Response to: "SMBs and the BPM Vendors' Dirty Little Secret"

When I read stories about the difficulty of BPM (Business Process Management) penetration into the SMB (Small and Medium Businesses) space, I often see arguments based on BPM Suite (BPMS) functionality and BPMS pricing. I think both of these points are valid, but not unique to the SMB space. Large scale companies want the same "ease of use" and "flexibility" in a BPMS that SMBs do. And while large scale companies, on a whole, have bigger pockets, BPMS purchases by the large scale companies are not always at the enterprise level. As such, many of same pricing and licensing constraints are encountered by the large company's individual department that is considering the BPMS purchase.

I argue that the single most constraint for SMBs is time. SMBs can be slow to adopt a BPMS because of the fact that everyone in the SMB is "heads down" in executing their day-to-day processes just to maintain their business (even if their processes are not efficient and/or cost controlling as they would like them to be). If the SMB spares even one resource to commit to a BPM initiative, that is one less person involved in operating their mission critical processes today. Over and above SMBs needing a flexible and powerful BPMS, SMBs need help from the BPMS providers themselves to augment their limited available resources. BPMS providers need to provide a full BPM solution to the SMBs which should include:

• Centers of Excellence (staffed by the BPM provider) which consults into the SMB
• Flexible E-Learning programs where SMBs can regularly and routinely learn how to leverage the BPMS
• Process Templates (which provide pre-built and "canned" common process solutions which are "plug and play")
• Virtual, Hosted, and SaaS BPMS solutions which allow the SMBs the avoidance of having to invest time and money into hardware and on-premise software
• Online BPM Communities, where SMBs can share knowledge, processes, best practices, and information

Relevant Links:

Business Processes: Recognizing You Need Business Process Improvements

Building Your Ultimus V8 Process Library Quickly: Reusable Process Libraries

BPM Implementation: Why Training is so Important

Building Your Company's Center for Process Excellence

Chris Adams
VP Product Marketing and Management
Ultimus