The non-profit IT industry association CompTIA has published its “Second Annual Trends in Cloud Computing” study (read a summary here). The data shows that cloud computing is weaving its way into the IT and business mainstream.  Per the report, “the hesitation is disappearing and companies are moving quickly past experimentation and into heavier use of cloud computing.” That heavier use is in both increased numbers of users and increasingly complex applications and processes going into the cloud. From that perspective, our Cloud BPM has the hallmarks of the platform of the future for the CIO and his or her team.

The trend beyond Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) consumption of fairly simple cloud applications to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) creation of new and complex solutions is significant. PaaS accelerates IT’s ability to meet the needs of the business. In addition to speed, BPM PaaS specifically does even more. It creates a flexible and unified enterprise IT infrastructure, and delivers economies of scale in creating new enterprise-level cloud services and applications. That’s what our Cloud BPM gives the CIO.

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Tags: , BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, CompTIA, PaaS BPM, SaaS BPM

Cloud computing is confusing. The term covers multiple deployment and service models, and the decision to “go cloud” requires thought around economic considerations and security. Luckily, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has published a detailed document for anyone looking for information, definitions and guidance around cloud computing. While NIST’s “DRAFT Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations” report has been prepared for use by Federal agencies, commercial IT and business leaders can also learn valuable lessons from federal models for IT and security. A review of the report shows that Appian’s Cloud BPM meets NIST’s key considerations for a variety of cloud models.

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Tags: , Appian Cloud, BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, NIST, PaaS BPM, SaaS BPM

Federal agencies are moving to the cloud at a rapid clip so it’s not surprising that so many federal contractors are packing their bags (and servers) and joining them. Cloud computing makes sense for organizations of all stripes, federal contractors included. As more and more large organizations migrate to the cloud, there will inevitably be growing pains. BPM software in the cloud is a particularly good fit for contracting firms, given their preponderance of classic “knowledge worker” employees. Provided they can ward off the demons.

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Tags: , Appian Cloud, BPM in the Cloud, Cloud Computing, federal contracting, Government 2.0, SaaS BPM

“Within a decade, [government] will have a nearly complete cloud infrastructure.”

That’s according to Deniece Peterson, manager of industry analysis at government research firm Input. Peterson was quoted in a special feature in Washington Technology magazine, promoting a December 2010 survey of 460 government officials by the 1105 Government Information Group.

The survey indicated that 90 percent of government officials surveyed consider the cloud to be the real deal – not merely a passing fad. That said, adoption continues to be hampered by lingering concerns, particularly over security. The article points out that “leading cloud vendors are in the process of getting their clouds certified as safe and secure by the federal government during the next several years.” As a cloud platform and application solution, Appian’s cloud BPM software is way ahead of the pack in this regard.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian Cloud, BPM for Federal Acquisitions, BPM for Government, BPM for Human Resource Management, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, Government 2.0, SaaS BPM, software-as-a-service

FSO Knowledge Exchange held their “Financial Services Industry Transformation and Outsourcing Strategies Forum” last week in London. Appian was on-hand for the event because financial services institutions (FSIs) make up a large segment of our customer base, and our BPM software is all about achieving organizational transformation. So it was a natural fit.

Edward Hughes, our VP of Worldwide Sales, participated in a panel discussion on “Driving Process Excellence Through Innovative Platforms and Solutions.” He outlined the three crucial elements that FSIs must focus on to achieve business transformation: business and IT collaboration, customer service excellence, and hitting the ever-moving target of regulatory compliance.

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Tags: , Appian, Appian Cloud, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, mobile BPM, SaaS BPM, Social BPM

It’s no secret that the last two Gartner BPM Summit events had lackluster attendance. This was no fault of Gartner’s; the recession drove expense reductions and corporate travel bans that hit the event industry pretty hard across the board.

I’m not going to say corporate conferences are necessarily a bellweather of the economy, but judging by last week’s BPM Summit in Maryland, something has changed. The place was packed, and the general vibe was way up on the optimism scale.

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Tags: , Appian Cloud, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, CME Group, Gartner, mobile BPM, SaaS BPM, Social BPM, UPS

You and your partners are often your own best customers. That was proven at our recent Appian World 2011 conference in a presentation by Teresa Carlson, VP Public Sector for Amazon Web Services. According to the presentation, the company cut infrastructure costs by 86 percent by using its Appian BPM software license in its own cloud computing environment. We have a new white paper that explains it all.

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Tags: , Amazon Web Services, Appian Cloud, Appian World 2011, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, SaaS BPM, software-as-a-service

The day has finally arrived – Appian World 2011 starts today! We have a fantastic event planned, with loads of rich content from customers, analysts, partners and other BPM experts. With more than 525 people registered, this conference is the “place to be” for the next three days to learn about Mobile, Cloud and Social BPM.

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Tags: , Appian, Appian World 2011, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, mobile BPM, SaaS BPM, software-as-a-service

I’m very excited about next week’s Appian World event.  As I write this, we have well over 450 people registered.  That means we have to start worrying about our capacity limit at the hotel – a great problem to have!

Everyone who attends will have an opportunity to participate in processes around the conference using our new Tempo social interface on their mobile devices.  We at Appian use Tempo to run our business and manage most of our internal processes.  I’ll confess that I’ve become a Tempo addict, checking it all the time to see what’s just happened in our company.  Most things posted on our feed happen automatically through integrations with other processes.  I love seeing notifications of new customers getting on-boarded and every new person registering for Appian World.  Having an organization that has the transparency Tempo brings allows us to be very agile.  For example, I noticed someone from a prospective customer registered for Appian World five minutes before we were to get on a conference call with their management team.  Knowing they registered allowed our team to quickly change topics and take action to accelerate our sales cycle.

There’s a lot of talk out there about how social technologies will impact business.  For example, I attended the recent Shared Services & Outsourcing Week show which had over 1,000 leaders of business process areas such as finance, IT, HR, and procurement in attendance.  One presenter ran an automated poll question, asking how many of these process management leaders already employ social media as part of their internal operations.  The answer: only four percent.  A follow up question asked how many expected to use social media five years from now.  Well over 50% of the audience said they did.  Based on this we should expect hyper growth for social media in shared services and process management areas. But just how do business leaders expect to use social media and what business benefits do they anticipate?  And what qualifies as “social media” in business?

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Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, Appian Cloud, Appian World 2011, BPM, BPM in the Cloud, BPM software, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, Deductions Management, Financial exception processes, Financial Operations, mobile BPM, Process Management, SaaS BPM, shared services

Appian World 2011, Appian’s customer and BPM community conference, is fast approaching. We’re about 3 weeks to going live in Reston, Virginia on April 13, 2011. While we expect almost 500 attendees, the most exciting part of this conference is going to be the theme: Mobile BPM, Cloud BPM and Social BPM.

Appian’s latest product release effectively integrates all three of these technology inflection points. This enables customers to effectively use BPM in the Cloud, on the Road and in their Social Network. A number of presentations, panels and customer case studies will highlight how customers can expand and strengthen their BPM programs through the use of Appian 6.5/Appian Tempo.

Appian World 2011 has something for everyone. More »

Tags: , Appian, Appian 6, Appian Cloud, Appian World 2011, BPM in the Cloud, BPM software, Business Process Management, Cloud Computing, mobile BPM, SaaS BPM, software-as-a-service