Transforming the way we work
By Dermot Corrigan
The twin trends of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and socialisation are impacting across all types of business software, and the business performance management (BPM) sphere is no different.
John Colbert, vice-president of research and analysis for BPM Partners, said that a variety of factors were coalescing to make ‘on-demand’ BPM, which can be accessed via the web, a real option for companies.
“On-demand reduces the load on the IT department,” said Colbert. “It replaces the price of a software purchase with an operating cost. It lets organisations buy BPM as they need it, so they do not have to buy seats for users who are not there. Finally, which is a big issue, it ensures everyone is using the latest version of the software.”
Last month, Derry-based BPM applications provider Singularity announced the launch of its LiveAgility platform, on which users pay a monthly fee to model, execute, monitor and continuously improve their business processes.
“The confluence of several trends, including the pervasiveness of the internet, the move to SaaS and the rapid proliferation of mobile devices among business technology users, is quickly changing the opportunity for BPM,” said Dermot McCauley, director of corporate development at Singularity.
“LiveAgility is squarely aimed at these trends and offers a consumer-class user experience for business software users in a BPM context.”
Colbert said that socialisation ± the inclusion of social network-style features such as collaboration, forums and instant messaging ± was becoming increasingly important in the BPM space.
“Vendors are tying social network elements into the business workflow,” he said. “Co-workers can share best practices they have deployed. Others can be informed about those practices as they develop their plan in a completely separate branch of the organisation.
“In addition, many vendors are leveraging the look and feel of social networks in the interface for the applications.”
SAP had teamed up with Google to develop a cloud-based BPM system, which also included social elements, said Jason Ward, sales manager at SAP Ireland.
“Gravity is a lightweight BPM editor tweaked to be compatible with Google Wave,” said Ward. “It allows for real-time interaction with others to model business processes. All participants in a ‘wave’ can edit, move and adapt the process model at the same time.
“Gravity brings together people, business information and analysis or decision techniques to make better decisions and increase productivity.”
McCauley said that future BPM systems would be integrated into each staff member’s personal desktop, allowing for monitoring and management of each employee’s workflow.
“Each user’s personal desktop might include a score card of today’s productivity versus target, a to-do list of work that needs attention, a list of buddies available right now to help get work done and a calendar of upcoming events or new customer due dates,” he said. “This personalisation of workspaces will transform the way people work.”
