The recession has brought a sense of good governance and due diligence to the table. When customers are looking to buy, they review software and pricing from all potential angles.
This trend, argues Eugene van Rensburg, vice-president of K2 Middle East and Africa, is a consequence of 2009's impact on the business process management market, and will continue throughout 2010.
“This year customers will make sure they get the right product at the right price, rather than just buying the most expensive offer on the list,” he notes.
Ghost of recession past
2009 saw two major trends in the BPM space, offers Van Rensburg. Firstly, companies that recognised the need to review the status of business process delivery and maturity in their business.
“These are companies that mostly did not have anything in place and started looking for entry-level offerings. These companies did not have a budget for large enterprise spend,” he explains. The second trend involved companies that did have business process software but found they were spending more than expected on the services to keep these running, says Van Rensburg.
Brighter future
Van Rensburg opines that market conditions will improve in 2010. “We will see customers enter the market at lower price points and invest more as they see the benefit and return on investment, rather than throwing the full cheque book at the problem.”
Predicting some of the technology trends emerging in the BPM space this year, Van Rensburg sees the notion of convergence between business process design, business process execution, and the forms of technology used to capture data as significant.
“The other big drive we see in BPM is the ability to handle case management in the process software,” notes Van Rensburg.
“Local companies are harnessing the benefits of BPM and we are seeing growth,” he offers. However, there are still many players in the field that companies could invest in, making the local industry very interesting, concludes Van Rensburg.
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