What was the most significant development for BPM in 2012?

I take a look back across announcements and blog posts and the word significant falls somewhat short.

From an evolutionary standpoint in BPM software, process mining, mobile and social seem to be getting a fair amount of coverage, and rightly so. But nothing significant has happened that has propelled BPM into the headlines. I did bake a Magic Quadrant cake though....

The methodology and application of BPM is as stale as it was 10 years ago however as it struggles to keep up with the shifts of business, due primarily to the usual squabbling between factions.

When the understanding of BPM matches the potential then perhaps we'll see something significant....until then, pull a cracker, read the joke and relax with a brandy. It's almost Christmas and maybe Santa has one more gift in his sleigh for the industry.

Probably everybody wants a piece of the cake, because we saw (actually they started before 2012) several acquisitions in BPM country. Large companies buying smaller vendors.

For the rest we saw the usual fights like ACM vs Workflow, BPM vs BPMS, the whole world vs Analysts and certified process dudes vs feet in the mud consultants.

I've been playing (or could you really call it serious work..) with process mining for about 5 years now and this year you saw more vendors offering some kind of process mining software.

But the most remarkable thing.... I was mentioned at Adam Deane's 'BPM Quotes of the week'. It was the best year of my life! Yeeehaaa!

Good to settle down by the fire (OK it's a fireplace app on my iPad) and listen to the carolers outside my window (yup, Pandora) and take a look back.

Most customer executives I talked to told me that that they felt the budget lemon had been squeezed so tightly, in the last decade, that the pips were squeaking and no more juice was coming out. But still they were under pressure to cut costs. They saw process, and specifically process automation, as the last segment of the budget lemon with some juice left.

For the first time I've had process-centric conversations at the C-level with my customers. Substantive conversations about reform of the organization based on processes with automation as a goal not an afterthought. Delivering measurable business value was the driver of each of these conversations.

So, when the clock strikes midnight, I'll be toasting a New Year full of peace, joy and health ... and some fun process projects that make a difference.

Et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

Wait—what!? Is 2012 nearly over ALREADY?

Wow. Well, looking back, some big developments over this year have included:

1. 1. Acceleration of customer awareness of BPM, including, as Kevin suggests, above, at the C-level.


2. 2. Appearance of BPaaS (business process as a service) as a viable option for customers.


3. 3. Growing understanding among analysts of the value of time and prediction to process owners.

But hey, there's about 12% of 2012 still to go, and it ain't over until it's over.

Most significant you ask...hmmm
Mobile, Social, Big Data, Cloud - I don't think so.

For over a decade BPM (software that is), has been sold as a tool for business. Point and click, drag and drop, blah, blah, blah - all true but still not for business users. At least not the emailing, spreadsheet tracking and maybe put it on a shared network drive business users I am used to working with.

I think what Kissflow is doing with their GoogleApps solution and Handysoft is doing with Quick Process brings hope to the idea that business people can actually create, publish, use and reuse an automated process...really.

While these solutions are certainly not going to overhaul core business processes, they do get at the sea of processes still driven by spreadsheets, paper and PDF forms. I hope these solutions are a glimpse into
a future of BPM that is truly wizard driven and business user friendly. You know the old saying, "less is more".

Now, in terms of most significant blog post, surely that has to be Theo's cake post-

Here is my take:
- Document management is now file sharing on the cloud
- Task management boom will kill the Case management market
- Social media integration is walled and unpredictable
- Business process design for business users finally arrives

http://kissflow.com/end-of-bpm-task-document-management/