Why SOA/BPM is mistreated by some customers and most vendors

Caused by the current economic situation, companies are forced to rationalize their processes for higher efficiency and to tap the full potential of modern information technology in order to increase their competiveness.

"SOA stands for architecture, BPM for management. Consequently, a BPMS is a product provoking massive impacts on the existing IT landscape and on the company's management and organization." 

SOA and BPM as one way for overcoming the crisis

SOA (Service-oriented Architecture) and BPM (Business Process Management) seem to be the savior - according to the statements of analysts and recent publications. SOA stands for an IT architecture enabling a higher flexibility by reducing the functional overlapping between legacy systems and an easier way to combine systems and services dynamically to support their business processes better then before. BPM covers the management, the automation and systematic optimization of business processes. In the meantime, SOA and BPM are recognized as the two sides of the same coin since any transition to a flexible IT makes no sense without the context of the corresponding business processes.

BPMS - Next Generation IT

Therefore, it is not surprising that in the meanwhile both disciplines are converged into the new product type called BPMS (BPM-Suites). Today, a state-of-the-art BPMS allows to start at the business level, i.e. to detect the organizational, operational and IT structures systematically and to write that down in a standardized manner, e.g. with BPMN (Business Process Modeling Notation) and additional models. This creates transparency on one hand and is essential for process automation, monitoring and efficiency measurements on the other hand. Last but not least these models are fundamental for the agile adjustment of processes and organizational structures to quickly react when markets change or new business opportunities shall be addressed.

The „recipe" for the optimal usage of IT to improve the company's situation seems to be impressively simple if you believe most vendors...

„Buy our BPMS and everything is going to be alright..."

It's just as simple as that: a tender quickly prepared, a list of all features that have been heard from different providers or seen at the last trade fairs and confront the well-known providers with that. After all, they must know what I really need - and just like that the decision for a new strategic product is made.

As a proud owner of such a system you finally joined the modern age of technology. Departments are now able to define their own processes - the BPMS will take care of the rest ....

If you have already run through this process once or twice and you are still not at the point to taste the "fruits of success" because

-       everything became even more complex (thanks to the inherent complexity of such BPMS products being compiled from heterogenous components, quickly acquired and badly integrated)

-       processes that are still not transparent, quickly running out of sync with real life (thanks to those vendors that mistake BPA for BPM)

-       resistance within your company since you are changing "comfortable" processes

-       personal trouble as you try changing things up to the C-level without management backing and the right preparation of your project

-       unclear handling of internal cost distribution for services reused across the enterprise

-       confused colleagues in IT and business regarding a new kind of collaboration

-       head wind from worker's council disapproving due to undesired transparency

Did some of these scenarios happened to you? Then you should read on....

Business and IT alignment ≠ technology only

To understand the cause for this debacle, you should look behind the scenes. SOA stands for architecture, BPM for management. Consequently, a BPMS is a product provoking massive impacts on the existing IT landscape on the one hand and on the company's management and organization on the other hand. Hence, it is not surprising that the approach of a successful roll-out of such a product in your company will not work with the methods that have worked for traditional IT systems. If you follow previous implementation paths, you will fail or you will just be able to realize only a fraction of the expected advantages.

Most product vendors are anxious to please by adding more and more features to their suites in order to shine in front of potential customers within their conventional selection processes. BPMS requires features but only those that are very well-integrated and really help to generate business value. Therefore, with a few exceptions, you cannot expect to receive good support or deeper understanding from these kind of product vendors as long as they haven't made their homework.

integrating your business and IT - inubit

The inubit AG engages exactly in this challenge most companies are facing today. Therefore, inubit offers not only the technologically leading BPMS that is very different to what you have seen so far but also the methods and procedures to successfully implement it at small and at large scale. From the beginning, inubit calculates the economic impact and the expected ROI before the implementation and the roll-out. During realization these calculations are continuously measured to proof the expected results.

To accompany the necessary changes inubit provides with "inubit PlanCentral" a unique approach to make the transition process from the existing to the new world controllable and successful. PlanCentral comes with best practice mechanisms and pre-build processes for SOA/BPM Governance, Compliance and Change Management.

This combination out of 10 years experience makes the difference. More than 350 customers like E.ON, MAGNA, Siemens, Burger King, Gazprom have already decided to take advantage of our comprehensive process know-how, transition experience and our leading BPMS product. If you want to join them and profit from the exceptional benefits, discover inubit under www.inubit.com.  

Dr. Torsten Schmale is one of the founders and today's CEO of the inubit AG. Due to his longtime experience he sets the course for the further expansion of inubit in the national and international market.