According to a new Gartner Report, ProcessMaker is not the BPM Software market leader; IBM is.
I would be lying to you if I said I wasn’t disappointed. Apparently, IBM beat us again. In fact, they have 24.7% market share – more than double their closest competitor in the BPM Software space. Now that’s a tough competitor. Hats off to them.
Did IBM just recently hire a new PR firm or VP of PR? I have been meaning to due a more in depth statistical analysis, but IBM seems to be dominating the BPM Software news these days. This seems to be a recent phenomenon from the last few weeks. I monitor lots of terms related to BPM Software and SOA, and now they all seem to be about IBM. It’s hard to imagine that the product improved significantly in the past month or so, but their PR strategy seems to have gone up a few notches.
Why do I write so freely about one of our BPM Software competitors? Well, it’s quite simple. First offf, very rarely do we bump up against IBM in BPM Software deals. Our average deal size is quite a bit smaller than IBM, our selling strategy is totally different (we are open source bpm software), and we are probably present in some different vertical markets. In fact, all of the IBM PR noise lately is actually a very good thing for us, and for the industry as a whole. The more IBM can lead the way and put BPM Software and SOA on the map and minds of enterprises, the better it is for all of us.
It would be tough for me or anyone to speak poorly of IBM these days. And as the son of a long time IBMer, and a Watson Scholarship winner (IBM paid for a good part of my college education), I am always happy to see them do well.
Of course, that is not to say that by the time the next Gartner report comes out, we won’t be closing in on the market leader.
