Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and SAP AG announced a broadening/deepening/expansion of their alliance that may or may not have implications for BPM pursuers and practitioners. As covered by ebizQ, the companies announced that HP will offer a range of new and expanded Enterprise SOA and SAP NetWeaver implementation services, intended to ease and speed deployments of SOA-enabled composite applications and services for SAP NetWeaver components. The services will leverage appropriate HP and SAP technologies to help enterprises with tasks ranging from assess and evaluation of processes and architectural decisions to business analytics, intelligence, and process improvement, innovation, and integration, the companies added.
This announcement is more than just the latest example of the continuing integration of BPM and SOA efforts, processes, and technologies being pursued by users and vendors alike. It is also a prime example of how the desire to maximize leverage of effective business processes can be a primary driver of fundamental decisions about IT infrastructures and architectures.
HP is, after all, the world's fifth-largest SAP implementation, according to the announcement. In addition, SAP is hosting a growing, vibrant online community focused on process improvement, innovation, integration, management, and optimization – the Business Process Expert (BPX) Community. An offshoot of its even larger and more vibrant Software Developer Network, the BPX Community is evolving into a real crucible of experiences and practices, available as blogs, forums, downloads, and online courses and materials. It is of course fairly SAP-centric, but the information I've seen is largely applicable and useful even in non-SAP environments.
I cannot imagine the HP-SAP BPM-SOA alliance not being a hot topic of discussion across the SAP BPX Community. I'm counting on it, in fact, because I fear that left to their own devices, HP and SAP would spend a lot of cycles talking about features and functions and speeds and feeds. And as I've tried to argue here previously, those things are not the point of truly effective, business-driven, human-centric BPM. People, their tasks and experiences, and supporting those effectively and consistently are what BPM is really all about, and I think many if not most of the most active participants in the BPX Community know or will soon realize this. And I think, and hope, that this will in fact result in processes that help HP and SAP align their offerings and services more and more closely to the human-centric constraints and goals that underlie most if not all of the things we call business processes today.
If you haven't yet checked out the BPX Community, a great introduction to it can be found, conveniently enough, at the special SAP BPX section of the ebizQ Web site. There's a wealth of stimulating information and opinion there, contributed by folks from ebizQ and SAP. There's even a link to this very blog there, but I'd enthusiastically promote it even if there wasn't. So check it out, then please let me know what you think, about the BPX Community, the HP-SAP relationship, or anything else recent BPM developments bring to mind. Meanwhile, keep an eye on HP and SAP, to see if they or their joint customers do or learn anything that could be valuable to BPM efforts at your own enterprise. I will, too.
Michael Dortch has been an analyst, 'information entrepreneur,' speaker, and writer about IT and 'the real world" for the past 30 years. After almost 10 years at the Robert Frances Group (RFG), Michael begins a new position with Aberdeen Group in September.
Dennis Byron is an analyst with ebizQ, focusing on Open Source Software as well as Business Process Management technologies.
