You cannot buy BPM. It’s something you do.
Often I talk to people looking for a BPM system in a particular vertical market, such as financial services, insurance, healthcare, or publishing. In the traditional approach to software development I can see where this might be applicable, but in BPM, the market sector has nothing to do with the process model.
BPM is not something you buy. It’s a methodology. In BPM there are several smaller repeatable patterns for various things like a “looping approval” or “partially automated escalation” that we call design patterns that make up a complete solution that is applicable to any business model. In some vertical markets (such as publishing or project management) we tend to see more of a certain type of pattern than others, but in general all vertical markets use all patterns. So searching for something industry specific usually yields results that end up getting you locked into a system that isn’t very flexible.
When I model a business process, I tend to focus on the unique process in front of me, and not make any assumptions before beginning the process modeling. I’ve been down that road before, and ended up chasing a path that didn’t exist in the first place. Every organization is unique, even if you compare several organizations in the same vertical market. Some patterns that cover basic patterns of loans processing for example might be similar, but when you break these down to finer detail, I usually find little similarity.
Vendors typically try to capitalize on marketing trends and buzzwords. After you buy the software that’s “pre-built” to your industry, the next step is to customize it. Oh, and of course, you have to use their consultants to customize it, because nobody else knows how.
So if you are looking for a BPM system in a particular vertical market, are you really looking for BPM? Or are you just looking for a shrink wrapped business-in-a-box that abuses the BPM buzzword to sell more product? Make sure it says “SOA” in the specifications too, because that’s the other hot buzzword of the day. Add a sprinkle of “maximum ROI” and a $200k pricetag, and I’m sure you can sell it to your CIO.
- I’m not buying it.