-- Posted by Carole-Ann
What a busy new year in the BPM space!
Not too long ago IBM acquired Lombardi. This is quite an event as Lombardi was seen as one of the most advanced, most innovative vendor in the space. This acquisition, if executed well, could solve a big hole in Websphere's portfolio regarding the people side of BPM: human interactions. Given what they have done with Filenet though, I am a little cautious about the execution side. I hope this will not just result in removing one more BPM player from the marketplace... This one will be on my watch-list for sure.
I just learned that Progress acquired Savvion. I was underwhelmed by the price they paid though ($50M). I would have expected a little more for such a tool but obviously I am not privileged to see their financial numbers...
With the consolidation taking place, I would love to be fly on the wall at Global 360... I wonder how they feel about it... Less competitors? Stronger competitors... This remains in my book one of the strongest independent BPM vendors left, very appealing company. I wonder if the likes of Oracle, Microsoft or SAP may start courting them... They have been quite shy in terms of acquisitions compared to the hungry IBM. Would that denote a more prudent approach? Oracle does have its hands full with the fusion initiative. Microsoft seems more interested in the consumer market. If they wanted to acquire they may look at companies like Metastorm though, that fit better in the .NET world.
In French we have a saying "Qui trop embasse mal etreint" (meaning "he who embraces too much does not hug well"), the equivalent of "Grasp all, lose all"... Future will tell!
