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BPMS Next Generation: IBPMS
By Avi Rosenthal
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October 4, 2012 08:17 AM EDT
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 1,822
In a previous post I discussed Business Process Management (BPM) evolution as reflected by an Ovum report. 
Recently I read new Gartner BPM Magic Quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is titled IBPMS Magic Quadrant.
If you compare it to previous Gartner BPMS Magic Quadrants (you should not compare them), you will find a totally different picture. 

 Only three Leaders in the IBPMS Magic Quadrant, namely: IBM, PegaSystems and Appian. No Challengers and a lot of Visionaries I know (Oracle, Software AG, Tibco, Vitria) and two Visionaries I never heard of (Bosch Software Innovations, Whitestein). 

 Previous BPMS Magic Quadrant includes many Leaders, many Challengers as well as many Visionaries.

 The pattern of few Leaders, No Challengers and many Visionaries is typical to immature markets.
Gartner explains it as a new generation of BPMS tools.

 What differentiate IBPMS from BPMS?
IBPMS tools try to address a new Use Case: Intelligent  Business Operations(IBO). IBO is required for better and faster decisions in a dynamic ever changing enterprise. 

The implication of the IBO Scenario is convergence (or at list tighter binding) of BPM with other paradigms and technologies. The word Intelligent included in the IBO acronym implies that Business Intelligence (BI) is one of the related technologies. SOA which was already coupled with BPM is more connected to BPM in the context of IBPMS. Complex Event Processing, Service Orchestration, ESBs and Registries are SOA and EDA concepts and technologies, which are closely related to IBPMS implementation.


 MY Take
  • I already read and wrote about IBO. Few months ago I wrote a new Business Intelligence Kit to be included in the next version of MethodA. I met this concept while drilling down BI. Gartner's Magic Quadrant starting point was BPMS.    
  • Gartner's view of a new generation of BPMS is different from Ovum's gradual evolution approach. However, you can find the same Vendors as Leaders (Gartner) or Shortlist (Ovum): Appian, PegaSystems and IBM. Ovum's Shortlist also  includes Oracle. Probably PegaSystems's, Appian's and IBM's products are currently better products than other products. 
  • Product selection is specific to an Enterprise. Enterprises differ in Size, Use Cases, Technological Infrastructure, Applications Technologies etc. Sometimes a Niche product or Visionary product and not a leading product is the best fit for an Enterprise.
  • Expect changes in an Immature markets like IBPMS. Today Leaders will not necessarily be tomorrow (2013 or 2014) leaders. 
  • Not all BPMS products are created equal. Gartner divides them to two major categories: Pure BPMS Products (e.g. Appian, PegaSystems and Bosch Software Innovations) and Infrastructure Products including BPMS (e.g. IBM, Oracle, Software AG and Tibco). 
  • IBPMS and Case Management There are similarities between IBPMS and Case Management but they address different Use Cases. Case Management and IBPMS converge between BPM and other concepts and technologies. However, Case Management is for Knowledge Workers and IBPMS is usually for Managers tasks (sometimes it is also for Knowledge Workers). Some of the technologies included in Case Management such as Knowledge Management and Enterprise Content Management are not integral part of IBPMS.                                  


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Published October 4, 2012 – Reads 1,822
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More Stories By Avi Rosenthal

Ari has over 30 years of experience in IT across a wide variety of technology platforms, including application development, technology selection, application and infrastructure strategies, system design, middleware and transaction management technologies and security.

Positions held include CTO for one of the largest software houses in Israel as well as the CTO position for one of the largest ministries of the Israeli government.