VideoConnie Winkler writes about technology management from Seattle.
Reaching a New Low
Another factor propelling BPM comes courtesy of a new tier of software companies that now offer products for $50,000 to $150,000 versus the $250,000-plus range that was typical until recently.
"The new generation of BPM is based on a better argument," says Steven Banker, services director at ARC Advisory Group in Dedham, Massachusetts. "You can buy these solutions more cheaply, implement them more quickly, upgrade them faster, and gain quicker time to value and a better total cost of ownership."
Offered by companies including Applix, ALG, CorVu, Host Analytics, Kalido, Longview, OutlookSoft, Pilot, and SRC, these newer products tend to be Web-based, integrated suites of (at minimum) budgeting, planning, and consolidation components, and often include visualization capabilities such as dashboards. Many take advantage of new analytics capabilities in the Microsoft operating system they rely on.
These newer players must battle with the giants of BPM — including Hyperion, Cognos, Geac, SAS Institute, Cartesis, and, depending on how you define the market, a few other vendors — and ERP players such as SAP and Oracle, which have made strong commitments to adding BPM functionality. The price tags for BPM software from the more established companies are typically $250,000 to $350,000, plus implementation costs that may double that initial expense. But the products are generally regarded as more sophisticated and proven.
But customer interest in lower-cost ways to analyze data isn't lost on the big boys. Oracle is planning to add a built-in ROI meter in its next enterprise standard budgeting product. SAP emphasizes that most of its ERP modules now come with an analytics component. "We're entering a world where every user is not just transaction-focused, but they have to understand how their department's performance is contributing to the overall value of the organization," says Philip Say, solution marketing manager in SAP's Strategic Enterprise Management group in Palo Alto, California. Meanwhile, the lower-cost upstarts vow to push price/performance to new lows.
See the guide to business-performance-management software companies
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