BPM Convergence: Workflow and Integration Meet in the Middle

Transcription

1 BPM Convergence: Workflow and Integration Meet in the Middle September 2007 ~ Underwritten, in Part, by ~

2 Page 2 Executive Summary The traditional best-of-breed approach to deploying business software in the enterprise has led to islands of functionality, some delivering business system integration, some reporting, and others workflow management. There is increased pressure from the business to pull these stove-piped applications into one enterprise-level business process management (BPM) view. The end goal is to minimize the number of manual interactions in each process, increasing the throughput of business transactions. At the same time, businesses want better visibility into process data and more flexibility in modeling and optimizing workflow. In this study of 162 end-users, Aberdeen Group shows that Best-in-Class (BIC) companies are those that are embracing this end-to-end view of enterprise BPM. Best-in-Class Performance For this report, Aberdeen used three primary performance criteria to distinguish Best-in-Class companies from Industry Average and Laggard organizations: Manual workflow integration points: 71% of the Best-in-Class reported a decrease Operational costs related to business workflow: 88% of the Best-in-Class recorded lower costs ROI on BPM investments: 55% of the Best-in-Class saw increased returns on their BPM investments Competitive Maturity Assessment Performance in the three KPIs used for this report are an indicator of the maturity of an organization. Typical Best-in-Class organizations: Are twice as likely as the Industry Average to have deployed converged BPM solutions See BPM as an established discipline Use converged BPM to increase the throughput of business transactions Required Actions Deploying the right technology must be coupled with organizational change in order to realize the full potential of BPM. To achieve Best-in-Class performance: Converge your integration and workflow stove pipes into suites of functionality. End-to-end integration of BPM components is a key to better throughput and lower business application development costs. Build experience in process modeling. Best-in-Class companies have a four-to-one advantage over the Industry Average and Laggard groups in their application of process modeling. Document your business processes. Our research shows a strong correlation between performance and an understanding of the underlying business processes. Documentation and modeling lead directly to optimization. What we ve gained is the ability to control and predict our business processes. As a bonus, we now have a good inventory of business processes and optimization opportunities ~ VP of IT, High Tech Company

3 Page 3 Table of Contents Executive Summary... 2 Best-in-Class Performance... 2 Competitive Maturity Assessment... 2 Required Actions... 2 Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class...4 Aberdeen Analysis... 4 Why Convergence?... 4 The Maturity Class Framework... 5 The Best-in-Class Use Integrated Solutions... 5 The Best-in-Class PACE Model... 6 Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success...9 Competitive Assessment...10 Process...11 Organization and Knowledge...11 Technology...12 Aberdeen Insight: What s Coming Next?...13 Key Challenges...14 Chapter Three: Required Actions...16 Laggard Steps to Success...16 Industry Average Steps to Success...16 Best-in-Class Steps to Success...16 Appendix A: Research Methodology...18 Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research...20 Featured Underwriters...21 Figures Figure 1: Key Drivers for Deploying Converged BPM...4 Figure 2: Use of Converged BPM Solutions...6 Figure 3: Varied Approaches to BPM... 7 Figure 4: Best-in-Class Companies Are Organizationally Mature...11 Figure 5: Organizational Profile...12 Figure 6: Use of Management Consulting...12 Figure 7: Technology Drivers...13 Figure 8: BPM Implementation Plans - Six Month Horizon...14 Figure 9: Key BPM Challenges...15 Tables Table 1: Companies with Top Performance Earn Best-in-Class Status...5 Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework... 7 Table 3: The Competitive Framework...10 Table 4: The PACE Framework Key...19 Table 5: The Competitive Framework Key...19 Table 6: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework...19

4 Page 4 Chapter One: Benchmarking the Best-in-Class Aberdeen Analysis Business Process Management (BPM) offerings have traditionally been focused on one of two areas of the enterprise: integration or workflow. Business integration products pull data from a variety of back-end business systems and make them available to other applications, while workflow products provide process modeling, automation, and monitoring. Getting these two types of software to work together has traditionally been a challenge; the result has been islands of BPM functionality scattered throughout the organization, each serving a discrete function. Enterprises are now turning toward a new breed of BPM tool that more tightly integrates workflow and business systems to provide a competitive advantage in data visibility and business process throughput. Services- Oriented Architecture (SOA) or web services is the glue that pulls the systems together. Fast Facts 88% of Best-in-Class companies reported a reduction in operational costs related to workflow 71% of Best-in-Class organizations saw a decrease in the number of manual steps in their business processes Why Convergence? The top drivers for moving toward converged BPM solutions for Best-in- Class companies are related: push more business transactions through the enterprise, and reduce the number of manual steps in the associated workflow (Figure 1). Figure 1: Key Drivers for Deploying Converged BPM 100% Best-in-Class All Others 75% 64% 61% 50% 25% 30% 49% 41% 36% 30% 20% 24% 16% 0% Increased transaction throughput Reduce manual steps in workflow Increase agility IT in repsonding to business Reduce business exceptions Reduce cost of enterprise integration projects Cost of integration is not a significant driver for this group, and 60% of the Best-in-Class indicated that for BPM implementations, the time taken for implementation was more important than the cost. Sixty percent (60%) of

5 Page 5 both the Industry Average and Laggard groups felt that cost was more important than time. The Maturity Class Framework For this report, Aberdeen surveyed 162 end users whose companies are implementing BPM solutions. In analyzing the data, three primary performance criteria were used to distinguish Best-in-Class companies from Industry Average and Laggard organizations, including: The number of manual steps in their business workflow Operational costs related to workflow Overall ROI for BPM investments With Best-in-Class identified, we then looked at how that group compared to the Industry Average and Laggard organizations in a number of key areas (Table 1). Table 1: Companies with Top Performance Earn Best-in-Class Status Definition of Maturity Class Best in Class: Top 20% of aggregate performance scorers Industry Average: Middle 50% of aggregate performance scorers Laggard: Bottom 30% of aggregate performance scorers Mean Class Performance 71% saw a decrease in the number of manual workflow integration points 88% reported a reduction in operational costs related to business workflow 55% realized increases in ROI for BPM investments 16% saw a decrease in the number of manual workflow integration points 12% reported a reduction in operational costs related to business workflow 28% realized increases in ROI for BPM investments NONE saw a decrease in the number of manual workflow integration points 2% reported a reduction in operational costs related to business workflow 16% realized increases in ROI for BPM investments The Best-in-Class Use Integrated Solutions The companies that are performing the best in our three key indicators use converged BPM solutions at twice the rate of the Industry Average Group, and eight times the rate of the Laggards (Figure 2). The advantage that convergence brings to the table is seamless integration of all of the pieces of an enterprise s business, from legacy systems holding customer data, to automated workflow, to reporting, and everything in between.

6 Page 6 Figure 2: Use of Converged BPM Solutions 50% Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard 41% 25% 19% 5% 0% A similarity can be drawn with the early use of office automation products (where a best-of-breed word processor might be bought from one vendor, an accounts receivable program from another), and it was time-consuming and often expensive to move data from one to the other. Just as in the office environment, a focus on standardization and integration in BPM tools has diminished the difficulty in moving transactions and data from one stage to the next. This combination is delivering the increased throughput that Best-in-Class companies are demanding. The Best-in-Class PACE Model To better how organizations are responding to challenges around BPM, Aberdeen used the PACE framework: P: Pressures, either external or internal, that underlie the problem A: Actions that an organization might take in order to address a given pressure C: Organizational capabilities that must be in place to take a given action E: Technical enablers, or tools, that are used to drive an action The way in which Best-in-Class companies have responded to their top pressure, increasing the throughput of business transactions, is shown in Table 2. It is important to notice that not all of the solutions used are technical. To be successful, an enterprise must have the organizational capabilities shown in Table 2. The Best-in-Class are twice as likely to have a set of clearly documented business processes than the Industry Average, and they report that business process modeling is used at four-times the rate of both the Industry Average and Laggard groups.

7 Page 7 Table 2: The Best-in-Class PACE Framework Pressures Actions Capabilities Enablers Increase the throughput of business transactions though the enterprise Reduce the number of manual steps in key business processes Deploy BPM tools that combine integration and workflow automation Clearly documented business processes Business process modeling is an established discipline Strategic operational execution plan is established Orchestration and workflow management tools Report generation applications Corporate dashboards Management consulting services The strategies for improving business processes used by Best-in-Class and all other companies are shown in Figure 3. Both groups see value in reducing the number of manual interactions in their processes, whether through rationalization or automation. The Best-in-Class leverage BPM software that ties their processes together end-to-end as part of this effort. Figure 3: Varied Approaches to BPM 100% Best-in-Class All Others 75% 50% 60% 50% 41% 25% 19% 20% 8% 0% Reduce number of manual steps Deploy converged BPM Reduce number of business applications

8 Page 8 Aberdeen Insights Taking Business to the Next Level The Best-in-Class organizations identified in this report are using both technology and process to succeed. It is tempting to jump on the technology bandwagon and install the latest converged BPM suite, but throwing technology at a process problem has never been a good approach. Leveraging the right BPM software to provide better visibility and control of key business processes is the key to BPM s power. Choose products that seamlessly integrate all of the pieces of your enterprise, from the back-end legacy business systems to the CEO s dashboard, and pay special attention to avoiding information silos.

9 Page 9 Chapter Two: Benchmarking Requirements for Success Best-in-Class companies are implementing converged BPM solutions to drive more business transactions through their enterprise systems. Part of the solution is technical, but another part is organizational, and this is where many companies stumble. It takes highly capable BPM products, a willingness to take a hard look at business processes to succeed, and organizational maturity. In this study, Best-in-Class organizations were ahead of the curve in terms of documenting business practices and having BPM as an established discipline. By applying BPM tools to model and manage processes, and by integrating process data more tightly with workflow, they were able to realize significant ROI on their BPM investments. Case Study: A BPM Integrator Optimizes Itself Fast Facts Best-in-Class enterprises are four-times as likely to have a established business process modeling discipline Twice as many Best-in- Class organizations deploy BPM solutions that combine integration and workflow automation as do the Industry Average Professional Advantage, headquartered in Sydney, Australia, helps their international customer base improve performance across the enterprise, but management saw that there was room for improvement in their own organization and launched CASPER, the Customer, Supplier and Employee Relationships project. "With a large number of projects underway it was hard to maintain focus on our own BPM efforts," said Commercial Product Manager Neil Richardson. "Early wins were a long time coming, but were eventually very successful. Being able to properly discover and document what our processes are and agree on what they should be across a widely distributed workforce was quite challenging, and in some cases it was difficult to reach consensus." As the project matured, it became clear that keeping the executive team engaged would be necessary to meet all of the project goals. Showing the team measurable process improvement from pulling together existing workflow and back-end customer data went a long way in keeping the team excited. "Early wins were important once we got rolling in deployment to show benefits to the user community," said Richardson. The professional advantage team measured significant improvements in several areas. Some processes have seen instant reduction in time lag from days to hours. Others have vastly improved the quality of data that arrives at a decision point. "One of the critical learns around change management was the fact that sometimes work is neither created nor destroyed, just moved around," said Richardson - front office staff had to be re-educated to be responsible for the fullness and accuracy of the data in some processes where previously it had been pushed on back office staff who were far removed from the relevancy of the activity. Future focus will be on tighter integration with transactional systems and business intelligence. "We see a great benefit in being able to trigger BPM events from our BI," said Richardson. "Pushing process management into our service delivery layer is going to bring with it an enormous competitive advantage, but BPM is a marathon not a sprint."

10 Page 10 Competitive Assessment The aggregated performance of surveyed companies determined whether they ranked as Best-in-Class, Industry Average, or Laggard. In addition to having common performance levels, each class also shared characteristics in five key categories: (1) process (the ability to detect and respond to changing conditions without placing additional burdens on the organization); (2) organization (corporate focus and collaboration among stakeholders); (3) knowledge management (contextualizing data and exposing it to key stakeholders); (4) technology (the selection of appropriate tools and the intelligent deployment of those tools); and (5) performance measurement (the ability of the organization to measure the benefits of technology deployment and use the results to improve key processes further). These characteristics (identified in Table 3) serve as a guideline for best practices and correlate directly with Best-in-Class performance across the key metrics. Table 3: The Competitive Framework Best-in-Class Average Laggards Business processes are clearly documented Process Organization Knowledge Technology Performance 60% 39% 29% A strategic operational plan for the business is in place 50% 35% 20% Business process modeling is an established corporate discipline 46% 12% 11% Use of management consulting in BPM efforts 47% 29% 20% Strong business domain expertise exists in organization 58% 47% 37% Report generation tools are in use 74% 56% 49% XML middleware services are deployed 48% 41% 36% Enterprise architecture supports event-driven BPM 25% 10% 7% BPM software that combines integration and workflow automation 40% 20% 5% Corporate dashboards are used to monitor the enterprise 58% 40% 13% The key to success is determining where to begin. A good choice for us was our customer service desk; it touches so many parts of the enterprise that its models and processes apply to the legacydominated parts of our business. ~ Financial Services BPM Implementer

11 Page 11 Process Although technology is part of any BPM solution, another key ingredient is the process itself. Best-in-Class companies tend to more organizationally mature than the Industry Average and Laggard groups, and this is reflected in Figure 4. The first step in applying BPM in any organization is to have a set of clearly documented business processes on which to build, but only a third of the Industry Average and Laggards reported having taken this critical first step. This, and the lack of operational planning around BPM, puts these two groups at a significant disadvantage compared to the Best-in-Class. Figure 4: Best-in-Class Companies Are Organizationally Mature 100% Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard 75% 60% 50% 39% 28% 48% 34% 25% 20% 0% Clearly documented business processes Operational execution plan is in place Best-in-Class companies, on the other hand, have a good grasp of their processes and have a plan in place to execute their BPM implementations. Their biggest IT concern is how to measure the value of their software projects. There are, of course, many ways to measure maturity, but being able to fully describe a business process gives the enterprise a head start in automating that process. For Industry Average and Laggard companies, the place to start in building out a BPM practice is to document your existing processes, then start to use BPM tools to begin to optimize those processes. Organization and Knowledge Best-in-Class enterprises are five-times more likely to have an established discipline of business process modeling than both the Industry Average and Laggards groups. Our analysis is that these Best-in- Class firms were early adopters of BPM principles, they have been developing their BPM methodology over a number of years, and are now turning to SOA and converged BPM tools as a way to further enhance their BPM practices.

12 Page 12 That these firms are embracing SOA, web services, and standards-based BPM applications should be a clear signpost for those organizations that aspire to Best-in-Class performance. However, Industry Average and Laggard companies should not assume they will meet BPM expectations with software alone. It takes both the proper BPM applications and a commitment to BPM methodology to deliver Best-in-Class performance. Figure 5: Organizational Profile 100% Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard 75% 60% 50% 44% 36% 48% 25% 11% 12% 0% Business domain expertise Business process modeling as a discipline Although Best-in-Class companies have an advantage when it comes to knowledge of their internal business processes, they are also more likely than Industry Average companies to hire that knowledge from the outside (Figure 6). Figure 6: Use of Management Consulting Laggard, 20% Best-in-Class, 51% Industry Average, 30% Technology Our hypothesis for this study was that companies deploying a converged BPM solution, one that integrates business systems and workflow, would outperform those companies that use stand-alone BPM applications. Figure

13 Page 13 7 shows that this is the case, with Best-in-Class organizations being twice as likely as Industry Average, and four times as likely as the Laggards, to be using converged BPM solutions. Figure 7: Technology Drivers Report generation tools XML Middlew are BPM softw are combining integration and w orkflow Event-driven processing engines 55% 48% 50% 40% 33% 40% 21% 8% 36% 28% 16% 75% Best-in-Class Industry Average Laggard 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% % of Respondents That the Best-in-Class rely on report generation tools at a significantly higher rate than other groups is an indication of their closer focus on process. Also of interest is the higher rate of adoption for event-driven processing; this appears to be the leading edge of interest in event-driven architectures and exception management in the enterprise. The technical approaches taken by Best-in-Class complements their organizational maturity. As we ll see in the next chapter, the companies that best understand their business processes are the one most likely to benefit from converged BPM deployments. Aberdeen Insight: What s Coming Next? Just as interesting as what companies are doing now is to look at what they are planning to do in the next six months (Figure 8). SOA and BPM are becoming inextricably intertwined, and only 4% of the Best-in-Class plan to deploy BPM suites that don t provide SOA interfaces, while about 40% of all respondents plan to deploy SOA enabled applications.

14 Page 14 Figure 8: BPM Implementation Plans - Six Month Horizon SOA Infrastructure Standards-based business apps w ith SOA component 44% 38% 42% 71% BPM suite WITH SOA component Event-driven BPM 32% 18% 23% 25% Best-in-Class All Others BPM suite w ith NO SOA component 4% 19% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% % of Respondents Even more significant is the 71% of the combined Industry Average and Laggard groups (All Others) that are planning a SOA infrastructure deployment in the next six months. These firms are playing catch-up in the SOA arena but have the advantage of being second into the field, able to quickly learn from the mistakes of the early adopters. Event-driven BPM is also coming into its own, with half of all of the companies surveyed ready to roll out a solution in the next two quarters. That these solutions will be SOA enabled is a given. Key Challenges Technology is not a challenge for companies deploying BPM solutions (Figure 9). Across all three groups, the difficulties are organizational, with the top two challenges, justifying the investment, and gaining buy-in, reflecting the long-standing problem of putting a value on IT projects.

15 Page 15 Figure 9: Key BPM Challenges Getting buy-in from business stakeholders Communicating requirements to IT Performance tuning Justifying BPM investment Selecting development tools 56% 46% 44% 36% 40% 24% 36% 16% 28% 59% 0% 25% 50% 75% 100% % of Respondents Best-in-Class All Others It s difficult to reconcile our mix of existing partial solutions with the enterprise architecture vision of integrated BPM, SOA, and EIM based on a common semantic and process model. The key is making the right choice of where to start. ~ IT Staff Member, Financial Services Company Reflecting their relativity maturity in BPM, Best-in-Class organizations are focusing on performance tuning of their existing implementation, while Industry Average and Laggard companies are more concerned with selection of development tools. Aberdeen Insights The Next Six Months Eighteen months ago we were all asking, how do I write a web service? Now we re asking questions about how to process asynchronous business events across a mix of new and legacy systems while providing real-time analytics. The business side of the house has seen the value of integrating enterprise systems and is pushing hard for more functionality. IT is responding by turning to SOA and web services as a way to pull together their current applications, and use them as a platform for new applications. Aberdeen s Best-in-Class tend to be farther along on the technology maturity curve, but the Industry Average companies are not far behind. That 71% of the Industry Average groups plan on deploying SOA infrastructure is telling. In some cases they might leapfrog the Best-in- Class, since they are now buying products that have had two years to mature. In fact, some of our data suggests that, at least in the BPM space, it s more important to be an organizationally mature company than a technically mature one. Still, the value of the combination of SOA, web services, and BPM cannot be ignored. As SOA becomes a commodity we expect to see increased pressure on IT to deliver real-time, event driven applications. There also will be strong pressure on solution providers to provide standards-based SOA interfaces into their product offerings.

16 Page 16 Chapter Three: Required Actions Whether a company is trying to move its performance in BPM from Laggard to Industry Average, or Industry Average to Best-in-Class, the following actions will help spur the necessary performance improvements: Laggard Steps to Success Document your processes. BPM is business process management, not an application. Understanding your key business processes is the first step of any BPM implementation. Invest the time to understand the flow of information through your enterprise. Hire help. The Best-in-Class understand that management consultants are one key to improving their business. Engage a consultant firm early in order to lay the groundwork for choosing a BPM tool. Fast Facts Documenting your processes is the first step to real BPM Corporate dashboards not only prove the business critical insight, they also help justify the BPM investment Industry Average Steps to Success Purchase SOA enabled tools. When evaluating BPM tools for your company, make certain that they are SOA enabled. Retrofitting a non-soa application into your SOA based BPM solution later on is needless work. Plan for enterprise convergence. If you already are using standalone BPM applications, explore ways to bring them together into an integrated system. New development should be capable of integrating into the enterprise BPM solution. Deploy corporate dashboards. In addition to providing business analysts with insight into running processes, deploying dashboards helps the business users understand the value of their BPM investments, something that the Industry Average group struggles with. Best-in-Class Steps to Success Focus on event-driven BPM. Event engines will help bring your BPM efforts into real time. Being able to monitor and manage discreet transactions as they happen within a process will bring insights into how to further optimize the workflow. Establish ROI for BPM projects. Use your experience in previous BPM projects to build a model for ROI. Operational costs are a good start, as they are simple to measure. A clear ROI will make it easier to get critical buy-in from business units for the next project.

17 3 BPM Convergence: Workflow and Page 17 Aberdeen Insights Summary BPM is quickly becoming a competitive edge for organizations that apply it effectively. Although there is value to be found in implementing business system integration and workflow management separately, there s a multiplier effect when a converged BPM solution is deployed horizontally across an enterprise. Don t fall into the technology trap, though. BPM requires expertise and commitment on the process side as well as the product side. Research shows that the Best-in-Class companies are using converged BPM products as a natural extension of their existing BPM practice.

18 Page 18 Appendix A: Research Methodology During August and September of 2007, Aberdeen Group examined the use of BPM in the enterprise, exploring the experiences and intentions of more than 160 companies. Aberdeen supplemented our online survey effort with telephone interviews with select survey respondents, gathering additional information on BPM strategies, experiences, and results. The study aimed to identify emerging best practices for BPM and to provide a framework by which readers could assess their own organization s capabilities. Responding enterprises included the following: Job title / function: Two-thirds of the survey respondents are from their organizations IT departments. The research sample included respondents with the following job titles: senior executives including CEO, COO, CFO, and VP (26%); CIO (7%); IT manager or director (41%); internal consultant (15%); and IT staff (10%). Industry: The research sample included respondents predominantly from high-technology industries and companies (representing 30% of the sample). A significant number of respondents were in the insurance industries (8%), finance and banking (15%), and telecommunications (12%). Geography: The survey respondents were distributed between North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico) 46%; Central and South America (2%); Asia / Pacific (22%); Europe, Middle East, and Africa (30%). Company size: Thirty percent (30%) of respondents were from large enterprises (annual revenues above US$1 billion, including 14% over US$5 billion); 30% were from mid-size enterprises (annual revenues between $50 million and $1 billion); and 40% of respondents were from small businesses (annual revenues of $50 million or less). Solution providers recognized as sponsors of this report were solicited after the fact and had no substantive influence on the direction of the report. Their sponsorship has made it possible for Aberdeen Group to make these findings available to readers at no charge.

19 Page 19 Table 4: The PACE Framework Key Overview Aberdeen applies a methodology to benchmark research that evaluates the business pressures, actions, capabilities, and enablers (PACE) that indicate corporate behavior in specific business processes. These terms are defined as follows: Pressures external forces that impact an organization s market position, competitiveness, or business operations (e.g., economic, political and regulatory, technology, changing customer preferences, competitive) Actions the strategic approaches that an organization takes in response to industry pressures (e.g., align the corporate business model to leverage industry opportunities, such as product/service strategy, target markets, financial strategy, go-to-market, and sales strategy) Capabilities the business process competencies required to execute corporate strategy (e.g., skilled people, brand, market positioning, viable products/services, ecosystem partners, financing) Enablers the key functionality of technology solutions required to support the organization s enabling business practices (e.g., development platform, applications, network connectivity, user interface, training and support, partner interfaces, data cleansing, and management) Table 5: The Competitive Framework Key Overview The Aberdeen Competitive Framework defines enterprises as falling into one of the following three levels of practices and performance Best-in-Class (20%) Practices that are the best currently being employed and significantly superior to the Industry Average, and result in the top industry performance. Industry Average (50%) Practices that represent the average or norm, and result in average industry performance. Laggards (30%) Practices that are significantly behind the average of the industry, and result in below average performance In the following categories: Process What is the scope of process standardization? What is the efficiency and effectiveness of this process? Organization How is your company currently organized to manage and optimize this particular process? Knowledge What visibility do you have into key data and intelligence required to manage this process? Technology What level of automation have you used to support this process? How is this automation integrated and aligned? Performance What do you measure? How frequently? What s your actual performance? Table 6: The Relationship Between PACE and the Competitive Framework PACE and Competitive Framework How They Interact Aberdeen research indicates that companies that identify the most impactful pressures and take the most transformational and effective actions are most likely to achieve superior performance. The level of competitive performance that a company achieves is strongly determined by the PACE choices that they make and how well they execute.

20 Page 20 Appendix B: Related Aberdeen Research Related Aberdeen research that forms a companion or reference to this report includes: 4The SOA in IT Benchmark Report, December, The Legacy Application Migration Benchmark Report, September The Composite Applications Benchmark Report, December, Aligning IT to Business Processes: How BPM is Complementing ERP and Custom Applications, May Modernizing Legacy Application: Maximizing the Investment, June SOA Middleware Starts Where Web Services Leave Off, July 2007 Information on these and any other Aberdeen publications can be found at 4www.Aberdeen.com. Author: Perry Donham. Director, Enterprise Applications Research perry.donham@aberdeen.com Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets, corporations turn to Aberdeen for insights that drive decisions. As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of Harte-Hanks (Information Opportunity Insight Engagement Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit Aberdeen 4http:// or call (617) , or to learn more about Harte-Hanks, call (800) or go to 4http:// V073107b

21 Page 21 Featured Underwriters This research report was made possible, in part, with the financial support of our underwriters. These individuals and organizations share Aberdeen s vision of bringing fact based research to corporations worldwide at little or no cost. Underwriters have no editorial or research rights and the facts and analysis of this report remain an exclusive production and product of Aberdeen Group. BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS) is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, delivering powerful standards-based platforms for building enterprise applications and managing Service-Oriented Architectures even in heterogeneous IT environments. Customers depend on BEA AquaLogic, WebLogic and Tuxedo product lines to reduce IT complexity, leverage existing resources, and speed the delivery of new services. Information about how BEA is enabling customers to transform their business by building a Liquid Enterprise(TM) can be found at bea.com. For additional information on BEA Systems, Inc.: BEA Systems, Inc 2315 North First Street San Jose, CA Phone: bidsales@bea.com Vitria Technology is a leader in Business Process Management (BPM), SOA integration and Exception Management solutions. The company has a rich heritage as a pioneer in BPM and Service- Oriented Integration. As a market leader in process-centric integration and business exception management, Vitria provides innovative products to manage and minimize process exceptions that cost billions of dollars and to implement enterprise-wide BPM and SOA initiatives. Vitria s customers include AT&T, Sprint, British Telecom, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, and Daimler Chrysler Bank among others. For additional information on Vitria Technology: Vitria Technology 945 Stewart Drive Sunnyvale, CA Phone: marketing@vitria.com