I recently had the opportunity to sit down in a podcast with Ali Klaver, Managing Editor of Enterprise Technology Management (ETM) to discuss the growth of BPM inside corporations, common benefits customers are realizing with BPM and how BPM is increasing the collaboration between IT and business. 

We certainly live in exciting times in the BPM industry.  We have seen dramatic consolidation in the industry as well as dramatic growth in adoption of BPM platforms.  If you are an IT professional, and not up-to-speed yet on BPM, I encourage you to listen to the podcast and start your research in how your role will be changing over the next several years.   The future is all about alignment of IT/Business for a common “Shared Purpose”, agile development, SaaS and Cloud offerings, and using a common tool to jointly model and manage your enterprise processes and applications.

To listen to this podcast, follow the link to the ETM website and register.  ETM additionally offers a variety of other great resources to learn about trends in the IT and BPM industry.

Malcolm Ross, Director Product Management, Appian

Tags: , Agile, Appian, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, BPM Methodology, Business Process Management, Collaboration, ETM, IT, podcast, SaaS BPM

The analysts at Forrester are talking about a business technology transformation they are seeing; one that they have defined as a shift from “Information Technology (IT)” to “Business Technology (BT).” On a recent webinar, VP and Research Director Connie Moore cited a move away from the traditional notion of “business & IT alignment” to a more holistic fusion of the two that will better-address 21^st Century business needs. Business process professionals are on the frontline of this BT transformation, supported by a dramatic evolution in business process management software and the strategies and methodologies behind its use. More »

Tags: , BPM, BPM in the Cloud, BPM Methodology, Business Process Management, Forrester, Lean BPM, SaaS BPM

There’s no doubt about the growing interest in consuming Business Process Management software as a service via public or private Cloud models. Yet as leading IT analysis firms have only fairly recently acknowledged on-premise BPM as a truly “mainstream” enterprise technology, organizations can’t be blamed for wondering about the maturity of BPM in the Cloud. Cutting through the noise, what’s the real substance? When will SaaS delivery of BPM reach a critical tipping point in terms of capability and acceptance?

According to research from Datamonitor, that day is fast approaching, More »

Tags: , Appian 6, Appian Anywhere, BPM, Business Process Management, Datamonitor, SaaS BPM

Industry analysts are now labeling BPM as a “mainstream” technology based on its growing level of adoption among end-user organizations. There is another equally powerful indication: the growing hunger among software and hardware companies to embed BPM platforms to improve and speed delivery of their own goods and services. The reasons for this trend are obvious, yet profoundly important.

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? More »

Tags: , Appian 6, BPM, Business Process Management, OEM, Ricoh, VAR

There’s a lot of discussion right now about applying Lean principles to BPM initiatives – and for good reason. BPM is about removing waste across the enterprise and maximizing all facets of performance, ultimately to enhance the delivery of goods, services and support to customers. Lean is a philosophy and methodology for creating maximum value with less work, originating from the base notion that anything that doesn’t directly add customer value is wasteful. More »

Tags: , Appian 6, Appian Forum, BPM, Business Process Management, Forrester, Lean BPM

One problem with “hot” technology markets like BPM is that while industry hype raises awareness of the need, it also breeds lots of confusion for end user organizations. Industry pundits are ratcheting up the urgency meter, exclaiming that “BPM is mainstream” and if you’re not in the game, you’re falling behind. At the same time, the related flood of theories and jargon about strategies, technologies, and methodologies coming from these same pundits (and vendors, too, of course) tend to cloud the waters rather than clear them. More »

Tags: , Appian 6, BPM, Business Process Management, Gartner

Appian Principal Consultant Glenn Smith has just published the second installment of his 2-part look at “BPM – The Next Stage of End-User Programming” on BPM.com. In Part 1, Glenn discussed the feasibility of using commercial BPM systems as a platform for end-user programming. In Part 2, he examines the value of doing so.  More »

Tags: , application development, BPM, Business Process Management, end-user programming

Yesterday, we announced a new customer deployment in the UK that demonstrates our commitment to delivering accelerated BPM value. Pinnacle People, a provider to the UK government, deployed the Appian BPM Suite from start to Phase 1 production go-live in only 20 days.

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.  More »

Tags: , BPM

For years, Appian’s nearest competition was Lombardi, followed by Savvion.  In just under a month, both have been acquired.   While Savvion had long ago faded from competitive viability, its acquisition by Progress Software puts neat punctuation to the era of crowded and overlapping BPM pure-plays – ending it, as it were, with a bang.
Nearly everyone ‘wins’ here – even external parties. More »

Tags: , BPM, Business Process Management

Appian’s goal has always been to be the top pure-play BPM company. The road from where we stand to that place has never been clearer than it is right now.

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. More »

Tags: , BPM