Bonitasoft - BPM Game Changer?

Bonitasoft rolled out their open BPM open solution 5.0 this morning... declaring it as a "game changer" for BPM.

I like Bonitasoft's approach: Keep it simple. Make the common tasks easy and the complex tasks possible.  Don't distract the process developers with any unnecessary "under the hood" details.

They've done a great job building an excellent suite that really feels like seamless solution... and I'm sure that many folks are going to love it.

That said, there's nothing "game changing" in any of Bonitasoft's features.  "Nothing new here" in terms of being able to build anything with Bonitasoft that you couldn't already build with a number of BPM suites, both proprietary and open source.

The "game changing" aspect of Bonitasoft isn't features - it's marketing.

Bonitasoft builds on the rich legacy of the Object Web open source projects -many of which have been in commercial use for years.  The huge difference between Bonitasoft and it's ancestors is packaging... both the packaging of the software components themselves and the packaging of the BPM message.

With most open source projects, if you want to use them you have to engage very skilled developers to install and configure the various packages that you want to use.  You have to spend a lot of time just getting the development infrastructure set up.  You have to spend a lot of money before you can even begin to work on your actual problem.

Contrast that to Bonitasoft where everything that you need is in a nice little bundle - ready to go in a few minutes.  That's a huge win on the Technical front.

A win on the Technical front is great - but that's not where the battle is.  The battle is on the Business front.

Despite what most IT folks would like to believe, it's really the Business that picks the solution in the BPM space.  Business comes first in BPM, so you have to convince Business first.

This is where Bonitasoft's marketing comes in - Their marketing team is transforming a Techno-Geek centric open source tool into a Business-Centric save-your-company tool.  That's what changes the game (if they pull it off).

I work for a company with a great proprietary BPM suite... and our suite is getting better all the time... but I really wish Bonitasoft success.  By lowering the barriers to entry in the BPM space they are helping to spread the message and educate the masses.  They are helping to raise the BPM tide, and a rising tide raises all boats (both large and small).

Good job Bonitasoft, and best wishes.