Questions for Bruce Silver and Stephanie Wilkinson

[swilk]

Come here to ask your questions about the BPM Webcast! The Webcast featured Bruce Silver, a leading BPM analyst and thought Leader, and Stephanie Wilkinson, Program Director for IBM BPM Marketing.

[SeanIT]

Bruce, do you have any advice in how to convince the management team that BPM today is different than workflow in the past. I need to convince them it is more succesful today?

[Ann]

How many customers are doing BPM with SOA instead of without SOA today?

[brsilver]

Obviously it depends on why workflow "didn't work" before. In my experience the problem with workflow was mostly the amount of custom code required, chiefly in two areas: integrating backend systems, and building task user interfaces. BPM, especially tools that leverage SOA, do a much better job connecting process logic to external systems without code. Some BPMSs (not all) also let you build really slick task UI, even Ajax and multipage screenflows, without programming as well.

The other line of argument goes to the scope of benefits. As I said in my talk, workflow just concentrated on efficiency of task automation. BPM adds many other elements - analytical modeling, compliance, agility, performance visibility and optimization. The proof is up to the vendors... by publicizing customers in production who have achieved these benefits.
--Bruce

[brsilver]

Stephanie might give a different answer, but to me it depends on what you mean by BPM with SOA. If you simply mean leveraging web services and integration adapters that wrap systems to give them SOAP/WSDL interfaces, then I would say most BPM works that way. But if you mean -- as I tend to talk about it -- leveraging architected business services, enterprise service registries and repositories, and loose coupling via mediation on ESB -- then I would say relatively few. And the ones that do are quite developer-centric, since the SOA pieces tend to be invisible to the process model. But I think we are definitely moving in the right direction.
--Bruce

[swilk]

One comment to add to what Bruce said...being able to deploy BPM with SOA requires that you have the right technology. One that allows you to manage the creation, reuse, assembly, deployment, and governance of business services. And I agree with Bruce, that running on an ESB is a critical component. As the technology became available in September 2005, more and more customers are deploying BPM with SOA. IBM has over 300 customers doing it now, with 79 new customers starting projects. All of these customers are doing BPM with SOA to achieve the enhanced flexibility.

A prospect at a roadshow a few weeks ago talked to me about how they deployed BPM (on a competitors technology). They are now working on their second project and they are not able to reuse ANYTHING from the original project. This drove them to look into SOA and they are planning on doing their next project with IBM.

I agree with Bruce, we are moving in the right direction and our succesful customers are proving it.

- Stephanie

[Kaiden]

Can you tell me more about the future of the FileNet BPM products?

- Kaiden

[ms1mm0]

Hello Kaiden,

There is a general press release and FAQ that can be viewed here

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/cm/filenet/

If you have any specific or further questions please let us know ad we will do our best to address them.

regards

Mark S

[KRBPM]

As the acquisition closed last week, IBM now offers capabilities across the full spectrum of Business Process Management. Most BPM engagements require customers to address issues within the process itself but also with the people who engage in the process and the information that is part of the process. It’s about a continuum of people, processes, and information being leveraged, improved, and managed to deliver higher-value.

FileNet augments IBM's portfolio by providing "Content-Centric" BPM. Content-centric BPM is the practice of managing the way documents, files, forms, and images flow through an organization, where the content is the primary focus. Examples include contract management, loan applications, and proposals. Here, the BPM project is focused on how the “content” item is initiated, routed, stored, and retrieved in the context of the business process.