For a while now there has been a fairly consistent set of business performance management (BPM) vendors showing up in deals. These include the big names of course as well as a group of smaller, but still very successful, BPM-focused vendors. You can see who I am talking about here. In the past month or two though we have become aware of several new vendors gearing up for their launch into this market. A few of these vendors have actually been around for a while, but have flown under the radar as they focused on a small market segment. Having honed their skills and created product success stories in a particular  market niche they are now ready to broadly enter the BPM marketplace. In addition there are at least two brand-new vendors in, or just coming out of, stealth mode. These vendors were founded by senior BPM experts who were freed up by the major acquisitions of a few years back. They've spent their down time working on product and now that their non-competes have expired they can launch as soon as they are ready. A few of these vendors we have talked with clearly have the potential to become solid players in the space. More choice and more competition is always good news for BPM buyers. In the next few months I will provide more details on some of these vendors as they launch themselves into this market.