Process for the Enterprise
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Innovation in BPM is Alive and Well

May 28th, 2010 by Scott Francis

Well, it wasn’t that long ago when the pure play BPM acquisitions had us all wondering what would happen to the pace of innovation in our corner of the world where business meets IT on a daily basis.

But besides the big players, Pega, IBM, Progress, Oracle, SAP, Software AG, Fujitsu… and a few of the smaller old guard still competing: Appian, ActiveVos, jBPM, Handysoft, Intalio, Global360, Ultimus, Papyrus, etc.  We also see some new players in and around BPM:

ActionBase – focusing on user defined processes, case management, unpredictable work, etc.

Signavio – BPMN modeler in the cloud, but also partnering to white box their modeler with various other tools (including Activiti)

Serena -

RAVEN – An interesting take on starting business process models with simple sentence structure descriptions.

Activiti – new open source effort, execution-oriented, led by some former jBPM members.  Uses a version of Signavio for modeling.

Process Maker – another opensource/cloud offering.

etc.

And I’m probably missing or even insulting several companies based on my overlooking them in this list off the top of my head (my apologies!).  So, here’s my offer to anyone with an innovative BPM product – send me a link and a quick blurb and I’ll update this post or create a new page in our blog to include that information for posterity.

So what’s the point?  There’s a lot of innovation going on in our space.  The sheer number of products targeted at making modeling processes more accessible is surprising. And then there are new execution engines.  I think because the market is no longer trying to compare every offering to Lombardi or Savvion as the definition of a “BPMS” – some of these other offerings now have an opening to start adding value to companies’ BPM efforts without having to get into a direct comparison across the board- just competing based on their strengths.

Innovation in the BPM market is alive and well.

Related posts:

  1. Applying Fast Innovation Techniques to BPM
  2. The Promise versus the Innovation
  3. Bruce Silver Reviews Signavio (BPM in the Cloud?)
  4. Will Open Source Software Meet the Challenge? Activiti Enters the Ring
  5. Innovation in IT Offshoring? Impact on #BPM?

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  • http://mainthing.ru/ Anatoly Belychook

    I discovered BizAgi for myself recently. The implemented the richest *executable* BPMN I've seen – with messaging, signals and compensations.

    • Jcontesse

      And the usability of the whole suite is pretty good. Too bad the portal can’t easily be integrated to an existing one or customized to fit your needs. The usability of the portal could be better… but a great tool with end-users in mind but powerful for IT to use.

  • Greg Harley

    I have to agree with Anatoly. BizAgi has the best modeler I've experienced to date. I have no experience with the engine yet, but certainly the modeling and documentation/discovery features are extremely rich.

  • http://mainthing.ru/ Anatoly Belychook

    That's the point Greg. I used itp-commerce so far (thanks to Bruce Silver) when I needed a neat BPMN. But it's a pure modeler based on MS Visio. BizAgi implemented it in the engine which I didn't even expect.

    I believe they made a mistake by promoting it as a “free BPMN modeler” – it sounds like “yet another modeler”. In fact they did much better job.

  • http://www.bp-3.com/blogs sfrancis

    Based on yours and Greg's recommendations, I'll try out BizAgi and add it to my list. I've heard of it before, but I agree with you, Anatoly, their messaging didn't excite me because it sounded like “just another modeler”….

  • http://twitter.com/ESMatBPL Scott Menter

    You make a great point about the uncertainty revolving around “pure-play” BPM, and the question of ongoing innovation in that space. It did look like the field was going to be swept clean, but happily there are still plenty of us out there keeping things interesting.

    I'll nominate the company I work for, BP Logix, to be added to your list! We're doing some things that are (speaking as humbly as possible) pretty innovative and unique, focused on predictive metrics and ease of deployment.

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