AgilePoint bridges the .NET BPM divide
Analyst: Carl Lehmann 30 Nov, 2012
AgilePoint recently launched the newest version of its business process management (BPM) software at Microsoft's 2012 SharePoint Conference.
AgilePoint Genesis is the latest rendition of its BPM suite repackaged, reconfigured and repriced to enable up to 25 stakeholders in an organization to
quickly set up and run business process designs.
Unlike most other business process management suite (BPMS) vendors that are built on J2EE architecture, AgilePoint BPMS is built on
Microsoft's .NET architecture, and makes use of familiar and popular Microsoft tools such as Visio and SharePoint. We find this interesting because,
until AgilePoint, there had been a rift of understanding and capabilities between the worlds of departmental workflow and enterprise BPM, in part due
to Microsoft's inability (or disinterest) in bridging the gap. This report describes the technology upon which AgilePoint Genesis is based, and how it
may influence the convergence of workflow and BPM technologies.
The 451 Take
AgilePoint represents what we believe to be the missing link that describes the evolution of workflow toward BPM, and does so on a .NET
architecture. Other vendors using Microsoft SharePoint, .NET architecture and various Office products are still – for the most part – focused on
document-centric departmental workflow.
What's the difference between the two? Essentially, it's span and intelligence. Workflow technology is most frequently used to automate
specific people-to-people departmental activities that capture and exchange documents. BPM addresses more broadly the sequence and
exception handling associated with end-to-end cross-functional (departmental) processes that span an enterprise (people-to-people, people-to-
system, system-to-system). BPM makes use of analytics and controls to minimize performance degradation and variance.
AgilePoint recognized the rift early, and set out to enable BPMS capabilities using popular Microsoft technology (as opposed to J2EE
technology) while simplifying and lowering the cost of BPM. Organizations that depend on .NET technology and offerings to run their
businesses may want to take a closer look at AgilePoint's BPM offerings.
Context
The firm was originally founded under the name Ascentn in 2003, but was renamed AgilePoint in 2009. Founder Jesse Shiah saw the need to lower
the cost, effort and skill level required of designing and executing business processes using BPM software. At the time, BPM initiatives were complex
and costly, averaging upward of $500,000 per deployment, and the market was comprised of high-end BPM offerings all based on J2EE architecture.
Realizing that organizations needed to create both simple and complex workflows without coding – and that Microsoft was everywhere but surprisingly
oblivious to the evolving BPM market – Shiah set out to build the AgilePoint BPM Suite.
The goal of the platform was to extend the value of workflow automation into a system of end-to-end processes that impact operational key
performance indicators – a principle common to BPM but often overlooked by workflow technology and vendors. Shiah and his development team
were well suited for the task. They came with extensive experience in developing content management and workflow systems using technologies from
Documentum (now EMC), FileNet (now IBM) and Microsoft.
MIS Impact Report
https://451research.com/report
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