more than BI to help keep an eye on its financial health? I'm sure it's true that because so many System i enterprises are small businesses, they can't afford to buy what every CEO thinks they're born to do anyway. But there are many medium-to-large System i enterprises that could benefit from either kind of BPM software. Could these be areas of future growth for our market?

Posted by at May 29, 2007 3:40 PM