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KEY TAKEAWAYS
BPM Service Providers Fill A Critical Gap For Process Reinvention
BPM service providers now fill a widening gap between emerging disruptive business
requirements and existing process methods and technologies. These next-generation
service providers focus on redesigning business processes to deliver better customer
experiences and extending systems of record processes to mobile and other digital
channels.
Short-List Providers Based On Deep Domain And Product Expertise
Many teams establish their BPM service provider strategy based on an either-or model
that goes deep on industry expertise or goes deep on software vendor skills. Take a bothand approach that gives equal weight to industry expertise and depth of talent around
specific BPM software.
Evaluating Service Providers Is Essential To BPM Suite Investment
Its important to bear in mind that a BPM platform is only as good as the bench of partners
available to implement it. During upfront BPM platform evaluations, include several
criteria to assess the quality and bench strength of the software vendors partner ecosystem.
Table Of Contents
2013, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available
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Process methods divorced from customer experience optimization. With over a dozen
different formal methods for process analysis, modeling, and improvement, BPM offers up a
rich set of tools and structured practices for driving business process change.1 However, only
one of these methods business capability modeling provides some context for evaluating
the impact of business processes and value streams on the overall customer experience. Through
interviews and client consulting engagements, Forrester sees many process teams struggling to
retrofit traditional BPM methods to support large-scale customer experience and front-office
improvement initiatives, with limited success.
We just completed the first phase of expanding our process improvement program to
include a focus on improving customer experiences. In this initial phase, we added
customer journey mapping as a new tool in our arsenal. But were still working to connect
journey maps and persona activities into a meaningful format that can feed process
redesign. (Director of BPM, major financial services firm)
process technologies, ranging from BPM suites to dynamic case management solutions, all tend
to begin solving business process problems from the standpoint of managing process activity
states and data flows. This leaves a gaping hole between whats offered out of the box and what
must be custom developed to work within the organizations existing fragmented interfaces
and internal business applications. On top of this, consider the added complexity of optimizing
business processes for convenient task completion across an array of mobile and digital devices
and form factors.2
Skills that undervalue the importance of user-centered design. BPM skills now require
more than just a focus on structured business process modeling and analysis. New business
requirements for process change center on the need to combine big data insights with great user
experience design, delivered in context while workers are completing tasks and engaging with
internal and external customers. This means that business process architects, designers, and
developers need to increase skills around design thinking and data management disciplines.3
Figure 1 There Is A Widening Gap Between New Business Requirements And Process Skills
Disruptive business requirements
Best opportunity to
partner with BPM
service provider
Digital
reinvention
gap
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
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Scope a compelling vision for process change in a shifting environment. Based on hundreds
of client inquiries fielded by Forrester, one of the top challenges facing BPM teams is creating
compelling visions for process change that executives can throw their support behind. In most
cases, we can see that teams clearly understand the potential business impact of BPM but need
to find the right external partner to help them sharpen the vision and reimagine what business
processes will need to look like in their business or industry over the coming years.
Expand your portfolio of process next practices and front-office engagement skills. BPM
programs are slowly waking to the reality of a shifting stakeholder and influencer landscape.
Yesterday, the only stakeholders they bumped up against were operationally focused the
COO, CIO, CFO, etc. However, now the CMO, product strategists, experience designers, and
customer-facing business execs all have something to say about how to improve company
business processes (see Figure 3). Some of the teams we interviewed for this research placed a
premium on finding external BPM partners that would be credible in front of these customerfacing business executives and also help their teams develop the right skills and vocabulary for
working with these new constituents.
initially funded or new business requirements have been defined, business stakeholders ask,
Are we there yet? with regular cadence. However, few firms we interviewed demonstrated
an appetite for building up large benches of dedicated internal BPM resources. Forrester sees
the typical size of BPM programs in the six-to-10 range, with additional resources filled out
from service providers as projects staff up and staff down. With the right service provider
partnerships, teams can quickly roll on and roll off resources as program velocity dictates.4
8.49
6.53
5.02
3.86
2.97
2.32
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
Source: Forrester Research BPM Service Providers Forecast, 2012 To 2017 (Global)
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2013, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
Figure 3 The Right Provider Can Help Engage New Process Stakeholders
COO/CFO focus
Business optimization
Process visibility
Performance management
CIO focus
Automation
Process standardization
Systems agility
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CMO focus
Customer experience
Digital channels
Brand management
Five Key Questions Help You Cut Through The BPM Service Provider Fog
In our market overview, Forrester interviewed 19 service providers to evaluate BPM service
offerings, industry coverage, depth and breadth of dedicated BPM resources, and depth of BPM
software partnerships. While this represents a small sampling of the broader BPM service provider
market, our overview focused on top service providers based on BPM service revenue, market
presence, and alignment with leading BPM software vendors.
There is a wide variety of offerings, coverage, and expertise among service providers (see Figure 4).
With such a wide variety, Forrester recommends that teams take time to assess their specific program
goals and objectives to create a shortlist of service providers that represent the best fit for the
programs long- and short-term needs (see Figure 5). Before jumping into a relationship with a BPM
service provider, be sure to assess your programs service provider needs by asking five key questions:
1. How unique is the problem or challenge to your particular industry? This speaks to the
level of industry-focused talent the vendor should have. Some vendors, like Capgemini and
Accenture, align all BPM resources around industries.
2. How important is vendor bench strength and depth with a given BPM suite platform? This
question is critical. In most cases, navigating the digital reinvention gap will require aligning
strategy with technology, so teams must assess how much depth they will need in a given platform.
3. Can a combination of service providers help speed your teams success? Larger systems
integrators are often able to provide bodies but might not have the deep expertise architecting
a solution based on a given tool set or method. So consider establishing a primary partnership
that is supported by secondary partners.
4. Is an onshore/offshore configuration optimal for business engagement? BPM requires
significant levels of engagement across different roles business analysts, process modelers,
process architects, developers, etc. An offshore model doesnt always support this level of
engagement across roles. But with some service providers boasting sub-$30/hour rates, it might
be worth evaluating if there is a mixed onshore/offshore model that fits your environment.
5. Which business stakeholders will be involved? This is an important question to answer as the
focus shifts to front-office engagement. If customer-facing executives will be involved in the
initiative, you want to be sure you hire a partner that can help you navigate conversations with
these stakeholders and will be credible to this group of stakeholders.
Staff Your BPM Crew For Long-Term Sustainability
After sizing up their programs goals and objectives, teams should take a step back to create the road
map they expect their BPM initiative to follow. This means evaluating potential roadblocks and
checkpoints for course correction, along with an honest assessment of when different skills and roles
will need to come into play.
For example, when creating your programs road map, you might realize you need a strong and
credible service provider to help drive the initial program launch. Or you might realize that you
have strong internal leadership but need to bring on a crew of top-notch process developers to
quickly scale the number of BPM projects you can deliver simultaneously. Or in other cases, you
might only need a strategic advisor to help you shift from a project mindset to a program mindset.
Successful programs build service provider partnerships with a clear focus on driving long-term
sustainability for your program. Essential factors include:
The cultural fit between internal and external resources. Business process leaders need to
dig deep to evaluate each service providers cultural fit with your internal process philosophy,
appetite for innovation, and communication styles. During reference calls, ask questions that
look beyond the service providers prescribed process methodologies, such as how they use
thought leadership to help influence process strategy, how they bring customers together to
share process challenges and solutions across different industries, or where their approach or
philosophy broke down for a customer.
The depth and breadth of BPM software vendors partner ecosystem. Technology-focused
BPM initiatives are blind to creating shortlists of potential service providers. These initiatives
rely heavily on the BPM software vendors professional services team for upfront heavy lifting.
Taking a narrow focus on evaluating service providers during upfront BPM software evaluations
leaves teams scrambling to fill essential holes at the most critical points in the programs
evolution. To avoid this pitfall, invest time during the upfront BPM software evaluation to also
assess the bench strength, skill depth, and available capacity of each BPM software vendors
partner ecosystem.5
Embedding resources to anchor strategic roles. BPM is unique from other business
technology initiatives because it requires a high degree of both business and technical acumen
and cuts across numerous stakeholders that have competing business process agendas. These
unique challenges create a maze of potential breakpoints that could easily sink even the best-run
BPM programs. Anchor your BPM program by identifying program flexi-points that represent
the greatest risks to long-term success and sustainability. And then establish partner role
relationships that can back up or step in or play a critical part at key points for these roles
during the programs evolution.6
Figure 4 BPM Service Engagement Models Come In All Shapes And Sizes
Issue continuum
Strategic
Magnitude of benefit
Prime value chain
establishes value from the
customer perspective and
identifies the insights to
drive enterprise value.
$100M
$100M
$100M
$10M
$10M
$10M
$10M
$10M
$10M
Operational
Market
analysis
Platform
selection
Testing
Execution excellence
builds the engine to
manage and execute
portfolio of improvement.
Source: Accenture
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Top verticals
Regional focus
Accenture
Financial services
and insurance,
telecom, retail,
healthcare, and
energy/resources
Global
Architech
Solutions
North America
(East Coast)
Financial services,
oil and gas,
manufacturing
North America
BP3
Financial services,
healthcare,
manufacturing
North America
Capgemini
Financial services
and insurance,
public sector,
healthcare, telecom
Europe, North
America
(primarily in
financial
services)
Cognizant
Banking and
financial services,
insurance,
healthcare
Global
CSC
Financial services
and insurance
North America
Deloitte
Public sector,
insurance and
banking,
life sciences, retail,
manufacturing
Global
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10
Top verticals
Regional focus
IBM Global
Business
Services
ITC Infotech
Global
KPMG
North America
Modus21
Public sector,
Charleston, SC-based Modus21 is a BPM specialist
insurance,
that focuses on process engineering, systems
integration, and organizational change management. manufacturing
North America
(East Coast)
Princeton Blue
North America,
Asia (primarily
Pacific region)
Prolifics
Syntel
Banking and
Global
financial services,
insurance, healthcare
TCS
Banking and
financial services,
insurance,
telecom, public
sector
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Banking and
Global
financial services,
insurance, healthcare
Financial services,
healthcare, life
sciences,
telecom
Financial services,
pharmaceuticals,
healthcare
Global
11
Top verticals
Tech Mahindra
Manufacturing,
Global
telecom, insurance,
banking, healthcare
Virtusa
Financial services,
Global
insurance, healthcare
Wipro
Finance,
manufacturing, and
healthcare,
life sciences
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Regional focus
Global
12
Software
vendor ecosystem Dedicated resources
Accenture
Pegasystems, IBM,
Oracle, Tibco,
Software AG,
OpenText
Architech
Solutions
Oracle
BP3
IBM, Alfresco
Capgemini
Cognizant
Pegasystems, IBM,
Appian
CSC
Dedicated BPM
Forrester estimates between 30
practice focused on and 40 resources dedicated to
implementing DSTs BPM-specific projects.
AWD product
Deloitte
IBM Global
Business
Services
ITC Infotech
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Software AG,
Bonitasoft, Intalio,
IBM
13
Software
vendor ecosystem Dedicated resources
KPMG
Appian, IBM,
Software AG
Modus21
Princeton Blue
Prolifics
Syntel
TCS
IBM, Pegasystems,
Appian
Tech Mahindra
Oracle,
Pegasystems, IBM,
Software AG,
Appian, Tibco
Virtusa
Pegasystems, IBM,
Oracle, Eccentex,
Savvion
Wipro
Pegasystems, IBM,
Oracle, Appian,
Tibco, OpenText,
Software AG,
RedHat
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r e c o m m e n d at i o n s
Mix and match providers to find the best fit for your program. A common pitfall we
found as we interviewed teams for this research focused on the need to find the one perfect
service provider that could cover all process needs. Full-service firms, such as Accenture
and Capgemini, do offer end-to-end process support covering business transformation to
technology. But dont be afraid to invite smaller boutique service providers such as BP3,
Avio Consulting, or Modus21 that have depth in architecting solutions for a particular
product or strong process analysis expertise.
Avoid using an army of providers as a permanent stop gap. When building out your
plan, invest time in evaluating and mapping out how you plan to use service providers
strategically to transfer critical skills and competency around new business process
methodologies. For example, if your team is focused on customer experience transformation,
plan to assign someone to work alongside the service providers customer experience person
to learn their methodology and begin applying it to other process improvement projects.
The key is to plan on how you will build up your internal process army as the service
providers army stands down.
Short-list providers that hit your sweet spot of strategy and technology. During your
evaluation of BPM service providers, youre likely to uncover providers that claim to be
agnostic. When it comes to BPM, its best to find providers that have a strong relationship
with specific BPM technologies and also have a strong foundation in a defined set of process
methods and techniques. Try to avoid software providers that focus solely on methodology
or solely on a given technology. The best providers do a great job blending the two and hold
fast to BPM as an approach that combines both methodology and technology.
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Supplemental Material
Methodology
As part of the forecast modeling, Forrester develops comprehensive historical and base-year
market size estimates based on a variety of sources, including public financial documents, vendor
interviews, and Forresters proprietary primary consumer and executive research.
All of Forresters forecasts are designed by a dedicated team of forecasting analysts who build
the models, conduct extensive industry research, and manage the process of formally building
consensus among Forresters analysts. Forecast analysts have backgrounds in investment banking,
management consulting, and market research, where they developed extensive experience with
industry and company forecasting.
For more information on Forresters ForecastView offering, including access to additional details not
included in this report, please contact us at data@forrester.com.
Companies Interviewed For This Report
Accenture
KPMG
Architech Solutions
Modus21
Avio Consulting
Princeton Blue
BP3
Prolifics
Capgemini
Syntel
Cognizant
CSC
Tech Mahindra
Deloitte
Virtusa
Wipro
ITC Infotech
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Endnotes
For more information about the different formal methods and practices for process analysis, modeling, and
improvement that BPM offers, see the October 3, 2012, Select The Core Methods And Techniques You
Need To Deliver BPM Excellence report.
For more information about how companies should address the optimization of business processes for
convenient task completion across an array of mobile and digital devices and form factors, see the February
4, 2013, Mobile Engagement Demands Process Transformation report.
For more information about how to incorporate user-centered design around your BPM efforts, see the
June 12, 2013, Design For Disruption: Take An Outside-In Approach To BPM report.
For more details about how to approach these new BPM service provider partnerships and the role they
can play in your organization, see the August 14, 2013, Accelerate BPM Velocity With The Right Service
Provider Strategy report.
In early 2013, Forrester published the BPM suites Forrester Wave, which helps users evaluate leading BPM
vendors, their strengths, depth, and other important attributes. For more information, see the March 11,
2013, The Forrester Wave: BPM Suites, Q1 2013 report.
For more information about the roles that flexi-points play in dynamic business and process, see the
September 24, 2007, The Dynamic Business Applications Imperative report.
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