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The process mix

More than 40 software suppliers describe their products as having 'process management' capabilities. They come from such diverse backgrounds that it is not yet clear who will be driving the BPM wave.

Some, such as Staffware and Filenet, come from a workflow background. These suppliers initially provided software to manage the flow of documents in office environments, especially where actions by people are required. Now, they increasingly focus on storing and managing the processes and content, and interacting with underlying systems.

Process modelling companies make up another stream. Companies such as IDS Scheer provide tools for systems analysts to build step-by-step blueprints for business procedures and processes - these are then used to design an applications infrastructure. Recently, such suppliers have built more direct links to executable code. Enterprise application integration (EAI) suppliers, such as Tibco and SeeBeyond, used to focus on integrating the data used by different applications. But, joined by suppliers such as Vitria, CrossWorlds (IBM) and Asera, they increasingly focus on linking applications together to build cross-functional, end-to-end processes. Suppliers in all of these categories are rapidly developing their products to better support processes - as are major applications companies such as SAP.

All of these are being joined by a wave of specialist start-ups, such as Intalio, Fuego, Savvion; and by systems integrators such as Computer Sciences Corp (CSC). The latter has brought together a collection of products and procedures to provide a composite process managed solution.

The BPMS

Effective business process management (BPM) will almost certainly require the development of a major new class of software - the BPMS (business process management system). This will serve the same role in process computing as databases do today in datacentric computing.

No supplier today can claim to have a fully functional BPMS - although several suppliers have partial solutions. A BPMS will be a complex system and may contain tools from a variety of vendors, all integrated together. Among its functions: to draw on all available systems and services and integrate these as parts of business processes; to automate routine business processes; to manage processes from a single system, including 'discovering' them from internal and external systems; designing new processes and redesigning existing processes (using modelling tools); deploying new processes by executing code or interacting with underlying systems; and providing tools for optimising, analysing and maintaining processes.

The PI Calculus and other fangled concepts

Key BPM suppliers

IBM: The US systems giant is pulling together a group of process modelling and management products that, as one rival put it, "is beginning to look suspiciously like a strategy". These products include the WebSphere integration platform, which has process mapping tools, the CrossWorlds applications and process integration product, and Holosofx, a process-modelling suite.

Staffware: The London-listed UK software supplier has remodelled its workflow suite, originally intended for managing the flow of scanned documents, to support transactions, to better integrate with other applications and to store a large database of processes. The company, is arguably the largest pure-play process management vendor. Its main product is Process suite, based on its scalable iProcess engine.

IDS Scheer: IDS Scheer has emerged as a global supplier of process modelling tools and is dominant in its native Germany. The Aris tool is viewed as a feature rich, market leader by analysts. It is trying to move beyond modelling and has entered an alliance with Intalio.

Filenet: 20-year old Filenet is a remodelled supplier of document management systems. It now describes itself as a supplier of process-oriented content management systems and focuses on managing large amounts of documents in a structured way.

Intalio: Founded in 1999, Intalio is a classic, venture capital funded, pure-play software company. Founder Ismael Ghalini is a passionate leader of the BPM movement. Intalio has developed one of the first business process management systems (BPMS) on the market.

Savvion: The privately held software company, founded in 1994, focuses on XML integration tools with business process management (BPM) capabilities. Savvion is used by many large companies as a process hub to link various enterprise applications together.

Process management and web services

Web services are distributed application functions that can be located and used using a standard set of tools. To the business process management movement, they are processes, or sub processes. They view the separate technological developments as highly complementary. If web services are ever to become very widely used, then some kind of web orchestration platform will be needed. This will act as a kind of choreographer, managing how web services are used and how they interrelate. It will enable web services to be assembled into complete business processes.

This is very challenging technically, because such systems need to be flexible, scalable, resilient, and have complex processes built-in to handle event exceptions and so on. But such systems will be essential in complex environments.

Process people pronounce

"The benefits of BPM can be enormous, but it is difficult and treacherous to undertake. When you start to fiddle with business processes, you are touching raw nerves."

Katy Ring, Ovum

"Do not mistake BPM for some new 'killer app' or some fashionable new business theory. It is a foundation upon which companies can depend as surely as they depend on database management." Howard Smith and Peter Fingar in The Third Wave "I now see companies not just as individual producers of goods or services, but as combinations of processes."

James Champy, author of Reengineering the Corporation, X-Engineering

"I no longer see myself as a radical person, I have become a process person."

Michael Hammer

"Business processes are the most fundamental source of sustainable organisational advantage."

Peter Keen, author of The Process Edge