Back of the BPM Napkin

Ultimus attended and sponsored the Gartner BPM Summit in DC last week.  It was very clear that this show was about BPM education.  With Gartner touting that the BPM market will grow to $2.6B by 2011-and not be phased by the imminent economic downturn-Gartner analysts revealed the fear and pain in the business users attending.  These "BPM explorers" were tasked to seek and find immediate solutions to organize and automate their processes and take all of that information download to spread out on those big boardroom tables back in headquarters.

We talked to hundreds of people-many who had no idea where, how or even what to get started.  They were there to research and reconnoiter, then return from the jungle of workflow diagrams to decipher the information.  However, even after being armed with the knowledge of the many steps it may take to implement a solution, I am struck by this very simple thought ... every process starts on a napkin.  An attendee shared that a BPM vendor told them to go back and map their processes. HOW? And, that this could take years without their -very expensive - help.  Start with a napkin - we'll provide the rest.  With the right product and approach, BPM just doesn't need to be so hard.

Stephanie Stone
Marketing Director
Ultimus