The Enterprise BPM framework has been used to identify the currently available SAP software and SAP BPM methodologies which can be used to implement BPM. This resulted into the following SAP BPM framework:
SAP BPM framework
The following SAP products and BPM methodologies have been identified:
Business strategy: The SAP business model in which the core objectives are linked to the functional process decomposition within the SAP solution manager
Program management:The new ASAP methodology in which BPM and the SAP BPR is integrated within the different project phases and method add-ons.
Change program: The Enterprise BPM Roadmap Assessment in which the benefits of BPM can be demonstrated to key stakeholders in order to create buy-in.
Financial management:The integration of BPM within the SAP Value Management methodology to determine the benefits of BPM.
Business management: The SAP PLM (Product Livecycle Management) in which a relation can be made between the product requirements and the related business processes
SAP design:The business processes and the enterprise architecture are modelled in ARIS by business users and EA architects for documentation and information management
Organizational design:The SAP Organizational Change methodology can be used to identify key stakeholders and engage the E2E process owners
Quality management:The SAP & ARIS QM methodologies (e.g. Lean, Business Optimizer) can be used to improve the E2E processes and manage business improvements.
Business transformation:The SAP Business Suite is focused on E2E business processes and supported by an ESR to improve business agility
Configuration management:The Netweaver Process Platform (process composition and integration) and integration of ARIS with SSM assures the alignment between processes and SAP configuration
Change management:The alignment of BPM with SAP Identity & Access Management assures the integrity of business responsibilities and security
Knowledge Management:The integration of the company knowledge (SAP CMS) with the processes assures the right information at the right place
Communication management:The integration of BPM user roles within the SAP/ARIS business process portal assures right information at the right time
Support management:The progress of the E2E SAP and non-SAP processes can be aligned and managed by the SAP Solution Manager
Governance: The SAP Process Lifecycle Management methodology ensures that the BPM roadmap can be managed and the escalation can be resolved.
Objectives management: The SAP Process Performance Indicators can be managed by ARIS PPM to compare the process performance of the different entities.
Based on the SAP BPM framework the following observations can be made:
- The vision of SAP on BPM is much more than Netweaver BPM only.
- The usage / integration of BPM in each of these 16 areas differs and BPM has different priorities within the SAP product development roadmaps.
- SAP is working hard to resolve these BPM maturity issues in order to deliver an integrated Business Process Management operational platform.
- The SAP market communication of the BPM strategy and BPM vision (including the ASAP methodology) should be improved in order to get the BPMS message across to the SAP customers and market research firms.
SAP BPMS market Evaluation by market research companies
Many market research companies like Gartner and Forrester analyze the BPMS (Business Process Management Suite) capabilities of the different vendors.
Forrester uses the following overview to position SAP within the BPMS market
.PNG)
Forrester has divided the BPMS market into the following 3 different areas:
- The traditional business process management vendors focus on human-centric capabilities with good enough content management and integration management capabilities.
- The integration-centric vendors focus on enterprise service bus, service repositories, and large service-oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives.
- The emerging category of dynamic case management vendors focus higly variable processes with associated content management, integration and analytics capabilities.
Alignment SAP and the SAP BPMS research companies
When the SAP BPM framework and the Forrester BPMS positioning of SAP are compared the following observations can be made:
- The Forrester BPMS vision of SAP is mostly based on the capabilities of the SAP Netweaver Process Platform and not factor in the complete BPM vision of SAP
- SAP need to better communicate their complete BPM vision - especially towards the market research companies like Forrester and Gartner.
- The SAP platform is not considered the best of breed BPMS platform by the market research firms like Gartner and Forrester. It considered a "leader" by Forrester in the integration solutions area.
- The BPMS capabilities frameworks of Gartner and Forrester could be extended in order to capture the capabilities the SAP platform can offer.
SAP as an organization is working hard to improve internal alignment (maturity!) to ensure they will provide an integrated operational BPM vision and platform which will receive analysts credits at an appropriate level.
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