View this year's Business Performance Management Software Buyers Guide [1].
This year's buyers guide reflects changes we have observed in the performance management space in the past 12 months. Based on market feedback, vendors began to introduce a fresh set of features and technologies that heralded a new performance management era. This next stage of BPM growth, which we have labeled BPM 2.0, focuses on new areas while building on the original core BPM fields. BPM 2.0 is focused on greater breadth and depth of performance analysis; wider reach through easier use and distribution; and a sharper focus on looking forward.
The capabilities tracked in this buyer's guide are divided into two sections: the Core section and the BPM 2.0 Ready section. In the Core area we identify vendors that provide budgeting, planning, and forecasting; financial consolidation; and dashboards. We also identify vendors that provide the raw capabilities that power BPM, such as extract, transform and load (ETL); report and query; and metadata management. Typically, these vendors also offer business intelligence (BI) tools. We give a bullet only to those that actually develop and market these capabilities in a stand-alone product.
The BPM 2.0 Ready section looks at BPM 2.0 technologies, applications and operational analytics. Most of the technologies that we consider supportive of BPM 2.0 either facilitate analysis of greater volumes and types of data or enable wider BPM distribution. The BPM 2.0 Ready applications are focused on more in-depth performance analysis or more successful forecasting. The operational analytics section includes the types of analysis that companies are now doing in sales, IT, marketing and employee performance. Vendors get a bullet for providing a platform that performs this analysis and/or for offering domain-specific applications.
The Profile section tracks the vendor's global presence, reference base and offering of industry-specific packaged solutions.
As market consolidation continues, a number of vendors listed in the 2006 guide have been sold. Business Objects acquired SRC and ALG Software to extend its offerings into the BPM 2.0 area of profitability analysis. Infor acquired Geac (formerly Comshare, then Extensity) and Systems Union (for its BI capabilities) to become a true full-service vendor.
Cognos and Hyperion maintained their strong market presence by building out their integrated BI/BPM platforms and developing purpose-built applications for areas such as workforce and capital-expenditure planning. SAS enhanced its predictive scorecarding and activity-based management capabilities. Clarity Systems improved workflow, security and embedded metadata management.
Some vendors repositioned themselves to take advantage of the coming changes in BPM. Applix introduced a platform for BPM 2.0 while continuing to offer budgeting and consolidation capabilities. The organization partners with domain-expert vendors such as Varicent to fill in the framework. Adaptive Planning, which already offered a hosted solution, added an open-source version to reach even more potential BPM users. For years OutlookSoft has been talking about predictive analytics, which now has become more mainstream. Cartesis is one of the first vendors to offer external benchmarking, one of the new BPM 2.0 features. And Longview Solutions enhanced its platform on a service-oriented architecture (SOA).
The move into the next BPM phase has helped more specialized vendors enter this market. Added to the guide this year are Varicent (sales performance management), ISIS Solutions (predictive analytics), Strategy Engine (product marketing analytics), AppFusion (actionable dashboards) and Tagetik (full-suite financial BPM).
Now that there are more choices and more elements to BPM than ever, buyers need to do their homework. Inadequate due diligence is the single biggest reason for missing the mark with a BPM solution. This guide is here to help, but only as a starting point.
Inclusion in this buyers guide is based solely on independent research conducted by BPM Partners, a vendor-neutral consulting firm. That research includes reviews of published information and in-depth interviews with management at the major vendors, client organizations and consulting firms. Unlike most buyers guides, this listing is not vendor-sponsored, nor is it compiled from surveys completed by vendors. An online, searchable database version of this guide is available [2].
Key to Buyers Guide TableCAPABILITIES COREBudgeting: The product offers top-down and bottom-up budgeting, as well as planning and forecasting. Consolidation: The software sums data from multiple ledgers, incorporating currency conversion and intercompany eliminations as needed. Dashboard: The vendor provides a graphical interface that can display a collection of key performance indicators (a scorecard) with gauges, stoplights, and charts. Dashboards may be graphical display tools or prebuilt applications. BI for BPM: The vendor develops and sells stand-alone tools that aid in the development of BPM applications. The tools may include extract, transform and load (ETL); reporting tools; metadata management; and other BI. BPM 2.0 READYBPM 2.0 Technology: The product utilizes any of the technologies that facilitate the wider distribution or deeper analysis that BPM 2.0 delivers. These technologies may include data visualization, hosting, open source, 64-bit support, mobile access, hardware appliances and service-oriented architecture (SOA). BPM 2.0 Applications: The vendor provides any of the following: predictive analytics, external benchmarking, activity-based costing and/or profitability analysis. Operational Analytics: The vendor offers a platform for operational analytics and/or delivers packaged applications focused on selected operational areas. PROFILE Vertical Solutions: The vendor offers industry-specific capabilities or content integrated in a software application. This functionality can be the vendor's sole focus, or it can be an addition to more generic offerings. Global Support: The vendor has a presence, direct or indirect, in most major business centers around the world. Large Reference Base: More than 100 clients are successfully using this vendor's BPM products. |
Links:
[1] http://businessfinancemag.com/files/misc_file/BPM_softwareBuyersGuide_2007.pdf
[2] http://www.bpmpartners.com/vendor_search.shtml