BPM is one of several IBM products, part of a big platform that we have, which includes BPM, ODM, IIB, MQ, and DataPower Gateway, as well as API Connect. It's a part of a big solution. The idea of this big platform was to go from our old, monolithic development environments that were static, to something that is much more flow-oriented, and much faster to develop.
We are a logistics company, and everything is "events." The old fashion way to solve everything that was event-related was to store it in a database, and use and treat the data once it was in the database. Today, what we want to do - and we are on the verge of doing this with a new product, with a new platform - is to treat the data and to treat the flow as soon as it comes. If it can be automated like in BPM, we do it based on rules because we have them on ODM. The idea is really to treat the data as soon as it comes, and to have exactly the right decision, based on our rules of course. Once we get the information, be as fast as possible. Because in our company, really, delays are money.
We are not yet using BPM in conjunction with Case Manager.
For us, it's really the speed of the decision; the possibility to really automate the decision, based on the rules that you can pre-program.
I already know what is going to come in the next release because we had a discussion with BPM.
Where it can be improved is Integration. I think that the direction that IBM is taking now, to have something that is much more integrated, that can be seen as one single solution, is clearly the right way.
It's stable. We haven't faced any huge issue with it, up to now.
It's scalable. We don't have problems with the scalability. The first prerequisite for it is really to define what the rules are, and the way to use it.
I have been using IBM technical support for about 20 years. In any cases, whether it be for support, in case of a crash, or any other issue, I never had any bad feeling about support. It was fast, and they always had accurate solutions.
I was not personally involved in the initial setup because I am in operations. The initial setup was driven by our architects. However, the environment, as the first shot, was completely done under the guidance of IBM.
In terms of timing of the implementation of BPM, I would have liked to have had it 10 years earlier.
I was not involved in the decision-making process.
If time matters, if your company has a lot of processes that could be automated, BPM is the right solution, definitely.
Really, I have no idea about prices, but product stability plus other advantages and service should be valued.