Invensys-Skelta Takes BPM to Operations. customers and the Invensys challenge is to Invensys manufacturing customers.

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1 ARC VIEW DECEMBER 16, 2010 Invensys-Skelta Takes BPM to Operations By Robert Mick Summary This year, Invensys Operations Management acquired business process management (BPM) supplier, Skelta, and recently shared its vision with ARC. To our knowledge, Invensys is the first Early in 2010, Invensys Operations industrial control system supplier to acquire an Management acquired BPM supplier, Skelta, and is targeting both traditional enterprise BPM solution and target both traditional BPM markets and operations markets. BPM markets and operations (factories, plants, etc.) markets. This unique This approach offers advantages to manufacturing customers and the Invensys challenge is to approach offers unique advantages to Invensys manufacturing customers. compete effectively in other markets. Business Process Management within the Enterprise Business process management (BPM), workflow, enterprise integration, and others are closely related from a technical perspective, but differ in many respects. They are all related in that they define and automate (execute) sequential processes and, in fact, there is some overlap in functionality and implementation strategies. However, solutions are differentiated by the way they provide human interaction and the way they are configured. In other words, they differ in their target users. BPM solutions primarily model and automate complex and long running business processes, often with a reasonable amount of user interaction and access to documents and other content. As you should expect, BPM solutions are often strong in process modeling, visualization, monitoring, etc. BPM solutions are usually separate from applications and have traditionally required IT-level skills. Workflow solutions focus on simpler processes with heavy human interaction, often dragging along documents or simply changing the status of an object stored in an application. Workflow is now commonly embedded in portal environments, such as the popular Microsoft SharePoint, and is often configured in a piecemeal fashion by power users. VISION, EXPERIENCE, ANSWERS FOR INDUSTRY

2 ARC View, Page 2 Enterprise integration solutions are closer to BPM solutions, but typically have little or no user interaction. They are used heavily for data synchronization, to integrate business processes buried in application software. Integration solutions typically have strong reliability (such as guaranteed delivery) features and attention to high throughput and performance in general. Specific IT level skills, usually involving coding, are required. All these business process automation solutions evolved in corporate IT environments driven by the needs of business users, including connectivity to enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM. Process Automation in Operations Process automation software is, of course, common in operations (factories, plants, etc.) but traditionally, manufacturers have used software built specifically for operations environments and systems, not their corporate IT counterparts. There are many reasons for this, including the usual considerations such as different pricing expectations, application mix, infrastructure requirements, skills available, buyer preferences, and others. A few years ago, some BPM suppliers tested the reception for enterprise BPM solutions in operations and received a weak response. But the situation has since changed. Various regulation and compliance demands have increased the value of process monitoring and tracking. Even without these additional pressures, some Enterprise BPM solutions are also more businesses are getting more interested in knowing likely to be used in operations today because corporate IT people are more that their standard processes are being followed. commonly involved in systems for This is partly because documenting and automating business processes also enhances a business s operations. Having tools that are familiar to corporate IT that can be ability to improve. used in both environments has benefits. Furthermore, documenting and automating business processes and workflows is one form of knowledge capture. This can alleviate concerns over the loss of knowhow as experienced workers leave or retire. Invensys Operations Management Is Serious About BPM Invensys Operations Management acquired BPM supplier, Skelta, earlier in 2010 and recently shared its vision with ARC. To our knowledge, Invensys

3 ARC View, Page 3 is the first industrial control system supplier to acquire an enterprise BPM solution and target both traditional BPM markets and operations markets. (Others have develop and delivered process automation solutions specifically for operations.) Invensys Operations Management has made Skelta one of its leading brand names (along with Foxboro, Wonderware, Triconex, etc.) and given it an essential place in its architecture for operations, an indication of how serious the company is about BPM. Invensys Operations Management Skelta BPM Platform Skelta BPM Now Skelta BPM is a process automation platform that evolved in corporate IT environments. The figure above gives you a feeling for some of the key concepts and focus areas at the time of the acquisition. All these capabilities are important to business users. However, the product is also suitable today for some needs in operations.

4 ARC View, Page 4 While Skelta has many manufacturing customers, to date, Skelta BPM has been used primarily in corporate IT environments. Invensys Operations Management reports that as a result of the acquisition, some existing manufacturing customers are now considering using Skelta products in operations and initial feedback is promising. Skelta BPM is likely to offer considerable advantage for those customers. These customers can use the same BPM technology in both corporate and operations environments for automating business processes and workflows. Current corporate IT staffs are already trained and prepared to help with BPM applications in operations. It is likely to be easier to implement, manage, and monitor processes that span both corporate and operations environments. To be successful in operations, BPM must have good integration with Microsoft technologies and it appears that Skelta scores well in this area. Skelta is based on Microsoft technologies, and has integrations with Biz- Talk, SharePoint, and others. Furthermore, the Skelta team can benefit from Invensys strong relationship with Microsoft. The Invensys BPM Roadmap Invensys Operation s Management s roadmap for Skelta is very interesting. In addition to utilizing Skelta technology in operations, as one would expect, Invensys intends to continue developing and marketing Skelta as an enterprise BPM solution. This means that the company sometimes will be competing directly with enterprise software suppliers such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, and several independent BPM suppliers (as Skelta has been doing). Obviously, Invensys Operations Management s capabilities in operations give Skelta a significant differentiator from its corporate competitors in some industries. Its biggest obstacle is the inclination of corporate IT to use the process automation tools that comes with major enterprise applications (ERP for example) or their standardized infrastructure stack. In addition to continuing to evolve the Skelta BPM platform for corporate systems, the Skelta technologies will be adapted, extended, or embedded in other Invensys solutions for deployment in operations. This will be marketed as ArchestrA Workflow. Connectors and other integrations to various operations system components need to be developed, even though some existing general-purpose connectors will go a long way.

5 ARC View, Page 5 While the Skelta tools are likely to be suitable for those who develop and maintain applications for operations (typically engineers), some changes, extensions, tools, etc. may have to be implemented to match expectations. Invensys is being very aggressive about this work and told us that it intends to have considerable results before the middle of Conclusions There appears to be growing interest in business process and workflow automation for operations and the Invensys Operations Management acquisition of Skelta is timely. As-is, the Skelta BPM is reasonably well suited for operations, although it may too early to draw conclusions. ARC needs to take a closer look at the tools and initial customer feedback to predict how well Skelta BPM will be accepted in operations. We would expect to see the creation of ArchestrA Workflow the integration and embedding of Skelta technology with Invensys operations software to go smoothly. This will provide Invensys Operations Management customers with a solid process engine and guarantee the use of the Skelta technology in operations; especially where corporate IT is involved. However, we expect it to go much further than that. Invensys is paying close attention to customer explorations. In 2011, key customers should be in a position to help the Invensys team lay out a long term BPM for operations roadmap and start to identify key operations processes that justify investment in BPM in the Invensys Operations Management customer base. Until now, business process automation software for operations has not really competed with enterprise BPM solutions targeted at corporate IT. But Invensys asserts that corporate-level BPM can be adapted for operations and this may get the attention of other BPM suppliers, especially those that already offer some applications for operations. For further information or to provide feedback on this article, please contact your account manager or the author at [email protected]. ARC Views are published and copyrighted by ARC Advisory Group. The information is proprietary to ARC and no part of it may be reproduced without prior permission from ARC.