The funny software business
Sometimes you just have to laugh. OK, let me set the stage: Lombardi Software is not the software behemoth you might imagine. In fact, we wouldn't think that the following sentence on our web site would rankle anyone who would be reading our web site (sort of like Groucho Marx who had no interest in being a member of any country club that would have him as a member):
"IT organizations typically focus resources on a few major strategic software vendors, like IBM, BEA, or SAP. Unfortunately, the majors don’t have a clear BPM technology offering and their products won’t be ready for at least two years."
But today we received a letter from a Contracts Professional at IBM stating that this very quote had "come to IBM's attention."
(Now, right about here I am thinking "damn, I need to congratulate our Marketing group for gaining this type of exposure!" But I digress...)
The IBM Contracts Professional goes on to say that our web site alleges that IBM does "not have a clear BPM technology offering and our products won't be ready for at least two (2) years. In fact, IBM's BPM technology consists of a suite of products which have been in the market for some time now." She then goes on to refer us to http://www-306.ibm.com/software/sw-bycategory/subcategory/SW920.html. On this page, you can see IBM's BPM offering of:
WebSphere Business Integration Connect
WebSphere Business Integration Server
WebSphere Business Integration Workbench
WebSphere Business Integration Workbench Server
WebSphere Business Modeler
WebSphere Business Monitor
WebSphere Event Broker
WebSphere Integration Developer
WebSphere InterChange Server
WebSphere MQ Workflow
WebSphere Partner Gateway
WebSphere Process Server
Now that is clearly an offering, but would you call it a clear offering?
So while we plead nolo contendere to the main charge, let's just say that unfortunately, while many of the vendors not have a clear BPM technology offering, many of them do, clearly, have legal departments... As for me, I'm going to end this madness, begin working on our BPM technology. We call it TeamWorks; it's the only thing we build. Clearly.
It seems as if Lombardi may be working from a different definition of BPM than IBM. It may be useful to publish some sort of litmus test so that folks within the enterprise can think about it is BPM when...
Posted by: James | January 15, 2006 at 07:56 AM
That's hilarious! If they traded in that lawyer for a couple of engineers, they might get closer to the clarity that they so desparately need in their product suite.
Posted by: sandy | January 13, 2006 at 03:12 PM
Software marketing--such a dicey contest! Can you let us know if IBM responds--especially in the blogoshere? Reading enough IT marketing verbiage makes me think I've fogotten English. (Noticed Barnett on your Squidoo page, too; nice.)
Posted by: Eric | January 09, 2006 at 11:31 PM