Recently I wrote of my concern with Metastorm spreading itself too thin with its three-pronged aim at business process management (BPM), business process analysis and enterprise architecture management (EAM). Metastorm added the latter two functions by acquiring ProVision in 2007. My concern is based both on the size of Metastorm in relation to establishing and promoting a market, and the question of whether the EAM function can even stand alone in the marketplace, even if an IBM or similar market leader tried to establish and promote it. Of course Metastorm cannot answer me because of the quiet period it’s in related to its IPO (see link to my investment research at right).
But competitors that apparently do not want to take the chance that Metastorm is right have acknowledged the strategy by partnering in ways that answer Metastorm’s 2007 acquisition of ProVision. Following similar arrangements between W4 and Mega and Lombardi and Mega in the past, Appian partnered with Mega on September 2.
Although Meta can’t talk to me, Mega can. Dan Hebda, VP of Technology at MEGA, recently told me that while many BPM vendors have a modeling component to them, that tends to be more of a workflow configuration tool rather than a tool used for the complete design of an enterprise (different scope, different goals, different capabilities). Enterprise Architecture promotes a consistent vision of the whole company, not just the IT infrastructure or resources. BPM is one way to implement that vision.
-- Dennis Byron
As I have seen some recent news about BPM vendors acquiring or partnering with specific vendors from related spaces, I have to wonder: how well does the data collected in any one application transfer to the next? Does the business analyst's work in the BPA application natively and fluidly represent itself in the BPM application when it is decided that the modeled process is ready for automation? And in the reverse direction, does the real life BPM usage data easily represent itself to the business analyst (in terms of Round Trip Optimization analysis)?
If new interfaces have to be designed in order for these application alliances to really work for the end customer (or if there is a need for manual transfer of data across application in these "suites"), then how much benefit is being provided to the customers really?