A blog by Oleg Shilovitsky
Information & Comments about Engineering and Manufacturing Software

Business Process Management, PLM and Open Source Track

Business Process Management, PLM and Open Source Track
Oleg
Oleg
16 September, 2011 | 2 min for reading

BPM (Business Process Management) is another interesting topic I’m following already many years. I found it connected to PLM and other product development disciplines. PLM usually contains some elements of Business Process Management. I’ve been discussing the topic on my blog early. Look on few previous posts such as PLM Software and Business Process Scalability and How to increase business process technology adoption rate for PLM? BPM wasn’t on the list of hot announcements that PLM vendors are doing these days. It was kind of “considered done” action. Was it that, in reality? I don’t know. Process management is an inside topic in PLM implementation. IT and engineering system management people are interested in how to make it right. The same people can also decide what tools and infrastructure will be used for process management. Does it come from PLM vendor? Maybe IT will decide to use some alternatives in addition to that? Who knows? The decision will be hidden deep in IT department…

Nevertheless, I found the following article in CNET interesting – Open Source BPM startup BonitaSoft raised $11M. For me the importance of the event was mostly because of it is another example in a wider trend – finding simpler and more affordable solutions for complicated problems. BPM is one of them. There is plenty of tools that can be used to get BPM done in a complex way. This is where IT is going. This is where complex PLM implementations are going. I found the following passage interesting:

Gartner explained the market growth by pointing to increased interest in software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, which offer a cheaper entry point, and a shift toward funding BPM projects from business-unit budgets rather than IT, reflecting an emphasis on BPM’s business benefits.

The combination with open sources creates another confirmation that IT (or even departmental management) is seriously considering such a type of solutions to become part of implementation.

What is my conclusion? Think about mindshare PLM vendors. The solution portfolio they are selling combined from multiple layers, components and functional pieces. BPM is one of them. IT is the organization PLM vendors need to convince as part of their selling process. I think, we can see an evidence of how this pattern is going to change. A simpler and cheaper solution is going to challenge larger BPM vendors. Open source play a revolutionary role in this trend. PLM vendors learned from large ERP companies how to sell solutions to large manufacturing firms. Is it going to change? I don’t know. Just my opinion…

Best, Oleg

Image: tungphoto / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Recent Posts

Also on BeyondPLM

4 6
5 October, 2011

Business Intelligence (BI) is a fascinating combination of words. Each time I hear about BI, I’m confused a bit. The...

25 June, 2010

When you talk to a sales person from one of the PLM companies, you for sure will be exposed to...

2 April, 2018

I usually say, the most though competitor is status quo. Why status quo is complex? Because it requires a potential...

25 March, 2013

I want to continue the theme of disruption started in my post last week. I can see two major forces...

25 June, 2022

Earlier this week, I attended Autodesk Forge Data Day in Boston. I could not miss the event with such a...

15 July, 2012

I made my weekly social media catch up during the weekend. The following topic caught my attention. Google recently started...

15 October, 2014

Bill of Material topic is getting more attention these days. No surprise. BOM is a center of universe in manufacturing...

22 October, 2015

I attended TEC Talk Boston organized by TechSoft3D. The event is invitation only. Here is how Ron Fritz, CEO of...

15 April, 2011

The first day at COFES 2011 over. I hope, you had a chance to follow COFES 2011 via twitter (COFES2011). If...

Blogroll

To the top