The BI Vendors

BI vendors have picked up on the evolution of BI to BPM, and many have developed and acquired BPM components. Many have bought some of the leading financial analytics players and now are marketing to the synergies of a consistent BI and BPM platform. Many of these acquisitions were undertaken in an effort to transform traditional BI vendors to integrated BPM vendors, with products that included planning and more analytical capabilities. SAS acquired ABC Technologies and has focused more on profitability management and governance areas although it has a financial-management tool that has not seen much adoption. Information Builders has forged a partnership with Clarity. MicroStrategy, a long proponent of staying out of the BPM game, has recently announced that it is partnering with Extensity.

Microsoft is a major BI player, with Reporting Services and Analysis Services and its recent acquisition of ProClarity. It recently has announced the availability of PerformancePoint Server, which will provide many BPM capabilities over time. It has extended its partnering programs to include foundations for many of the abovementioned vendors, including SAP, OutlookSoft, Applix and Extensity. Microsoft will be staking out even more ground in the BPM market, ultimately in competition with its current partners.

The ERP Vendors

When it comes to BPM functionality, ERP systems typically lag the best-of-breed solutions and even some BI offerings. ERP BPM solutions attempt to bridge transactional and information processes with improved integration. SAP, Oracle, Lawson, SSA Global (soon to be acquired by Infor), and Extensity (which acquired Comshare and was recently acquired by Golden Gate Capital, which includes Infor in its portfolio of companies) all have BPM solutions, with SSA Global partnering for its solution with Cognos. Extensity, however, continues to market its BPM product (Management Planning and Control) as a best-of-breed solution.

Aside from improved integration, a major advantage to ERP BPM solutions is the ability to drill down on transactional details for improved analysis and reconciliation. A single solution strategy for BI-BPM-ERP will be a major opportunity for organizations that operate on a single instance of ERP. This will not be the case for large, global corporations that operate on multiple instances of different-vendor ERP solutions. In these cases, drill-down capability may be very limited in a BPM system sourced from an ERP vendor.

Choosing the right BPM system is no easy process. The optimal solution for one company will be totally wrong for another. But there are practical best practices that organizations should apply to their investment and implementation processes (see box below), and all companies should involve stakeholders in the planning and implementation of their BPM architecture.

John Van Decker is Senior Vice President and Principal Research Fellow for Robert Frances Group, a leading business IT research and consulting firm.