A Roadmap for BPM Software Selection

What are best practices when it comes to evaluating and choosing a business performance management (BPM) software vendor? To find out, the BPM Summit, an annual conference sponsored by BPM Magazine, worked with BPM Partners, a vendor-neutral consulting firm, to identify prospective buyers of these systems. Companies that were clearly in the market for a BPM tool in the near term were selected to participate in a BPM solution selection program which provided them with consultation services, courtesy of BPM Partners, in exchange for sharing their best practices and lessons learned with attendees of the 2005 BPM Summit and readers of Business Finance.

Tim Wall, vice president of services with BPM Partners in Stamford, Conn., provided consulting assistance for each of the companies that participated in the program. They were: Columbus, Ohio-based American Electric Power (AEP), represented by Becky Moehring, business systems analyst in IT corporate planning; Chicago-based consumer packaging group Rexam Beverage Can North America, represented by Adrienne Jackson, who was a senior business analyst with the company at that time; and a privately-owned firm that chose to remain anonymous but provided a representative who offered valuable insights into the BPM investment process.