Eccentex Corporation provides dynamic case management (DCM), a.k.a. adaptive case management, software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions using its multitenant cloud-based AppBase platform as a service (PaaS). DCM solutions should support what the evolving knowledge worker needs and allow organizations to optimize case outcomes, improve customer services, and mitigate risk.

Eccentex recently announced the launch of AppBase 5.0, which includes user-friendly creation tools and templates or frameworks (referred to as AppTemplates) for quick delivery of case management systems by business analysts and line-of-business personnel (rather than IT staff). The vendor is hereby trying to redefine the fundamental processes and user interfaces of the modern knowledge worker. Read the rest of this entry »

Informatica Corporation, an independent provider of data integration software, recently acquired Active Endpoints, a private business process management (BPM) provider.

As a public company with over $800 million in annual revenue and over $500 million in cash, Informatica seems to be a great new home for Active Endpoints’ technology and customers. Not only will Active Endpoints technology be integrated throughout Informatica’s product line, but Informatica pledges to continue to support every ActiveVOS BPM customer and partner (although the jury is still out on whether Informatica can deliver, given that BPM has not been its core competency). Read the rest of this entry »

QAD is arguably the first enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendor with a built-in full-fledged business process management (BPM) system (Savvion BPM) within its development platform, Progress OpenEdge. Indeed, SAP NetWeaver PI is mainly about process-based integration (and Pegasystems, IBM BPM, and IDS Scheer by Software AG often complement those capabilities for, say, case management or rules-based processes), while Microsoft SharePoint has some workflow management capabilities and is mostly good for document-based processes. Needless to say, BPM is about much more than system-centric integration, portals, and document management. Read the rest of this entry »

Cloud Extend is a cloud business process management (BPM) application from Active Endpoints, built on its flagship BPM system, ActiveVOS, and available in salesforce.com’s AppEchange marketplace. Cloud Extend aims to easily automate mundane sales, marketing, and customer service processes, and thus ensure that everyone on the team adheres to best practices. Read the rest of this entry »

SOFTWARE SELECTIONS and GO-LIVES

Agricultural equipment manufacturer selects Abas ERP
Industry tags: manufacturing
“Canadian company Cadman Power Equipment Ltd., a manufacturer of special agricultural machinery and irrigation equipment has conducted an ERP selection project, and ERP from abas Business Software emerges the winner of this competition. The company was looking for a system as a single ERP package, without having to turn modules on or off, that would cover all the necessary operations. User interface had to be easy to navigate and quick to learn. Finally, the company wanted to purchase directly from the ERP developer,side-stepping integrators and VARs. Abas ERP was the best fit for these and other criteria.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: abas Business Software
Compare abas Business Software with other leading ERP solutions!

Industrial electronics assemblies manufacturer chooses Epicor ERP to support its operations
Industry tags: manufacturing, electronics, high-tech
“IO Electronics, a UK-based assembler of comprehensive electronic components for various industries, such as defense and aerospace, petrochemical, automotive, and a few others, has an ambitious business growth plan that would require an adequate ERP-class software. The company selected the Epicor ERP system, with a long-term perspective. Unlike the existing inflexible system that has been in place for 10 years and which is limiting the company’s operations in many aspects, Epicor ERP will provide all required functionality and, as important, the flexibility and technical capability to grow along with its rapidly expanding business. Another notable consideration in selecting Epicor over five other ERP software vendors was the multiple additional features it offers within a standard package.” — Aleksey Osintsev, TEC Research Analyst

Overview: Epicor ERP
Compare Epicor ERP head-to-head with other ERP solutions!

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TEC is pleased to announce that WorkflowGen, Advantys’ business process management (BPM) solution, has joined the ranks of TEC certified BPM systems.

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After coming across the Forbes article The End Of ERP and quite a few spin-off articles about the imminent death of ERP, I became somewhat concerned about how this topic was being handled by “people in the know” and other IT experts. Here’s my take on it.

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Having improved many of its functionality features, Bizagi recently released version 9.1.6 of its business process management (BPM) software. I’m pleased to announce that the Bizagi BPM Suite 9.1.6 is a TEC Certified system for BPM functionality.
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Everything can change without notice in your relationships with prospects and customers, and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions should be flexible enough to help with this ongoing challenge. Monolithic enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages or suites can take years to implement and cannot easily adapt to change; but CRM solutions can provide functionality that makes change management easy and reduces its disruptive effects to the minimum.

Customer-centric or not, every company generates information about its customers that may be used by any department of the company—e.g., invoicing for accounting, customer feedback for product development, sales performance for incentives and compensation management, etc. Traditionally, CRM solutions did not offer functionality that would allow companies to use CRM data in any department other than sales and marketing. Also, functionality that was not specific to CRM but still related to it, such as business process management (BPM) and project management, was very little supported by CRM systems. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pleased to announce that the Bizagi’s BPM Suite 9.1 has recently joined the ranks of TEC Certified systems providing business process management (BPM) functionality. Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to announce that Business First from W4 is now available for online evaluation of business process management (BPM) solutions in the Project Portfolio Management Evaluation Center, joining the ranks of TEC Certified systems providing BPM functionality. Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to announce that the Ultimus Business Process Management Suite has joined the ranks of TEC Certified systems providing business process management (BPM) functionality. Read the rest of this entry »

These days, the concepts of business process management (BPM) have become more unified, and BPM functionality from different vendors seems to be more converged. However, organizations may have their own reasons for adopting BPM—different business features and requirements will lead to different matching points between adopting organizations and BPM solutions. In the mean time, BPM vendors are using various selling points to differentiate their product offerings and to touch target customers’ nerves in various ways. Based on my recent interactions with the BPM vendor community, I’d like to discuss a few different angles (other than the generally-recognized core benefits of BPM such as transparency, efficiency, and optimization of business processes) that a user can take to dive into the BPM water. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Rob Barry summarized some important points on the topic of delivering business process management (BPM) through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model (see Choosing Business Process Management: SaaS BPM or On-premise BPM? According to this article, although managing business process in the cloud is in an early stage, this delivery model is becoming more noticeable. After reading this, I felt that it would be interesting to know business users’ attitudes toward the SaaS model while selecting BPM solutions. Luckily, I was able to look into BPM selection projects recorded in our BPM Evaluation Center and found that over 16 percent of BPM seekers, in 2009, were willing to acquire BPM capabilities through subscription or leasing agreements.

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In 2009, I attended two Gartner Summit events: the Gartner Business Process Management (BPM) Summit in March in San Diego; and Gartner Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Summit in September in Scottsdale. I not only saw a number of same vendors at both events, but both events also had many similar themes, such as customer service, workflow automation, business processes, collaboration, customer retention, social media, key performance indicators (KPIs)/performance metrics, and so on and so forth.

It might be indicative that BPM and CRM are quite converging disciplines in that Gartner found enough synergy to host its CRM and BPM summits back-to-back in Washington, D.C. in late 2008 (events I did not attend). While BPM vendors are beginning to offer more CRM capabilities, CRM vendors are “returning the favor” with BPM features (e.g., workflow and business rules engines).

This process (no pun intended) may have begun several years ago. Namely, in 2005, the former Onyx Corporation (acquired by Consona Coporation in 2006 and meanwhile renamed into Consona Customer Management), began shifting its focus from highly contested and commoditized CRM applications toward more adaptive BPM-enabled applications via the former Onyx Process Manager in 2005. Consona’s CRM division does not sell its BPM module outside its CRM offering, but is proud to talk about its product’s adaptability due to native BPM features.

Both software categories also grew (CRM about 5 percent and BPM about 10 percent) in 2009, in contrast to a decline in most other enterprise applications. When money is tight, shrewd businesses look for ways to do more with less, and BPM seems to hold the promise of improving the customer’s experience. As companies cite business processes affected by CRM as their top challenge, CRM vendors have moved from focusing on pure technology to enabling processes, and BPM capabilities have taken a greater role in CRM suites. This convergence leads me to quote Forrest Gump: “We goes together like peas and carrots.”

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