The Myth of "Plug & Play" Point Solutions

BPMS vendors often compete head-to-head when the customer knows they are looking for a BPMS technology. Most of the time, however, the primary competition of a BPMS technology is custom-coded solution or a point solution (Six Sigma tools, SOX tools, CRM, order management systems, etc). Too often, configured BPMS technologies are bucketed with custom-coded solutions in the preliminary mind of the customer.....and they instinctively-gravitate towards a point solution because it's more comfortable (after all, the product was pre-built to do what I need it to do).

The myth I'd like to debunk is that point solutions are less disruptive, faster to deploy and better choices than BPMS technologies. Given the opportunity to compete, BPMS technologies are typically a better fit for most companies than point solutions. Why?

1. You'll be doing customization work no matter which path you go down. At least with a BPMS tool, you'll be avoiding the "fun" task of changing the way people work and instead configuring the application with an emphasis on user adoption and ease-of-use.
2. Point solutions aren't all-encompassing....meaning that there will be people and steps that need to play an important role in a point solution process that won't have access to the application. BPMS tools are application-independent and "connect the dots" between all of the people and all of the systems that play an important role in a process. Take CRM for example. Clearly, they are valuable to the front office, but you can't manage a customer relationship entirely inside of a CRM tool. Other people (who do not have access to CRM and never will) play an important role. And, most of the customer acquisition processes I have run into involve many other departments who have their own systems for the role they play in the process.
3. Point solutions are hardcoded, even after they are customized. Unless nothing changes in the way you do business, your system will be out of date frequently and you'll be spending a lot of resources updating it all of the time. BPMS tools give you far more agility to keep your solutions current.
4. Why buy one system when you can buy dozens? What I mean by this is once you have a BPMS tool paid for to address the "pain point" you purchased it for, you can reuse the application to create a limitless number of other solutions.

2007 saw a huge uptick in BPMS awareness, but we're still not there. To be clear, I am not saying that point solutions don't have a place.......they clearly do. What I am saying is that often, they are the wrong choice and even when they are not, customers who choose them will get far more out of them when augmented by a BPMS technology.