BPM and ECM – The War Begins

Even though large tracts of BPM have fallen or may fall into the grip of ECM, we shall not flag or fail.
We shall go on to the end, we shall fight.

we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;

we shall never surrender.

BPM and ECM are on a collision course.
Even though we know that it would be in the industry’s best interests to have separate systems for BPM and ECM,
Even though we know that it would be in the customer’s best interest to have separate vendors for BPM and ECM,
Even though we know that ECM requires different skills and expertise than BPM,
We know that future will bring BPM and ECM to integrate into one system.

Even now we see BPM vendors that offer case management solutions, Microsoft-based BPM vendors embedding SharePoint into their solution offering, Non-Microsoft vendors integrating with ECM tools.

ECM vendors are also starting to embed workflow functionality into their products.

Suddenly the lines are blurred. BPM industry analysts are now BPM & ECM analysts. New terminology.

Meet the Enemy

Case Management
Case Management, traditionally part of ECM.
Most of the cases were around documents, therefore ECM.
We will redefine case management to deal with individual instances of the process.
Documents? Lets deal with that separately.
So how do we conquer them? Easy. PR. Let call it ACM (as opposed to ECM)

Records and Document Management
Ah, Yes.. a bit of a problem here . BPM software doesn’t support these yet.
BPM vendors will probably embed loosely coupled ECM/EDMS products into their solutions

ECM Skills and Expertise
What about the skills and expertise required to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content?
What about Web content management (WCM), content syndication, DRT (Document Related Technologies), DLM (Document Lifecycle Management) and digital and media asset management?
Every war has collateral damage. These skills and expertise will be lost or degraded.

The Black Horse – Microsoft
Yes. A devious adversary…
If they wanted, they could wipe us out in a flash.
SharePoint is one of Microsoft’s biggest sellers in the last couple of years. Companies have been installing SharePoint left, right and centre.
SharePoint doesn’t have real corporate workflow yet. But what would happen if they decide to enter the BPM market.
Adding BPMS functionality to SharePoint would give them a foothold to later sell BizTalk to the organisations.
Visio –one of the best user interfaces in the industry. Lacking real modelling functionality. But what would happen if they decide to enter the BPA market.
Most organisations already have Outlook. SharePoint, BizTalk, Visio and Outlook together – world domination
Luckily for us, the managers at Microsoft are asleep, so that won’t happen.

Troops,
At 0800 hours, we received word that the ECM enemy has mobilized.
We have no choice but to launch a preemptive strike.
You are the queen’s finest. I know you will all do you duty. I am proud to send you into battle.

Dismissed. – Left face. Forward march.