Software AG Named a Leader in Business Process Management Suites by Independent Research Firm

DARMSTADT, GERMANY - Software AG today announced in a press release that it has been named a Leader in the August 2010 report by Forrester Research, Inc., The Forrester Wave: Business Process Management Suites, Q3 2010, receiving some of its top scores in services as well as process modeling and collaborative design. Forrester Research Inc. stated: The IDS Scheer acquisition gives Software AG one of the deepest benches for process skills and capabilities in the market.

Citing Software AG as a BPM heavyweight, Forrester highlighted several features that landed Software AG in the Leader category and reflect the evaluation of the webMethods and ARIS portfolios, including:

Software AG stood out for its comprehensive process repository, CentraSite, and improved process portal capabilities.
Software AG, among other vendors, presented strong integration features, strong process repositories, and excellent design collaboration capabilities.
Software AG also improved its standing in this evaluation by delivering an intuitive environment that is also highly scalable.

It's an honor to be cited as a Leader in Forrester's BPM Wave, said Dr. Wolfram Jost, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board, Software AG. We take great pride in delivering the technology that benefits our customers in ways that help them increase their speed and quality of service, while driving down costs. Our leadership position in BPM reflects the great partnerships we have with our customers and the great team we have here at Software AG.

Forrester Research, Inc. evaluated 11 Business Process Management Suite (BPMS) vendors against 148 criteria reflecting the requirements of business process professionals running large-scale BPM programs. The research firm found that Leaders such as Software AG feature competitive products that offer industry-leading development environments and improved tools for business stakeholders.

webMethods BPMS 8.0, ARISalign 1.0 and ARIS Enterprise BPM 7.1 are the products, with which  Software AG has strengthened its human-centric BPM capabilities. webMethods BPMS incorporates a set of fully-integrated tools for automating and managing processes. Key features of webMethods BPMS include business activity monitoring (BAM), process simulation, adaptive workflow, a comprehensive metadata library, business rules management, creative integration with Software AG's comprehensive Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), SOA lifecycle governance, and application modernization product offerings.

ARIS incorporates process analysis and optimization solutions including ARISalign, the world's first social BPM platform and community site. ARISalign combines social networking tools with process design and modeling capabilities. Process users, IT and process experts, and business managers can use ARISalign to innovate collaboratively on process change using intuitive, "drag-and-drop" functionality.

Software AG offers an integrated BPMS with an overall intuitive environment, as well as superior capabilities in process modeling, collaboration, product architecture and scalability. The company's BPM capabilities offer faster time to ROI, enabling organizations to design, automate, monitor and optimize complex business processes.

According to the report, some argue that BPM emerged as one of the heroes during the downturn by helping enterprises boost productivity and gain efficiency and greater control over key operational processes, according to Forrester. Some of the hardest-hit sectors, including financial services and insurers had the strongest appetites for BPM suites throughout the recession, and Forrester predicts that key economic themes from the recession will continue to drive demand for BPM over the next several years.

We believe that the time is right for BPM, Dr. Jost said. Companies have seen that poorly designed and managed processes lead to operational costs they cannot afford to incur, particularly in this economic climate. Businesses have a critical need to increase efficiency through process automation and optimization. Software AG has continued to invest strategically in our BPMS offerings, and we are well-positioned for strong growth in BPM adoption by organizations worldwide.

Software AG is the global leader in Business Process Excellence.