Ray DePena

Many have discussed and commented on Cloud computing’s benefits, as well as its risks, though I have heard few discussions on Cloud computing’s impact on business process re-engineering, and how to get from the existing internal business processes to a Cloud computing model.

For smaller organizations this may not be as great a concern as it would be for larger, more complex organizations, with many stakeholders.

It will be interesting to see how the major vendors of BPMS position themselves for this migration to Cloud computing.

We can be certain of one thing, and that is, the use of certain vendors BPMS offerings will naturally lead to integration with their product portfolio for the likes of IBM, Oracle, SAP, EMC, and others. And while the “pure plays” which do not have an extensive offerings portfolio beyond their BPMS offering can remain agnostic, will they, or will they seek to ride the Cloud storm with a leader through a strategic alliance, partnerships, mergers, acquisitions or other methods?

The ever tightening integration of vendors product offerings with their BPMS offerings makes for a fascinating field of play. However, those organizations that plan on using a single BPMS to deploy numerous business process change initiatives may want to delve deeply in understanding the depth of integration between the BPMS being offered and the vendors other offerings.

Of course, there will be times when that integration is advantageous. Your infrastructure is already deeply committed to a single vendor, or you have a single BPR point and you only require the BPMS tool for a single initiative with which that vendor’s offering is tightly integrated.

So, that level of integration is not necessarily bad with a vendor whose offerings are competitive in the marketplace and is financially stable. Then there are those that would rather not tie their BPMS to a single initiative or that BPMS vendor’s product and services offering portfolio.

Both views are understandable, and ultimately becomes situation specific based on the needs and requirements of the organization undertaking the business process change management initiative.

What relationships do you see (if any) between Cloud computing, and the BPMS landscape as businesses and governments undergo this transition?