11 – Recent surveys by Gartner, Inc.* have found that, while far from universally used, cloud computing is clearly a factor in business process management (BPM) initiatives. The 2010 Gartner BPM end-user adoption survey found that 40 per cent of organisations with BPM initiatives use public or private cloud services to support at least 10 per cent of their business processes within those BPM projects.
“Many business process improvement (BPI) leaders are looking to understand how cloud services and cloud platforms can help them improve business processes within their organisations, as well as interenterprise processes that touch partners, suppliers and customers,” said Michele Cantara, research vice president at Gartner. “Managers of shared-service centres who are tasked with standardising business processes are investigating cloud-enabled BPM technology platforms as a foundation for business process services in a private cloud. External service providers (ESPs), particularly business process outsourcing providers who want to improve their margins, are also interested in using cloud-enabled BPM technology platforms to deliver one-to-many business process services in a cloud-enabled outsourcing delivery model.”
Ms Cantara explained that BPM platform as a service (PaaS) and cloud-enabled BPM platforms are often confused. -BPM PaaS- refers to the delivery of a BPM technology as a service by a cloud service provider while -cloud-enabled BPM platform- refers to a BPM platform product that supports cloud services.
Seen from the demand side, the growth in public business process services and the increasing availability of BPM PaaS for constructing those business process services is fuelling increased demand for BPM cloud-enabled platform capabilities. In addition, buyers are using BPM PaaS in pilot projects to build a business case for on-premises BPM solutions; in development and test environments to avoid additional capital expenditures on software and hardware; and as an elastic deployment option to address spiky and unpredictable demand.
Buyers are using cloud-enabled BPM platforms (BPM CEAPs) to support shared business process service centres in their own private clouds. This trend is spurred by a desire not only to consolidate applications and standardise business processes to reduce costs, but also to better control and manage the work of the organisation.
The 2010 Gartner BPM end-user adoption survey showed that 13 per cent of organisations that were doing BPM viewed BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as one of the top five BPM technology capabilities critical to the success of their BPM efforts. Compared with North American and European organizations, significantly more Latin American and Asia/Pacific organizations considered BPM PaaS/BPM CEAPs to be among the top five most important BPM capabilities. These findings are consistent with other Gartner user surveys, which show Latin America and Asia/Pacific with the highest investments in public and private cloud services.
In all regions, more respondents in IT roles view BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as one of the top five most important BPM capabilities. However, in North America and Latin America, a nearly equal percentage of both business and IT respondents within those regions viewed BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as important to their BPM success. This suggests that business leaders in these regions are becoming increasingly aware of BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP.
The survey also showed that two-thirds of organisations fund BPM efforts out of a line-of-business (LOB) budget, and 47 per cent fund BPM out of IT. Multiple responses were allowed, and 7 per cent of organizations use dual business and IT funding streams for BPM. The preponderance of LOB funding means that business process leaders are more empowered to seek out solutions that may not involve IT. BPM PaaS, combined with consulting and system integration services, and managed services from an ESP to support the entire solution on an ongoing basis, is not uncommon.
From a vendor point of view, the 2010 Gartner survey of BPM PaaS and cloud-enabled platform vendors revealed that a vendor that offers BPM cloud-enabled platform products is also likely to offer BPM PaaS. In fact, only 8 per cent of vendors offered only their BPM platforms as a product while 59 per cent of vendors surveyed offered the same capability both as a service and as a platform product.
A third of the vendors surveyed only offer BPM platform capabilities as cloud services. These -BPM PaaS only- vendors tended to be newer and smaller entrants to the BPM market, underscoring that cloud reduces barriers to entry for new vendors. Nearly 75 per cent of these BPM cloud-related services offered by these vendors are available worldwide, demonstrating that cloud services are an effective mechanism for enabling a worldwide reach, even for smaller vendors.
Additional information is available in the Gartner report “The State of the BPM Platform Cloud Market, 2011.” The report is available on Gartner-s website at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1520715.
Notes to Editors:
* Note 1: 2010 Gartner BPM adoption survey: August 2010 through September 2010, Gartner conducted a worldwide primary research survey of 593 end-user organisations using Web-based and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) methods. The objective of the survey was to understand their preferences, practices and investment plans related to BPM.
* Note 2: BPM PaaS and cloud-enabled platform vendor survey methodology: In July 2010, Gartner compiled a list of software and service vendors who were known to offer cloud software or services. More than 90 software and service vendors participated in two studies:
1. APaaS capabilities
2. Cloud-enabled BPM platform and BPM PaaS capabilities
Separate questionnaires were developed for each study, and the studies were conducted July 2010 through September 2010.
About Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2011
The Gartner BPM Summit 2011 is designed to meet the needs of BPM practitioners at every level of maturity, from those who are planning their first BPM initiative to those who are ready to stretch the boundaries of BPM programmes already in place. During the Summit, Gartner analysts will explore proven BPM best practices and the latest BPM technologies – and deliver the actionable insights, information and problem-solving needed to create or expand a successful BPM programme.
For further information on the Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2011 taking place on 7-8 March in London, please visit www.europe.gartner.com/bpm. Additional information from the event will be shared on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Gartner_inc using #GartnerBPM. Members of the media can register for this event by contacting Laurence Goasduff at laurence.goasduff@gartner.com.
For further information about the Gartner Business Process Management Summit 2011 taking place on 27-29 April in Baltimore, Maryland, please visit www.gartner.com/us/bpm. Members of the media can register for this event by contacting Christy Pettey at christy.pettey@gartner.com.
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world-s leading information technology research and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology investors, Gartner is the valuable partner to 60,000 clients in 11,000 distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,400 associates, including 1,200 research analysts and consultants, and clients in 85 countries. For more information, visit www.gartner.com.
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