News, Views & Reviews on Digital Process Automation, BPM, Performance Management & IT industry trends
I’ve just returned from a rather adventurous and eventful trip involving two important dots on Gartner’s magic quadrant for BPM. One is a tech behemoth interested in almost everything related to IT, and the other, a vendor that has a laser focus on BPM. The first dot is of course IBM and the other dot, allegedly the ‘best one’ on the quadrant, Appian. I am talking, of course, about IBM IMPACT at Las Vegas and AppianWorld at Washington D.C. Although…
You might find this funny, and maybe even somewhat disjointed in logic, but the IT industry after all these years, is now going through its teen years and it appears to have all the makings of ‘teenage’ as we know it. Even if 2014 is only its second year, the anxiety, the tension is all very visible. Cloud, Mobile, Social, internet-of-things, – look at it anyway you like, there is a writing on the wall that the extent of change…
When a good friend and I exchanged a few tweets back and forth the other day, it began like the usual exchange of views over news items that the #bpm timeline throws up once in a frequent while. But the ‘twonversation’ with my twitter counterpart – a venerable thinker in technology, particularly BPM – got me thinking and reinforced what I have always thought about the skills that really make a real good BPM Consultant. My friend had created…
One of the pet peeves for the fanatical BPM believers among us has been the gap between what outcomes of BPM initiatives could be if done right, versus what it seems to be on the ground. We (the fanatics, that is) have been looking at that gap and discussing and debating why BPM benefits seem so elusive, why customers find it so challenging to do all the right things in order to ensure great benefits and so on. But…
To me it seems that with the onset of ‘Social Media’, the bigger theme of a ‘Social Paradigm’, and the associated chatter these have generated, has driven all of us into some kind of a ‘me-too’ mode. Almost everyone in the industry – you and me included – has a point of view. Almost every enterprise software worth its salt has released, is releasing, talking or thinking about ‘social’ features. The BPMS market has not been spared either has…
2010 was a good year for BPM – more firms took to BPM, while many firms already using BPM set off to unlock more value from BPM; most top vendors posted another year of great growth; overall BPM visibility increased significantly and it is gradually becoming less of a concept understood only by few and defined differently by many. What most purists and proponents fundamentally think and opine on BPM tends to get a little muddled – if I may…
If you follow the BPM market, you would agree that the expectations today from BPM have seen a change from what it was a few years ago. Although the driving concepts and the fundamental promise of BPM may not have changed, they are certainly being better appreciated today and by a wider audience at that. One of the things I cherish most in my role is the opportunity to have conversations with customers and prospects who are thinking about BPM…
The news has really created quite a buzz and almost everyone who is following BPM is excited about this announcement. Why would IBM, an arguably formidable player in the BPM market in its own right, acquire a pure-play BPM product like Lombardi? Lombardi has reported record performance in recent years. Blueprint itself has worked up a good momentum around the cloud offering and has gathered thousands of customers. Compare this with BPM Blueworks that IBM had initiated earlier this year….
Even as we begin to hear about the easing up of the recessionary phase, it is not difficult to see that things are not going to be the same as they were before. And one of the biggest impacts this recession is likely to have is not in our pockets, but in our minds. Whether it is you or your organization, the biggest effect may well be the shift in thinking that this recession has brought about. And it does…
Much has been written about the outsourcing debate. Americans are becoming more and more outspoken about their disapproval of the idea and there are many groups that question the way visas are being handed out to ‘aliens’, particularly Indian aliens. The current socio-political context in the US has further exacerbated the issue. Both Hillary and Obama are playing to the gallery and have sent unmistakable anti-outsourcing messages. The US Sub-prime led recessionary symptoms have made demands to protect local jobs…
Sales people are result oriented. They don’t stop till they get things done. So this particular sales man drives a hard drive. He pushes and edges his way forward. He calls and counsels and goads. He sells hard, he sells soft. If the deal is hard, he thinks harder. He thinks out of the box, he thinks from inside it. He even ‘listens’ to the customer! He tells the customer what they want. And they listen with respect. He brushes…