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SaaS BPM: Silencing the Skeptics (Strategic Focus)

Datamonitor
October 2, 2009
35 Pages - SKU: DFMN2470012

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Introduction

The inherent success of the SaaS model and BPM has forced many vendors to rethink the applicability of SaaS to BPM. Datamonitor believes that this is the right time for BPM to take its SaaS strategy mainstream. This report explores the latest developments in the field of BPM and looks at market offerings critically.

Scope

Gauges the readiness of BPM to the SaaS model
Delivers a comprehensive assessment of SaaS BPM offerings
Presents Datamonitor’s detailed view on the value that vendors and their customers can derive from SaaS BPM

Highlights

While demand in the on-premises BPM market continues unabated, SaaS BPM is slowly finding acceptance in certain pockets of the BPM market. Datamonitor believes that lower entry costs, broader reach and faster time to deployment could endear SaaS BPM offerings to customers that are comfortable with cloud computing application delivery model.

Many business processes are executed with resources outside an organization, such as BPO, SaaS customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and cloud infrastructure. As the number of external influences in a process grow, it will become imperative for BPM to be able to customize the external services it consumes.

The effect of SaaS BPM offerings on the BPM market will be complementary rather than cannibalistic. SaaS model will boost the proliferation of BPM and help BPM reach a larger user base. However, not all categories of vendors will seize these opportunities.

Reasons to Purchase

Gain in-depth knowledge on the emerging SaaS BPM landscape
Rethink your SaaS strategy and discover sweet spots for SaaS BPM
Re-evaluate go-to-market strategies for SaaS BPM against current market challenges

Overview: Catalyst; Summary; Key Messages; The market for SaaS BPM is still nascent but is picking up momentum; The argument for SaaS BPM will become more compelling as processes move off-premise; Some parts of the BPM stack are naturally suited to the SaaS model; Most vendors are still divided on whether to offer complete execution in the SaaS model; Competition is sparse given market immaturity-existing vendors could reap benefits now; Prudent go-to-market strategies should target maximum payoff areas of SaaS BPM first; Table of figures; Table of tables; Market Impact; The key to BPM's success in the recession is in its ability to facilitate change; The ongoing recession has caused rapid changes in business; Business changes warrant a transformation in processes; Process changes have been driven by external factors and industry events; Processes are no longer confined to companies' firewalls alone; Growth in outsourcing will bring about a need for process visibility and flexibility; The success of cloud computing ensures that more applications move to the cloud; BPM will have to evolve with current business changes; SaaS BPM to experience growth over the longer term; Vendor and end-user data, though sparse, point to growing interest; A SaaS BPM maturity model; The path to SaaS BPM contains opportunities and challenges; Technology Evolution; A BPM suite can be deconstructed into five core and two secondary layers; Process modeling and design is best suited to SaaS; Collaboration is easier in the cloud; Many vendors provide modeling capabilities in the cloud; Business rules could be the next to move to the cloud; Process discovery and project scoping are challenging in the SaaS model; All other parts of the BPM stack require execution in the cloud environment; Process analytics: integration with on-demand BI dashboards; Mashups and composites can be governed with SaaS BPM; SaaS BPM technology is just picking up momentum; Customer Impact; SaaS BPM will add new impetus to the business IT alignment exercise; BPM in the SaaS model could bring back the modularity in the BPM stack; SaaS BPM could enable business users to build and modify processes with minimal IT intervention; SaaS BPM will improve budgeting accuracy and direct budgets to business cases; Infrastructure investments will be closely scrutinized in the recession; SaaS BPM will further the case for IaaS and help tie new investments to business action; Impact: SaaS BPM to monitor its own infrastructure usage; SaaS BPM will help capture tacit knowledge from process participants; Capturing tacit knowledge could be critical while mapping processes; Social, collaborative user environments can remove perception barriers to knowledge capture; SaaS-based modeling solutions are ideal for engaging a larger number of participants; Hybrid implementations could transform the BPM deployment lifecycle; Manual discovery, modeling, and testing could overlap during deployment; Manual discovery can be executed better in SaaS deployments; Modeling will be a natural extension to manual process discovery; SaaS could align model development and testing to agile practices; Execution, monitoring and optimization in the cloud may not significantly affect deployment; SaaS BPM will make the modeling process inclusive; Competitive Landscape; Possessing a SaaS strategy could be the next frontier for differentiation; SaaS BPM applications will broaden the scope of the market; Vendor diversity and specialization will decide the SaaS strategy; Traditional BPM specialists will be at forefront of the SaaS wave; Some BPM specialists now offer components of their BPM suite in the SaaS version; Some of these specialists have managed to tap into the underpenetrated SMB segment; A distinct category of BPM platform specialists may emerge; Generalist PaaS providers could jump in with process-based applications; Middleware and application conglomerates may be the last to adopt SaaS; Competition will be low at the leading end of SaaS BPM over the medium term; Go to Market; Distinguish between delivery options and go to market strategies; What to sell: capture the low hanging fruits first; Manual discovery is easiest to sell and has clear, demonstrated benefits for customers; Business rules, simple workflows, other BPM capabilities linked to ECM could be next; ECM-linked BPM could take off; Testing and simulation can be offered through PaaS eventually; How to sell: partner extensively to expand reach; Who to sell to: target the users for which enterprise IT cannot cater; Develop go-to-market approaches based on your intended SaaS strategy; Bottom-up approach: tools vendors; Top-down approach: customized applications vendors
APPENDIX: Definitions; Methodology; Further reading; Ask the analyst; Datamonitor consulting; Disclaimer
List of Tables: Table 1: How do you expect your IT budget to change in 2009?; Table 2: Should execution be offered in the cloud?
List of Figures: Figure 1: There has been a noticeable dip in IT buyer confidence from last year; Figure 2: Some parts of BPM are better suited to SaaS than others; Figure 3: SaaS BPM maturity model with two principal solution evolution scenarios; Figure 4: BPM suite and its environment; Figure 5: Traditional BPM deployment timeline waterfall; Figure 6: Hybrid BPM deployment timeline waterfall; Figure 7: Growth rate in the BPM market up to 2014; Figure 8: Future segmentation of BPM market; Figure 9: Greenfield opportunities are maximum in enterprises below 1,000 employees; Figure 10: A reference framework for pertinent go-to-market strategies; Figure 11: Three paths to the BPM cloud market

SaaS BPM: Silencing the Skeptics (Strategic Focus)

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