According to research from Datamonitor, that day is fast approaching, driven by the obvious cost benefits and the evolution of underlying BPM technologies to accelerate time to value in the face of changing business patterns. The report “SaaS BPM: Silencing the Skeptics” states that given economic and competitive pressures, “Datamonitor believes that this is the right time for BPM to take its SaaS strategy mainstream,” adding that “Cloud computing is fast becoming a widely accepted model of software consumption and delivery.”

The report makes a clear distinction between the value of simple process modeling versus full execution in the Cloud, and illustrates the evolutionary paths being followed by a variety of BPM vendors (see image).

SOURCE: Datamonitor, “Silencing the Skeptics,” October 2009

As the report says, “One of the positives inherent in offering full execution in the cloud is reduced round tripping due to a unified modeling and execution environment. Cloud-based execution also translates to more options for the customer, enhanced collaboration (can spur innovative mashups and on-the-cloud integration with BI), and maximal use of SOA investments.”

The combination of full-featured modeling and execution capabilities in the Cloud is required to achieve maximum BPM value. That’s what our Appian Anywhere platform provides. BPM in the Cloud is rapidly gaining popularity, driven by technology advances and an increasing comfort level for the model within organizations. Companies that don’t develop a BPM SaaS strategy today may well find themselves falling behind tomorrow.

Ben Farrell

Director of Corporate Communications

As usual in the emergence of a revolutionary movement, intent that has been brewing for some time is now being actualized by a catalyzing agent. That agent is evolved business process management software that delivers a new breed of capabilities directly to the business. And while it is certainly happening behind corporate firewalls, the revolution comes into sharpest focus when this new generation of BPM software is delivered in the Cloud. Software-as-a-Service BPM suites like Appian Anywhere will continue to support Process Populism through:

• Accessibility: As the Forrester post states, the workforce is changing. Employees are increasingly tech-savvy and increasingly mobile. They also have increasing expectations for “anywhere, anytime” availability based on their personal technology experiences (Facebook, iTunes, etc.). The ubiquitous reach of the Cloud mirrors the consumer experience.
• Ease of Use: Business users are armed with tools they can actually use to model, execute, manage and optimize business processes. These include intuitive, graphical modeling; drag-and-drop composition; flexible real-time reporting; and on-the-fly process improvement based on things like bottleneck analysis.
• Speed: An Appian Anywhere account can be provisioned in about 60 seconds. With one click a business user can download a pre-built process application from the Appian Forum online community. A second click, and that application can be deployed. So, in less time than it would take you to get an email back from IT saying they can’t even look at your project request for 12-18 months, you can be up and running.
• Cost: The financial rationale for BPM software in the Cloud simply can’t be denied. For a low per-user monthly fee, you can avoid capital expenditures for hardware and the cost of other internal IT resources.

Process Populism is a real movement, with real potential to spread like wildfire. The more business-side process professionals that are exposed to what’s possible – and what they themselves can drive without IT reliance – the more they will want. Power to the people!

Ben Farrell
Director, Corporate Communications

BPM can enable software vendors to rapidly create new revenue streams by bringing new solutions to their customers – and what could be more important during a time of economic constraint? In addition, BPM can enhance the value of existing offerings. It can web/Cloud-enable legacy client-server technology, overcome rigidly-coded interfaces and extend interoperability. Vendors are facing customer pressure on all these counts.

Over the course of 2009, Appian saw a big up-tick in companies looking to OEM/re-sell our BPM platform (whether via SaaS or on-premise) to enhance their offerings. Our just-announced OEM partnership with Ricoh Americas Corporation is a great example.

Ricoh, a leader in digital office equipment, is combining its expertise in back-office equipment and processes with our Appian BPM Suite. The result will be process-enabled digital office solutions that bring new levels of automation and efficiency to back-office operations.

Ricoh will use Appian’s comprehensive capabilities for real-time process visibility, management, reporting and optimization within Ricoh’s Business Process Automation (BPA) solutions. Using Appian gives Ricoh a huge speed advantage in deploying process solutions for its customers. Ricoh also has the established relationships needed to put BPM in the hands of Fortune 1000 and mid-sized customers who may not even yet realize BPM’s transformational value.

The excitement around “BPM for Vendors” will only grow. You can expect to hear a lot more from Appian on this topic throughout 2010.

Marc Wilson

Vice President, Global Partnerships

The great thing about Forrester’s Index is that it doesn’t just identify where your BPM project sits on the Anemic/Lean/Bloated scale; it actually gives you a tactical plan for beefing up or scaling down as needed to hit the Lean sweet-spot. It’s an invaluable tool in the process improvement arsenal.

You can hear Clay explain it for himself in our upcoming webinar, “Hitting the Lean BPM Target,” on March 11 at 11:00am ET. He’ll tell you what you need to know to make Lean BPM work in your organization today, and he’ll use Appian customer case examples to show how striving for Lean leads to accelerated returns.

Don’t miss this one. Register via the link above.

Ben Farrell

Director of Corporate Communications

So let’s cut to the chase: you have to get off the sidelines and actually deploy your first BPM process and start the process improvement lifecycle. This initial win makes it easier to get your second, third and fourth, and before you know it you’re on your way to optimizing your entire organization for speed and agility.

Sounds easy – and if you have the right tools it really can be. You can see how at the UK Gartner BPM Summit on March 1 and 2. I’ll be leading two Learning Lab sessions on “BPM Simplified,” where in just 45 minutes I’ll show you how the Appian 6 BPM Suite enables you to quickly identify troubled processes,  model the process flows, compose an automated BPM application, and quickly create reports needed to track and improve process efficiency. You can read more information and register here. On March 3, we’ll be presenting a Virtual Lab for those who can’t make it to the conference. Register for that by sending an email to javier.regueiro@appian.com.

Hope to see you there!

Malcolm Ross

Director of Product Management

As he states in his conclusion, “it is inevitable that at the same time that BPM moves towards the peak of the strategic enterprise pyramid, it will also migrate toward the vast number of small opportunities at the base of the pyramid.  These solutions will be developed by end users to satisfy their specific needs.  The unique advantages of BPM over traditional development will facilitate a new category of solutions which could not be developed otherwise.”

BPM is opening a new world of possibilities by arming business people with a platform they can use to implement their own solutions to their unique problems. Read Part 2 of the article here: http://www.bpm.com/bpm-the-next-stage-of-end-user-programming-part-ii.html.

Ben Farrell, Director, Corp. Communications

The deployment meets a very timely need. As the prime contractor to the UK’s Department of Work and Pensions for the delivery of JobCentre Plus contracts, Pinnacle is charged with helping the UK’s 2.5 million unemployed get back to work. Pinnacle is using Appian BPM to manage the end to end contract delivery, and also to support HR, Finance and Supply Chain functions. 

The speed of Pinnacle People’s Appian deployment is impressive, but certainly not unique. Appian on-premise deployment times now run in a matter of weeks. Our Appian Anywhere SaaS subscriptions are provisioned in minutes. Appian enables our customers to accelerate process improvement and prove quick ROI as a precursor to a larger enterprise-wide BPM program.

Speed-to-value is the name of the game for BPM. Appian is leading the way by delivering the fastest design and collaboration, the fastest deployment, and the fastest process improvement cycles in the industry.

Let us know how we can help you jump-start a BPM initiative.

Samir Gulati, VP of Marketing

• Progress wins.  This transaction makes sense in a way the IBM-Lombardi deal did not.  Progress’ suite of products is complementary to BPM.  Progress has a declining cash-cow business, and the new CEO (Rich Reidy) knows that diversification through acquisition is the right way to segue from a past strength to a future strength.  Were I a Progress shareholder (I am not) I would applaud the transaction on strategic grounds and be delighted with the price.
• Savvion wins.  For at least 24 months Savvion has been widely understood to be seeking a sale, and if that is the case, then they must be pleased to have found one.  The downside is that they are joining a firm unlikely to innovate under a BPM banner.  Progress wants to sell a stack, not BPM.  They are also economizing, having just cut 250 jobs (out of 1,875) last month.
• BPM vendors win.  One fewer pure-play competitor.
• Technology consumers win.  Progress will deliver the BPM concepts more widely, to a more uncommitted market, than Savvion would have reached.  BPM will become more popular more quickly.

Left out of the festivities are Savvion customers – who surely do not win.  Savvion will now lower the banner of innovation and dedicate itself to integrating with a stack few firms own.  Their clients should transition to a BPM innovator with momentum and a long-term outlook.  They will find a friendly welcome at Appian.

Though we can list several winners, there should be no doubt who is the greatest beneficiary: Appian.  No entity gains more from the acquisition of Savvion, or from the disappearance of Lombardi into the gears of IBM.  These competitors, formidable in their time, are now repurposed and will not recapture their innovative edge.  Appian’s position is now undisputed — every blog I have read today lists Appian as the last pure-play champion.

On Column2, Sandy Kemsley writes: “Of the three mid-range BPMS-only vendors that I would most commonly name – Appian, Lombardi and Savvion – that’s two out of the three announcing acquisition in less than a month.”  Bruce Silver recalls the line-up a few years back and lists “four vendors on the business-centric end of the BPMS landscape … Lombardi, Savvion, Fuego, and Appian”.

Why is Appian the vendor remaining?  I know why: It’s because of that smelly old building we used to work in with the lease that said we had to leave within a month whenever they decided to knock the structure down.  And because our founders have packed sleeping bags to a client’s server room.  And because the whole company worked 6-day weeks and we had no marketing department.  We’re still here because from the beginning, whatever the compromises, we challenged ourselves to build a sustainable business.  We spent time and sweat rather than money (we still do).  Lombardi and Savvion arrived at the same point, but Appian got there the hard way.

Quick fact: All three firms (Appian, Lombardi, Savvion) were universally considered leaders since at least 2006.  Lombardi and Savvion both took $55-75 million to get there.  Appian did it on $5,000 in seed capital.  (Later, in 2008, Appian took a $10 million investment.)

The irony of these acquisitions is that they take BPM to exactly the place BPM was going, but faster.  Here’s what I mean:  Appian had a special 2009.  Wait for our later announcement(s), but I think I can say that no major vendor grew as quickly nor gathered such a crowd at their user conference.  (We even outdrew most analyst shows.)  By the end of 2009 – even before these acquisitions were announced — it was clear to us that there was a new contest in BPM: Appian vs. Pega.

One final note: Lombardi and Savvion didn’t leave this market because there wasn’t value, they left because they ran out of time.  (For a venture-controlled company, time is everything.)  There’s a great market here, and a sudden lack of competitors.  Appian is not for sale.  Our product is strong, our staff is extraordinary, and we have the most enthusiastic user community in the business.  For a while we shared the spotlight; now we are ready to own it.

Matt Calkins, President & CEO

You have heard by now that IBM is buying Lombardi. We welcome this transaction, as it will help us to achieve our goal more quickly. Lombardi has now marginalized itself, and will soon be entangled in the IBM stack. No BPM company has ever maintained its innovative vitality after being acquired.

The reason is simple: the giant vendors who make these acquisitions don’t need to innovate to win market share. They have less to gain, therefore, from being a ‘feature leader’ (and are temperamentally unsuited, to boot). I expect IBM will not be a serious innovator in BPM – and Lombardi customers will suffer from increased confusion as they attempt to navigate the complex array of IBM BPM technologies to determine what to deploy where, and what is integrated with what.

Where will customers turn if they want innovative BPM and rapid time to value? To Appian.

This move meets my expectations for consolidation in the BPM market, and makes me more excited and optimistic than ever about Appian’s future.

Matt Calkins, President and CEO

The new report, called “BPM Accelerated: Slashing Cost and Time with Agile Business Processes,” uses Aberdeen’s methodology of Best-in-Class, Industry Average and Laggard to show that leading companies were able to achieve an average 18 percent year-over-year reduction in operating cost and an average 16 percent reduction in process cycle time through a comprehensive strategy for BPM. 

This study collected data from 200 organizations globally and discovered that “companies that have developed the organizational maturity and are leveraging the right tools for BPM are generating more robust, flexible and agile business processes.”

I recorded a webinar with Michael Lock (author of the report), and Bill Laberis from Computerworld where we discussed Aberdeen’s data in the context of BPM’s value across organizational roles and out to customers. You can watch it on demand here.