Adoption rates for business process management (BPM) software have grown from 11 percent in 2002 to 33 percent today, according to a recent survey from Forrester Research (Nasdaq: FORR). In response to the increasing demand for BPM software, and the growing list of vendors selling solutions, Forrester reevaluated the top pure-play BPM vendors based on new criteria in its BPM TechRankings™, an objective, scenario-based product testing and evaluation process.

This year’s TechRankings evaluation included the following 10 pure-play vendors:

  • FileNet’s Business Process Manager 2.01
  • Fuego’s FuegoBPM
  • HandySoft’s BizFlow 8.7
  • Intalio’s Intalio|n3
  • Lombardi Software’s TeamWorks 4
  • Metastorm’s e-Work Version 6
  • Pegasystems’ PegaRULES Process Commander 4.0
  • Savvion’s BusinessManager 5.0
  • Staffware’s Process Suite v10
  • Ultimus’ BPM Suite 6.0

BPM Competition Heats Up

“Pure-play vendors are facing pressure from integration, enterprise application, content management, and platform vendors claiming to deliver BPM functionality,” said Sharyn Leaver, senior analyst at Forrester. “While all of the offerings can provide benefits in specific scenarios, pure plays are still the best option for firms looking to begin a BPM implementation today by automating and optimizing processes that incorporate a mix of people, systems, and other content.”

The results of the evaluation showed significant differentiation among the pure-play BPM solutions across the following key criteria:

  • Business modeling and analysis. How sophisticated is the product’s modeling environment and what level of analysis does it offer?
  • Standards. Does the vendor support process standards like BPMN and BPEL?
  • Optimization and change management. Does the product promote continuous process improvement through simulation and deployment support?
  • Horizontal and vertical process expertise. Does the vendor offer expertise in specific industries or horizontal processes, such as accounts payable or HR?

Since the last BPM TechRankings, Forrester has seen a dramatic increase in Web services support, yet support for BPEL is not generally available in products. In addition, the products are offering more sophisticated repositories and reuse capabilities, which will help firms orchestrate processes within a service-oriented architecture. Forrester has also noted that most of the products are still lacking in aggregate analysis and optimization features.

The January 27, 2004 Forrester Brief “Evaluating BPM Products In 2004” and the TechRankings research mentioned in this press release is available to Forrester WholeView¿ clients and can be found through www.forrester.com.

About TechRankings

Launched in October 2000, TechRankings evaluates more than 70 enterprise software products through rigorous hands-on scenario-based product testing, in-depth research, and objective analysis of global vendor offerings. TechRankings allows Forrester clients to use online tools to customize the research — and product evaluation rankings — to focus on the most important criteria and vendors. Forrester invites all important vendors, based on their product fit and momentum, to participate in each TechRankings evaluation. Forrester does not charge vendors in any way to participate.