Looking Ahead at Business Process Management

By Dennis Byron, Analyst, ebizQ , 01/13/2009

In 2009, the adoption of BPM should continue to accelerate. Whether that happens because of or despite of the current worldwide economic crisis remains to be seen. It appears that BPM can contribute strongly to turning around the worldwide economy. That's not a certainty because there is a question about the extent to which - if at all - BPM players, your BPM supplier in particular, suffers because of the current crisis. But the outlook longer term is that BPM should become as defining for the 2010-2019 decade as ERP was for the 1990-1999 decade and Internet-anything was for the 2000-2009 decade.

There are three key improvements to BPM-enabling technology that seem to top your wish lists based on IT Investment Research analysis and it looks like leading BPM software suppliers will begin to deliver them in product versions scheduled for 2009. The improvements are based on more use of complex event processing (CEP) technology, various types of integration especially in support of supply chain automation, and a stronger tie to business intelligence (BI) software.

There is an overriding historical fact you should consider as you adopt or increase your use of BPM software in 2009. It is important to realize that the BPM decisions you make now are decisions your enterprise will likely live with long after you've left or retired. For proof, look at the number of IT departments that are still using 1980s and early 1990s technology and products in transaction processing (TP), ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and similar solution areas.