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Blog: Craig SchiffDecember 21, 2007Vendors Benefit from Prior RelationshipsI have noticed a disturbing new trend in BPM vendor selection in the past few months. There have now been several instances of vendors being selected solely on the basis of prior experiences or business relationship with that vendor. For example, a media company I am familiar with determined that a specific BPM application vendor was the best fit for their particular needs. However, the CEO stepped in and said that 'since our ERP provider, who we have a long and positive history with, has recently acquired a well-known BPM vendor that is who we are going with'. Continue reading "Vendors Benefit from Prior Relationships" » July 30, 2007What's Next?As we continue to work with vendors, end users, investors, and other industry experts we are getting a good sense of the next major trends in performance management. At the moment three particular areas stand out: - Adoption by large companies. Specifically, some of the largest companies and best known brands are finally moving forward with business performance management (BPM). You may have thought that with all of their resources and massive amounts of data they would have been some of the first to pick up on BPM. However, their very size has held them back. The number of systems they have to deal with, the territoriality and politics around those systems, not to mention corporate bureaucracy has made this a very slow process for many companies. The good news is that most of them finally felt enough pain to bite the bullet and move forward. There are however still some big companies that are badly in need of performance management, but are so messed up they will not be moving forward anytime soon. There are BPM champions in those organizations to be sure, but they don't have the power and influence to cut through the politics and inertia. Continue reading "What's Next?" » June 26, 2007Catchy New Phrases?In talking with vendors recently some new phrases were used that I found intriguing. There are many phrases that I hear again and again in the business performance management world. These include things like: 'one version of the truth', 'profitability optimization', 'unified platform', and other equally boring stuff. It's refreshing to hear something new once in a while. I don't know if these two will catch on, but I like the concepts behind the words. The first one is 'BPM Squared'. This is based on the fact that BPM stands for both business performance management and business process management. The company using this term, Inforsense, is basically saying that their solutions bring business performance type analytics to everyday business processes throughout the organization. The other term is 'difference-maker'. In BPM we often talk about giving every decision-maker the information they need to make the right choices. Microsoft, in using this term when talking about PerformancePoint, is essentially saying there is a broader group of workers that have an impact on the business that should be included in the solution. This goes along with their 'pervasive BI' message. I doubt that these phrases are trademarked so feel free to use them and make them part of the language we use to discuss BI and BPM. February 22, 2007High Risk Vendor TacticsIn the highly competitive race to win more business performance management deals, a new approach has recently emerged. It goes something like this - the first vendor in says 'If you agree to not look at any other vendors, I will give you the best possible deal'. For most people wise to the software purchasing process this should clearly be a red flag. First of all, many companies have specific policies that require them to look at multiple vendors before they make any major purchase. There is good reason for this - you have to do your homework. The world is littered with failed IT initiatives where the appropriate level of due diligence was not performed. What is the vendor afraid of anyway? If they truly have the best solution for your needs they'll win in the end. Continue reading "High Risk Vendor Tactics" » January 15, 2007Standardization is Important, Microsoft is NotAccording to the initial results from the 2007 BPM Pulse survey, more than two thirds of the respondents are pursuing business performance management as part of their corporate system consolidation/standardization initiatives. A similar number were not aware of Microsoft's momentous announcement last June about their planned entry into the space. Of those who were aware of the announcement, the majority said it had little to no impact on their BPM plans. Microsoft clearly has an uphill battle ahead of it. Of course if they deliver a great product at the right price point that can change everything. Other key findings from this survey, including customer satisfaction ratings for the major vendors, will be revealed live this Thursday, January 18th at 12:00 ET. Replay now available here. Detailed results from the survey will be published here on the B-Eye Network in the coming weeks as part of the BPM Newsletter. August 15, 2006Free BPM: Open Source Comes to Performance ManagementOpen source has been successful in the infrastructure and tools market. Pentaho brought the open source model to business intelligence which often forms the foundation for business performance management (BPM) solutions. Now a BPM applications vendor, Adaptive Planning, has taken it one step further - they are delivering an end to end BPM/BI solution stack using Pentaho's BI platform, data integration, reporting & analysis, and dashboards. Adaptive Planning will provide the domain specific performance applications such as planning, budgeting, and consolidation and pre-defined metrics. This solution also utilizes Oracle Database XE, Apache, and Linux. The end result is what I believe to be the first (but I'm sure it won't be the last) complete open source performance management solution. The goal is a more affordable, higher quality, community-driven solution. If successful, this can make performance management more accessible and bring its benefits to many more organizations, particularly in the mid-market. To that end there is even a free version (Express Edition) available for download. It is fully functional and can be used to meet a company's performance needs. This of course raises the question, how will Adaptive Planning make money? The answer is that they hope some percentage of Express Edition users will move to their Corporate and Enterprise editions which bundle in vendor support, a step-up feature set, and legal protections (such as indemnity) often required by larger companies for their mission critical applications. Whatever the outcome for Adaptive Planning from this initial foray by a BPM vendor into open source, end users will benefit by having a new cost -effective alternative. Other vendors may follow suit over time, if not with product than with new pricing models to address some of the price pressure this solution should bring to the BPM marketplace. July 17, 2006Another View of the BI/BPM FutureI recently received a copy of a BI/BPM research report from a technology-focused investment bank called Boston Corporate Finance. The report tracks the trends they have observed in the space as well as some projections as to what may happen in the near future. Some of the information is well-known and obvious, while some of it is thought-provoking. Much of what they see is in line with what we have observed ourselves so they have clearly done their homework. They comment on the merging of BI and CPM (Corporate Performance Management or BPM Business Performance Management), they see predictive analytics generating new interest in the space, they note the convergence of structured and unstructured data, .and they speculate on potential IBM BI acquisitions. It's certainly a worthwhile read and you don't even have to register to get your own PDF copy. Just follow the link above. July 10, 2006EPM - The Next Big Thing?EPM, or Employee Performance Management, seems to be on the upswing. Its focus on identifying, measuring, and monitoring employee performance against specific goals and then tying it to incentive compensation plans is a natural extension of BPM - Business Performance Management. While BPM lays out strategic objectives at a corporate and departmental level, EPM brings it down to Earth and makes it actionable at the employee level. The rise of BPM has generated renewed interest in EPM. For some time now this kind of work has been done with high-priced consultants and spreadsheets. Now there are several firms advocating application software solutions. Those firms include IXP3 in Australia and Strategix Performance in the U.S. among others. We think there is a definite need for this and it can magnify the benefits of a BPM initiative. Is your firm an EPM user or prospect? I'd be interesting in hearing about your experiences with EPM. July 6, 2006The Essential Elements of Predictive AnalytcisNumerous vendors lay claim to the ability to provide predictive analytics. These firms include Business Objects, Computer Associates, and OutlookSoft as well as several others. While they all seem to agree on the basics - predictive analytics enable a company to more accurately determine the potential outcomes of today's business decisions - they disagree on how you get there. In other words, much like business performance management itself several years ago, vendors and consultants are taking the opportunity to define the requirements of predictive analytics to fit their own capabilities. To begin the march towards a more standard definition, and therefore more stable ground for end users (as well as consultants and vendors), we would like to propose a list of 12 key elements to look for in a predictive analytics system. Continue reading "The Essential Elements of Predictive Analytcis" » May 10, 2006The Mid-Market is HotWe work directly with end users, speak regularly with the key vendors, and also converse with our fellow consulting companies in the performance management space. Over the past several weeks a clear trend has emerged: the mid-market is a key focus area for BPM. On the end user side we are seeing a steady flow of new customers and prospects that fit the typical mid-market profile ($ 500 million or less in revenues). As we meet with vendors we are seeing those that have historically been focused on this market trying to figure out how to win even more of this business. The larger vendors are starting to target this market as well and are putting together comprehensive product and go to market strategies for this group. The consulting companies are trying to understand the dynamics of this market. They are trying to figure out how to play in a market that is very cost sensitive and prefers more packaged solutions. We believe there is a tremendous opportunity here for the solution providers that focus on low total cost of ownership, reduced demand on IT, ease of use, while still being able to handle complexity. The mid-market does not need 'lite' versions of products. They need powerful solutions that will grow with them but are relatively easy to implement and use and priced appropriately for their size. March 22, 2006Interest in Master Data Management Runs HighAll of us so-called 'industry experts' have been talking about this topic for a while. We may call it master data or meta data or enterprise dimension management, but it all means the same thing. The question in my mind has been 'does the end user community see the same pressing need that we do?' Two recent data points have answered that question for me. I was asked to speak at a webcast on this topic, specifically focused on the chart of accounts dimension. Well, as it turned out the event was over-subscribed and we needed to schedule a second live run of the same webcast to handle the overflow crowd. In addition, we just completed our annual BPM Pulse Survey which asked nearly 500 respondents to rate the importance of a list of up and coming features of business performance management (predictive analytics, vertical solutions, etc.) and meta data management received the highest ratings. MDM/EDMs time has arrived. January 9, 2006The State of the Industry - So FarOur annual BPM Pulse survey is in full swing and we now have enough data to begin identifying some trends. This survey looks at plans, results, and satisfaction around business performance management, and its related BI components. By the way, its not too late to share your opinions and receive the full survey results (and perhaps win an iPod). The survey will remain open until the end of January. Now on to the early findings. Budgeting and Operational Analytics lead the pack, as they did in last year's survey, when it comes to the areas of BPM most companies are focused on. This was not unexpected. The next few findings however were surprising, and bode well for the industry. Continue reading "The State of the Industry - So Far" » December 19, 2005The Consulting PendulumWhen you purchase software, who do you get to assist with the implementation? The vendor? A third-party? The choices available to you are fairly well controlled by the vendor. If they don't have many partners, you have little choice but to use their own consultants. If they have lots of partners the vendor salesperson will probably steer you to a preferred partner in your area. There are benefits to the vendor and the customer in each approach. In the BPM world today we are seeing the beginning of a shift away from the reliance on partners approach which has dominated the space for the past few years Continue reading "The Consulting Pendulum" » November 17, 2005VerticalizationThis should be a top trend, but it's not. At least not yet. Most companies we speak with would love to find a product that comes out of the box customized for their business, or at least their industry. This is particularly true when talking about dashboards. Surely banks, as an example, have a lot of the same requirements and track many of the same key performance indicators as each other. Why then doesn't almost every vendor offer a 'banking dashboard'? The trend seems to be going the other way. There was a BPM vendor called INEA focused on addressing the needs of a single vertical: banking. They got acquired by Cartesis and their products became part of Cartesis' generic offering. Is INEA's failure to succeed on its own an illustration of why more vendors don't pursue a vertical strategy? Continue reading "Verticalization" » October 23, 2005Time for Hosted BPM?When we started OutlookSoft back in 1999 we intended to differentiate ourselves from the competition in three ways: by delivering a completely web-based solution, offering truly unified BPM, and giving users the option of subscribing to a hosted version. The unified and web-based messages played well. The hosted option did not. The larger prospects were very concerned about the security of their critical corporate data residing on a third-party host. The smaller prospects were more open to it, but at the time it turned out to be cheaper to buy your own equipment and keep it in house. Times have changed though and prospects are coming to us now at BPM Partners and asking for help in evaluating hosted BPM solutions. Continue reading "Time for Hosted BPM?" » September 19, 2005Entrenched, But Not EmbracedIt used to be that if a vendor was providing the software for a particular solution area in a company, when that solution was expanded that vendor would be the first to be called. In the world of BPM today that is not always the case. More often than not the existing vendor does not get the new business by default. A selection process will take place where that vendor becomes one of 4 or 5 solutions being evaluated. In some instances, and this is a growing trend, the entrenched vendor is specifically excluded from the options being looked at for expanding the solution. This seems to go against common logic: people are already trained up on the solution, there is probably a good pricing deal in place for purchasing incremental seats/functionality, etc. And yet the entrenched vendors are not being invited to play. Why is this the case? |
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