NASSCOM Product summit to honor Newgen Software and others for championing software product development

My company - Newgen Software - was recently honored by NASSCOM as an outstanding company in the area of packaged software products. Newgen under Diwakar's leadership has long been a leading light in developing its own intellectual property in the software arena. Today, we are by far the leading provider of Business Process Management and Document Management solutions in India and the emerging markets encompassing South East Asia, Far East Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Click on the link below for the complete article from CIOL.
CIOL : News : NASSCOM Product summit to honor six companies: "NASSCOM Product summit to honor six companies
The event provides an overview of India's existing positioning in the packaged software segment and the future product scenario in the country
Goutam Das
Monday, December 05, 2005

BANGALORE: Six Indian software product companies will be honored at this year's Nasscom Product Summit in Bangalore on December 6. Cranes Software, Impulsesoft Pvt. Ltd, Newgen Software, Pramati Technologies, Ramco Systems, and Tejas Networks are the 'outstanding' ones, chosen based on factors such as the management team, marketing strategy, proprietary nature of products or services and financials.

The summit is being held in association with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore's NSRCEL. The entrepreneurial learning arm of IIMB is planning to develop the department into a hub for angel investors and create an ecosystem for product firms by offering evaluation or due-deligence service free to the angel investor, similar to what happens at US where leading universities organize a platform for nurturing startups.

Prof. TR Madanmohan of IIMB, also a member of the Nasscom Product Forum, explained that early stage capital is not easy and but innovation has not ceased either going by the number of new product companies emerging across cities in India ? he estimates 364 such firms in India.
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Wikis in Business

Wikis are yet to make a major dent in the business market. Once touted as the killer collaboration application, the format is not quite suitable for many of the processes that take place in a typical business. Businesses do not always run by peer review or consensus - in fact the more successful leadership styles do not necessarily encourage too much consensus building, etc.

Also, Wikis are notoriously prone to being misused - as the LA Times and Wikipedia incidents have shown recently.

Anyway, here is a good primer on Wikis and their potential use in the workplace.

Russell Beattie Notebook ? RealNames Next

Russell Beattie Notebook ? RealNames Next

It's strange how I was thinking of the same thing this morning - when I saw my wife keying in full url's like www.webmd.com. And I was reminded of the Realnames concept from a few years back too. That made me wonder as to why this never took off.

But then I thought some more and I noticed my own usage of the web browser - strangely I observed that in most cases I was just putting in the descriptive word for a website or company that I wanted to visit and the google address bar search combined with the setting to take me to the most appropriate result did the rest (you can do the same by configuring your browser address field to use Yahoo search or MSN search and it will take you to the most appropriate result). Now granted that sometimes it doesn't take you to the right website, however the same issues would be there with Realnames also. As it is, in USA there are companies with same names registered in different states. How will you decide who gets to register the name? What about all the other companies with the same name? How about the international stuff - when the web started, US was way ahead and everyone accepted that US based ICANN will administed the .com domain. How are you going to get every country in the world to accept such a scheme at this time - when the growth of internet is much faster in other countries.

My suggestion is that you let Google and other search providers to worry about taking you to the best match - no need to reinvent the wheel.

Compliance, SOXA and BPM

BPM (Business Process Management) suites are providing a whole new way of building applications that enable companies to clearly define their risk management strategy, identify risk mitigation processes and checks and balances, define and deploy organizational processes to monitor the performance against these and provide a high level Risk Management and Compliance Score Card Dashboard to the senior management.

Recently, a lot of BPM suites vendors have come out with such solutions. Some have even tied up with Risk Management consulting companies (e.g., Stellent and Protiviti).

However, my company - Newgen Software - has a new offering that puts a different twist on this solution. Newgen has been building its products and solutions in India, where the Indian government is increasingly following the US lead in areas like corporate governance. Modeled on the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOXA), the revised Clause 49 in India was introduced last year and companies have till this December to comply. Newgen has been working with several Business India 500 (equivalent to the Fortune 500) companies in India and also with the Big 4 consulting companies - and their compliance and auditing practices. Recently, we introduced our Compliance Management framework - based on our BPM platform in the US market. You can view the full press release at the AIIM web site (The Content Management and BPM industry association):

http://aiim.org/article-pr.asp?ID=30667

I am looking forward to suggestions from the BPM community - specially opinion leaders writing blogs and practitioners who are leading such initiatives in their companies - as to how we can help them in implementing compliance management solutions using BPM technology. You can respond to me at my email address sanjay [at] newgen [dot] net.

NewsFactor Network - Tech Trends - Open Source Steps Into ECM Shoes

While EMC, Stellent, Verity, Opentext and all are consolidating their ECM empire by acquiring whatever remaining independent companies are left out there, one of the co-founders of Documentum (now part of EMC) - John Newton - is trying to take ECM open source by introducing the Alfresco platform. Alfresco is a Java based approach which provides functionality for workflow, metadata support, hierarchical folder structure, and indexing and retrieval.

However, "it is initially targeting very simple document-collaboration scenarios of the type that SharePoint has addressed so successfully," said Tony Byrne, analyst and founder of CMSWatch.com.

To me, challenging Sharepoint seems to be a tough strategy - considering not only Microsoft's pervasiveness but also the fact that the basic Sharepoint server is almost free as part of MS Server offerings. Only diehard Java junkies may have need for this technology.

NewsFactor Network - Tech Trends - Open Source Steps Into ECM Shoes: "other "

Adobe still trying to solve the BPM puzzle

http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;328732938;fp;4;fpid;1854890668

In this case the sum of the components may not quite add up to a full BPM suite!

- Sanjay Kalra

IBM, SAP acknowledge limtations of BPEL in processes involving human interaction

IBM and SAP have propose BPEL4People - an extension to the BPEL4WS standard. This acknowledges the known limitations of BPEL when it comes to orchestrating human interactions in a process apart from the Web Services.

Maybe it is time for WfMC and OASIS to come together on this issue and address the need for standards for both human as well as system-to-system workflows. Or maybe we don't need these standards at all - look at Fuego - a very successful BPM vendor that doesn't support BPEL.

Cover Pages: IBM and SAP AG Propose WS-BPEL Extension for People (BPEL4People).

http://www.looselycoupled.com/stories/2005/bpel-gaps-bp1010.html

- Sanjay Kalra

Process For The People - What is a Process?

Peter Keen, writing in the invaluable Every Manager’s Guide to Business Processes defines Process as

"Any aspect of organizational functioning to which the word process can be meaningfully added."

Sanjay Kalra

The Vision Thing | Business. Process. Management. | Weblog

BPM and the Gartner Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2005

Here's an excellent piece on the Gartner Hype Cycle. Note the position of BPM - right on top of the Hype Cycle - "the peak of inflated expectations".

As for me, I don't agree with the inflated expectations part. I think that BPM is certainly high on the hype cycle - but it is actually more like being on the "Slope of Enlightment". That is because its earlier avatars of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) and Workflow have already gone through this cycle. I see 5 years of strong growth before this technology begins to plateau.

You can download Gartner's presentation and listen to their webcast at http://www.gartner.com/teleconferences/asset_129930_75.jsp

Sanjay Kalra
Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies - 2005 | Daniel Neamu Weblog
Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies, 2005

Next generation workflow - Vendor Voice - Network Magazine India

An excellent perspective on how Business Process Management practices can make organizations speedy and efficient. The author is Diwakar Nigam, founder Chairman of Newgen Software Technologies - a leading provider of BPM and Content Management solutions worldwide with 40% market share in its home base of India.

Diwakar makes a few very good points here - the primacy of processes in today's business environment, well defined objectives of BPM, the various underlying technologies that come together in a BPM solution (EAI, Middleware, SOA, etc.). He also talks about how BPM is helping companies in the emerging markets where paper based processes still reign supreme - by streamlining process flow and providing central repository of images of business critical paper documents.

The author feels very strongly that BPM would be a significant technology in the coming years that will help businesses in all industries across the board. E-Governance is another key area that would gain a lot from BPM technology.

Sanjay Kalra

Next generation workflow - Vendor Voice - Network Magazine India: "activities"

The ASP reincarnation - Computerworld

Computerworld has this article on the reincarnation of ASP model. It is amazing how the IT industry has come a full circle - starting with the mainframe oriented central computing model, moving over to the client-server model in the 80s and 90s and returning to a server based model. Not only business applications, if Google's vision is given shape, all computing will be on the server with the devices only acting as a means for interacting and rendering information.

On the ASP note, a leading Indian software company that I know is looking for ASP / Hosting partners for its Business Process Management and Content Management software in USA and Canada. If you or someone you know is interested, please get in touch with me at "sanjay at newgen dot net".
The ASP reincarnation - Computerworld: "Software as a service -- which typically eliminates hefty upfront license costs and requires little or no hardware or IT personnel to install, configure or maintain -- is growing in popularity among large corporations and small businesses alike. Last year's successful public stock offerings by fast-growing providers Salesforce.com Inc. and RightNow Technologies Inc. have shined a spotlight on a software delivery model reminiscent of the buzz surrounding application service providers (ASP) in the late 1990s."

New definition of Business Process Management - by Gartner

New definition of BPM by Gartner:
BPM.com - Analyst Briefing: "BPM is a management practice that provides for governance of a business's process environment toward the goal of improving agility and operational performance. BPM is a structured approach employing methods, policies, metrics, management practices and software tools to manage and continuously optimize an organization's activities and processes."

How organizations approach BPM

I like this article by Terry Schurter. I don't know what the 2nd and 3rd approaches will be - but I would imagine that the tactical approach to BPM is perhaps the one with the highest and easily measurable ROI.

Come to think about it, isn't it obvious that when you tackle a problem that is well defined, where you can put your arms around it, where you can define the parameters on which you would measure the success of the solution, where these parameters would be rather tangible and easily measurable -your chances of success are the highest.

I am looking forward to reading about the next 2 approaches before I comment any further.

How organizations approach BPM

Thursday 18th August 2005
BMP Group
Written By: Terry Schurter, BPMG Chief Analyst
Copyright © 2005 BPM Group

http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?articleid=12857&

InformationWeek > India > India's Next Step > August 8, 2005

A very insightful article by Paul McDougall at InformationWeek magazine. Paul is the resident Outsourcing expert at InformationWeek and has written many good articles on the subject. Here he writes about the "Next Step" in the evolution of the Indian software industry - the move to selling software products as opposed to only services.

While selling software products bring to the mind the specter of Indian companies getting even higher value addition and hurting US based competitors, the reality is likely to be different. In a mature free-market economy like USA, there is always room for competition and competition brings with it the added advantages of better products at lower cost for the customers and eventually results in an expansion of the market itself. This compensates for ay market share loss for the existing players.

Besides, software product development is becoming increasingly like car manufacturing. The so called "Japanese cars" like Toyota Camry and Honda Accord, etc. may actually have as much local content as cars from GM and Ford. Similarly, to sell products to US customers, Indian software companies are making great investments in establishing a team in US that works closely with potential customers in pre-sales, post-sale implementation, training and on-going support. These teams become the core of knowledge in these enterprises and continues to be expanded in USA to stay close to the customers.

Another advantage with Indian software companies offering products in the USA market is the new opportunites that it offers to US partners to offer more customer friendly business models. For example, document management used to be a very expensive, enterprise technology - where the customer had to invest huge amounts in software license fee and hardware to achieve the benefits. My company - Newgen Software - partnered with a Silicon Valley startup to offer Document Management to Enterprises as a hosted, subscription only business model. We are now trying to offer similar solutions in the Business Process Management area with our US partners focusing on vertical and horizontal segments of the market.

Read more in this article by Paul McDougall...

InformationWeek > India > India's Next Step > August 8, 2005:

Here's the reference to my company in this article:

"Like other foreign software vendors that saw big opportunities in the United States--SAP among them--Indian companies increasingly want to turn their local successes into a greater U.S. presence. That includes business-process and document-management application vendor Newgen, which says it has a 40% share of the Indian market for software that connects workflows. The company wants to partner with vertical-apps developers in the States to aim its offerings at health care, financial services, and the government. 'People take us more seriously now because many of these enterprises have themselves gone to India for services,' says Sanjay Kalra, VP for business development.

While he's focused mostly on large companies, Kalra believes the low price of the company's various business-process modules, which cover functions such as invoicing and accounts payable, also could appeal to the small- and midsize-business market. 'Even a company with only five or 10 people in accounts payable could break even on our product in a year,' he says. 'They could get rid of three people.' That raises the specter that low-cost automation will join outsourcing as a threat to U.S. jobs--again, thanks to India.

But that may be jumping the gun. While the comfort level with Indian IT expertise has greatly increased, and the cost savings of using lower-priced software is attractive, going up against name-brand players in more established Western markets won't be easy. Newgen offers a lower total cost of ownership, Kalra says, but he concedes that the U.S. market for the software his company sells is mature."

What is Business Process Management?

Simply put "A business process is the essence of all business..."

Enterprises Focus on Business Process Management: "


Some of the most-elaborate business processes originated in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt (there had to be a fairly sophisticated engineering, supply chain and human resources process behind the building of the Pyramids). A business process is the essence of all business, then and now. Automation of business processes can push an industry into a new era (the way Henry Ford's assembly line revolutionized the automobile industry first and the whole society later). A new phenomenon of business process automation is taking place in front of our eyes."

Agility in deploying processes - the missing piece

BPM vendors don't often pay much attention to the speed and cost of deployment of a process using their software tools. Most vendors describe in detail the various tools they have as part of the BPM suite - leaving issues like cost, time and ease of deployment to customer's imagination.

A look at some recent BPM implementations in the industry would highlight the fact that BPM implementations are mirroring deployment of Enterprise solutions like ERP, CRM, SCM and others. Not only that, vendors confuse the issues even more by clubbing architectural issues like SOA with a BPM implementation. Thus, often times BPM implementations get bogged down in complex discussions by purists regarding SOA, BPEL, etc. losing sight of key business drivers for implementing BPM solutions in the first instance.

An alternative checklists for users planning to implement BPM solutions should look somewhat like this:

1. Ease of taking an existing process (mix of ad-hoc automation and manual steps) and automating it using the tools and implementation services provided by the BPM solution vendor

2. Total time taken from Process Study to Process Design and Documentation to Development and Testing to Going Live.

3. Total one-time cost of the above - a combination of product license fee / usage based fee and implementation and custom software development services.

4. Ongoing cost of ownership - BPM implies continuous process improvement, which in turn means ongoing effort to improve the process model, user interfaces, integration points with other applications - both inside and outside the enterprise, etc. BPM vendors that can provide a lower ongoing implementation, support and maintenance cost - often leveraging their offshore bases can prove to be a real bargain.

Have you had similar issues implementing BPM in your organizations? Please feel free to comment with your experiences.

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: Business Process Management is Under Construction

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: Business Process Management is Under Construction:

Continuing in the same vein as the earlier article - " IT Detours on the Road to BPM", thie article postulates that BPM tools are still in their infancy.

"Business Process Management is Under Construction

BPM systems have mastered process integration and automation, but the road to the future, which promises embedded process monitors and sophisticated simulation, has yet to be completed
"

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: IT Detours On the Road to BPM

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: IT Detours On the Road to BPM: "BPM implementations aren't all that dissimilar from the summer family vacation. No matter how much time you spend planning the best cross-country route, you end up making detours that cost time and money. In the lab, our summer vacation with BPM software was no exception. More than a few times we exclaimed: 'Are we there yet?'"

TIBCO Faces Shareholder Suits - over faulty integration of Staffware

Looks like not all is well with the consolidation in the BPM industry. TIBCO's acquisition of Staffware and efforts to integrate it with its offerings are running into rough seas - and quite predictably so.

So what's the future for Staffware - with dwindling sales and many of the key people gone, Staffware may be heading towards an uncertain future. Jon Pike - the ex CTO of Staffware and widely seen as the architect of the original Staffware product now works for a competitor - Global 360 (the new avatar of Eastman Software).
TIBCO Faces Shareholder Suits: "its "

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In Focus: What's Hot and Not-So-Hot in ECM

Filenet ascribes its most recent strong earnings figures to BPM.

BPM vs. Content Management

While BPM market is growing at 27 to 32% annually while Content Management is only growing at 8%

Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In Focus: What's Hot and Not-So-Hot in ECM

Forbes.com: Overprocessed World

A contrarian view on Business Process Management (BPM) by John Dvorak.

Forbes.com: Overprocessed World

IT-Director.com: What is a Business Process?

IT-Director.com: What is a Business Process?: "is "
"getting the right product(s) to the right person at the right time based on existing orders"

Let me be very clear that this IS the definition of the order fulfillment business process – and that the detailed workflow expression of the process is NOT the definition of the process but is instead the "map" of how the process works.

SOA Pipeline | Review: Business Process Management Suites

SOA Pipeline | Review: Business Process Management Suites: "This scenario let us evaluate a variety of feature sets and functionality across what appeared to be disparate technologies (see 'How We Tested,' for more details).

During our evaluation, we acted as both IT staffer and business analyst: For you IT pros, we evaluated features such as platform support, architecture, administrative capabilities, and integration with application infrastructure and identity-management systems. For you business analysts, we examined reporting and analysis features and the ease with which process owners might model and simulate processes. We collaborated with our sister publication Intelligent Enterprise on each product tested. For a more business-analyst focus on the BPM offerings, watch for the review of these products in Intelligent Enterprise's August issue (see www.intelligententerprise.com)."

Compliance Pipeline | Feature: Market Analysis: Understanding Business Process Management

Compliance Pipeline | Feature: Market Analysis: Understanding Business Process Management: "Most BPM suites are process-oriented, sharing information among modeling tools, fat clients, portals and the process engine through Web services. The advantages to this model are reuse, interoperability and faster time to deploy."

The Don't-Fix-It-If-It's-Not-Broken School of BPM

Plenty of business process management (BPM) buzz phrases focus on "changing processes on the fly" and "continuous process improvement," but most BPM practitioners I've spoken to don't take process change lightly. They've typically gained huge advantages just by integrating disparate systems, eliminating paperwork and creating a consistent documents process with an audit trail. They're not going back to modeling (and the modeling team, if there was one) to consider incremental changes.
Intelligent Enterprise Magazine: In Focus: The Don't-Fix-It-If-It's-Not-Broken School of BPM

CIO Today - Infrastructure - Are You Ready for BPM?

"But if their process is broken, BPM won't fix it; it'll just make it faster."
CIO Today - Infrastructure - Are You Ready for BPM?

Standards groups BPMI.org and WfMC consider merger - Computer Business Review

Standards groups BPMI.org and WfMC consider merger - Computer Business Review

IT-Analysis.com - Business Process Management on demand

IT-Analysis.com - Business Process Management on demand

Prime Time for Real Time - BPM and the Real Time Enterprise

By Peter Fingar

Executives are buzzing about the notion of the real-time enterprise. It's not the latest "killer application," but a management strategy that calls for squeezing time and associated costs out of processes, transforming how companies operate and even the very businesses they're in.

General Electric, JetBlue, Virgin Group, Progressive Insurance and others are harnessing the universal, real-time connectivity of the Internet for business process innovation. While the concept of time-based competition isn't new, the ability to execute on this management ideal with computer-assisted process support is.

Some enterprises look to new technology architectures and composite applications as the route to the real-time enterprise, but this article explains why time-based competition demands a business process management approach. By giving business analysts software to build and manipulate end-to-end processes, companies are dramatically improving response times to routine customer transactions and emerging market demands by bypassing lengthy software development cycles.