If to use Google Trends as a reference to the public’s interest in BPM – we’re ok.
But how are we compared to our neighbours?
I’ve attached some of Google’s trend analytics from last year (2010).
First, I was interested to see how we compare with ERP and CRM
BPM, ERP and CRM
Both ERP and CRM have been searched more than BPM. The interest in CRM (as a search term) has declined over the last few years but is still much stronger than BPM.
I added “BI” to the mix, as I was curious to see how we compare…
BPM, ERP and CRM and BI
As I suspected… BI has been searched more than all of the others… by far !
If I pan out and show you just the number of searches for “BI” over the past years, you’ll be able to see that it’s a growing trend.
Ok.. how about our closer neighbours: ECM, Case Management and ACM
BPM, ECM, Case Management and ACM
Ah!… I was worried there for a second, but it’s all right.. BPM still has a strong lead.
(I was surprised to see that ACM was searched more than ECM …).
The problem with the last comparison is that using acronyms is a bit misleading.
Most of the “BPM” searches are music and health related (beats per minute), so I looked up “Business Process Management” synonyms that I could use.
BPM Synonyms
Last year I posted a Google trends analysis (Are people losing interest in BPM?), but since then it seems that the decline in the number of “BPM” searches has stopped. It also seems that the old buzz words (BPM BPA BPO BPI) have been dropped in favour of “business process management” (that is.. until a new buzzword comes along…)
So.. are we keeping up with the Joneses?
Enjoy your weekend
Adam Deane 
Thats right – some of these acronyms skew the results. For example, it will be interesting to see the reason for the sudden spikes in search – there is always some news or announcement prior to the spike – the Lombardi acquisition for example increased the search volume by a bit and so on. It will be interesting to see what caused the spike you see in ACM.
Great post!
By: Jaisundar on 14/01/2011
at 7:44 am
Obviously comparative analysis of this kind are always imprecise (just imagine how many synonyms and variants one should consider). However, I think they provide a good hint on the real world.
About ACM: I confirm that a plethora of acronyms exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACM
If it was for the academic world, I think that ACM consistently stands for “Association for Computing Machinery”.
To have a hint on which meaning of the acronym is actually popular you can try it yourself on Google. For ACM, Adaptive Case Management interpretation does not show up at least in the first 5 google results pages! This means that it has basically no role in the statistics for ACM.
About the peak: the ACM association is driving several scientific events and conferences, maybe that was the case..
By: Marco Brambilla on 14/01/2011
at 2:51 pm
Marco, very interesting data. In our BPM bubble we sometimes forget that ACM and other acronyms have more popular uses 🙂
By: Scott on 14/01/2011
at 3:38 pm
You know, the funny thing is that even for “BPM” only 3 links on 10 in my first Google result page relate to business processes 😀 .. what a shame!
Are we so much in the long-tail of web users??
I liked this (very technical) paper at WSDM:
“Anatomy of the Long Tail: Ordinary People with Extraordinary Tastes”
Click to access wsdm244-goel.pdf
That’s where the world is going and the Joneses are not really able to keep up! 🙂
By: Marco Brambilla on 14/01/2011
at 4:55 pm
[…] just for comparison, here is the previous BPM Google Trends that I ran at the start of the year. Share this:TwitterLike this:LikeBe the first to like this […]
By: BPM Trends 2011 « Adam Deane on 16/11/2011
at 7:04 am