December 17, 2009 at 16:21An interesting acquisition in the BPM market
For the new year, IBM decided to make a present for itself - bought Lombardi . This name says little to the domestic user, but this small company is really a very tasty morsel in the market of process control solutions. Lombardi makes mid-range BPM systems quite functional and very easy to use. If it weren’t for the crisis, Lombardi would most likely have gone through an IPO or at least remained independent, at least in the summer, the president of Lombardi very confidently wrote about their coolness in his blog (and from the point of view of the product this is justified).
For EMEA and, in particular, Russia, in a certain sense, it’s good that IBM made such a purchase - at present Lombardi itself had no chance to expand its European presence, and with IBM’s resources it’s possible to bring new products to Russian customers, quickly. Lombardi will become part of the WebSphere division, which already has several BPM products, with IBM-specific mega-enterprise specifics, typically deployed from top to bottom. Lombardi, on the other hand, offers department-level process development, followed by higher-level integration. Basically, if you manage to properly embed the new acquisition in WebSphere, everyone will benefit from it. For example, Lombardi, in addition to the Blueprint process modeling tool, has a good product for executing Teamworks processes, focused on staff; and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to take a closer look. and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to look closely. and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to take a closer look.
For EMEA and, in particular, Russia, in a certain sense, it’s good that IBM made such a purchase - at present Lombardi itself had no chance to expand its European presence, and with IBM’s resources it’s possible to bring new products to Russian customers, quickly. Lombardi will become part of the WebSphere division, which already has several BPM products, with IBM-specific mega-enterprise specifics, typically deployed from top to bottom. Lombardi, on the other hand, offers department-level process development, followed by higher-level integration. Basically, if you manage to properly embed the new acquisition in WebSphere, everyone will benefit from it. For example, Lombardi, in addition to the Blueprint process modeling tool, has a good product for executing Teamworks processes, focused on staff; and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to take a closer look. and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to look closely. and IBM has a strong, system-oriented WebSphere Process Server offering that they have long been trying to add a human dimension to. Intellectually, it makes sense to integrate Teamworks into WPS. True, IBM quite often keeps the acquired products “independent”, even if their functionality overlaps. But even if Blueprint and Teamworks are sold separately from other WebSphere products, the customer is again no harm, but only good - IBM is going to position them as entry-level solutions, which means they will cost cheaply (and taking into account at what speed IBM transfers everything to the cloud, maybe even a penny). And in use, they are really very convenient. So who needs a high-quality and non-confusing BPM - after half a year you can start to take a closer look.