Horses for courses…
Does Microsoft “own the BPM space”? Unlikely, at least not in the case of large organisations looking to automate, monitor and manage the evolution of their underlying business processes.
For such fundamental, mission-critical change they want a proven technology - one which combines scale, performance and operational robustness in a well-structured enterprise architecture. And, whatever Microsoft’s undoubted strengths elsewhere, this is demonstrably not a ‘sweet spot’ in their software offering.
So where does that leave Microsoft? In the case of Pegasystems, a recognised leader in this space, in adopting a rules-based BPM approach we make extensive use of Microsoft products. Critically, this enables business users to access familiar tools as Word, Visio and Excel as they collaborate with IT in driving and implementing rapid and effective process change.
In this way, the right, easy-to-use tools are used for the right purpose when capturing business objectives directly into the Pegasystems software, fine-tuning those requirements and providing essential supporting documentation.
Maybe Microsoft is not the right choice for a large organisation undertaking a serious BPM implementation. Yet its office tools can make an important contribution when orchestrated by a powerful engine such as Pegasystems’ own PegaRules Process Commander technology.
So, how to describe Microsoft’s position? ‘Jack of all trades, master of some’ might do it. But when it comes to enterprise BPM, ‘horses for courses’ is the only way to go.
By John Everhard, technical director, Pegasystems
Biting the hand that feeds IT
