"While it pains me to endorse the 'evil empire,' human-centric BPM technologies that leverage Microsoft Office really do have a leg up. People use Excel and Word. What's strange is that Microsoft itself doesn't own a human-centric BPM software [offering]."
– Steven, commenting on my blog entry "Why Workflow Doesn't HAVE to Suck" (which I read only after writing the entry that appears below, eerily enough).
So I'm in Orlando, at IBM Corp.'s Lotusphere event. And I've taken a look at the stuff IBM's announced. And I've decided that IBM – and at least some of its internal people and external partners, are moving rapidly towards delivering collaboration solutions that embody some advanced BPM and business knowledge management (BKM) features and concepts.
You should check out Lotus Notes 8, not only for its nifty features, but for how IBM built them. IBM used open source Eclipse technologies that make supporting Linux, Microsoft Windows, and other environments easier for IBM and its software developer partners. IBM did and is doing the same with its Lotus Connections tool, and kind of "MySpace for grown-ups with jobs," and its Lotus Quickr content-sharing and collaboration solution. This one is designed to let users easily create shared content repositories and invite other users to share in the sharing.
So instead of taking on Microsoft's Outlook and Exchange head-to-head again/still, IBM now can say it has interesting, useful tools that work seamlessly with those worthy competitors – and do things that they don't. And those building process- and BKM-enabled applications can reach out and touch Linux, Mac, mobile, Windows, and other users with equal ease. This makes such applications more attractive to build, because it expands their potential markets. It also makes them more attractive to those of us who care about BPM and BKM, because such efforts have to touch everyone to deliver maximum business value.
The Lotusphere Innovation Lab is showcasing more examples of BKM/BPM-enabled, human-centric applications built atop the new foundations IBM is sowing. "Activity-Centric Computing for Evolving Business Practices," a tool that supports ad hoc business practices and encoding of those practices into reusable templates. LiveBook, which combines Lotus Sametime instant messaging with shared content. Integration of Sametime with IBM's Rational Jazz tool for collaborative software development. All opportunities to build business processes and best practices into applications that focus on people, tasks, and information – the building blocks of "IT 3.0."
You'll likely hear, read, and see more about most of the above during the next few months, as IBM begins to deliver on the promise being unveiled this week. But the neatest things about all of this are things that aren't being announced, but are being quietly, excitedly discussed here in Orlando. IBM is doing things that are making Lotus technologies cool and exciting again, after playing second fiddle to Microsoft for too long. And aside from its pragmatic, business-driven use of open source technologies, IBM's latest moves are enabling others to build BPM and BKM features and concepts into relatively easy-to-build applications, and to deliver these to users across multiple platforms, each with a near-native look and feel.
IBM is increasingly in a position to compete anew with Microsoft where the rubber most meets the road – at the point of the user experience. And IBM has strengths to bring to that competition, including broad, deep experience with BPM and related issues – strengths that are broader and more mature than most of Microsoft's. So if IBM gets it like I think IBM gets it, it will be very, very interesting to see how the two companies manifest their respective visions of how to get to effective BPM, BKM, and truly human-centric, process-driven business computing. Stay tuned. I know I will. Do let me know if you see something to which you think I should pay (more) attention.
technorati tags: lotusphere2007, ibm
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.
