IBM will integrate BPM products. Clients are dissatisfied

Do – do not do, you are all the same guilty. Some observers of the industry of IT approximately so characterize a situation in which there is IBM as she announces integration of two main products of business process management (BPM).

Clients should like what the linking of IBM WebSphere Lombardi Edition and WebSphere Process Server will give. But are sure of the company that will surely undergo criticism as it was last year, for incomplete integration of these separate products.

IBM Business Process Manager which announcement will take place on Monday in Las Vegas is described as "single platform". The product provides new general process storage and the administrative interface which will serve as a front-end-application of IBM for a BPM portfolio. But process engines which actually start the processes and the related development environments applied to creation and modification of processes still are not ready.

BPM systems give to business and IT the general environment in which they implement cooperation over process model - the evident charts easy for understanding of business analysts, and for IT availability of adding of the code. These systems allow to control and to quickly change processes for performance improvement or adaptation to new conditions of business, but without the need for the total programming and developmental works connected with development of normal applications.

Clients even more often demand a combination of abilities to manage business processes and workflows (workflow). New it is general IBM storage and the administrative interface are intended for providing to users and administrators of uniform space for work with both types of processes, both independent, and united in uniform process.

For preparation of new management systems, contents in particular, in 2006 IBM purchased FileNet company (the product purchased together with the company received the name IBM FileNet BPM, it is used for processing of content labor-intensive processes, such as confirmations of insurance claims). And in 2009 purchased iLog business rules management system company – having received expansion of opportunities of storage and its interface. Monitoring panels – together with purchase of Cognos company, in 2007.

What is offered in IBM Business Process Manager? Now clients can control and open working, integration process of the new console, but these processes (or parts of uniform process) still work in the different systems. And for changes in each process IT department will do the work in still separate development environments.

This approach of IBM can be opposed to Oracle which took a decisive step in 2010 when it integrated the AquaLogic BPM system purchased with BEA company and own product BPM. As a result the uniform product and the precise plan turned out, but he forced clients of both products to carry out considerable work on migration. The changes necessary for start of a new product are more considerable the migration is more painful.

IBM claims that its approach will save the made investments, but a shortcoming is that vendor and its clients, finally should pass to an integrated system. "Maintenance of two separate engines - is very expensive to IBM, clients also do not want to support two separate environments", Clay Richardson, the analyst of Forrester company told.

Whether clients will expostulate IBM for a lack of aggressive integration? IBM points to the last statistics of sales for 2010 provided by Gartner according to which IBM saves the dominating market share of BPM solutions and significant growth, despite the absence of the uniform concept.

But the longer the company delays inevitable transition to a unified environment, the she creates more potential holes for competitors, including the independent companies Pegasystems and Appian, Richardson considers. He says that IBM he makes efforts to attract new clients and to dispel concern to the existing clients in such actions as discounts, new general storage and the user interface.

To put it briefly, clients of WebSphere and Lombardi know that to go to a single process system they will be forced to make serious investments within several next years, but now it seems, IBM tries to facilitate it transition.