Progress Software compra a Savvion

Sempre que me perguntam sobre a qualificação dos fornecedores que estão nos institutos de pesquisa como o Forrester e o Gartner eu alerto sobre algo que em muitos casos passa despercebido pelas pessoas: A EMPRESA. Isto porque empresas de nicho, cedo ou tarde são compradas por grandes fornecedores (ou em casos piores fecham). Aqui está mais um exemplo. A Savvion, que tem uma excelente suíte de BPM agora é da Progress. Abaixo segue o link do press release:

http://web.progress.com/en/inthenews/progress-software-co-01112010.html

Sinceramente, não conheço a fundo a política da Progress quanto à aquisição de empresas, ou seja, se ela irá manter o produto ou criar um novo. Da experiência que eu tenho, ela manteve a linha de produtos totalmente separada (DataDirect). Um bom sinal para as pessoas que utilizam a suíte da Savvion é que a Progress não possuía produtos para BPM, tendo apenas produtos para SOA, o que quer dizer que é mais provável que o produto passe por um reposicionamento de marcas do que de tecnologia (com um merge de produtos)... Mas tudo é suposição neste momento! (apesar de que se você entrar no site da Progress você já verá o produto "Progress Savvion BusinessManager").

Segundo o Gartner (Magic Quadrant for Business Process Management Suites - 2009) a Savvion tem os seguintes pontes fortes e fracos (A Progress não aparece neste relatório):

Strengths

• Savvion BusinessManager 7.5 is one of the most-mature BPMS products. Its ability to handle high-volume workflows, requiring tight coordination of people and systems, has contributed to Savvion's growing success in the BPO market, in addition to direct sales to enterprises.
• This product has an open, multitiered, service-oriented and standards-based architecture, with well-documented application programming interfaces. Thus, it is easy to integrate with software infrastructures and application development tools, as well as to embed for partners.
• Visualization of many process aspects is innovative and easy to use for business professionals. Examples include its modeler, design time repository, dashboards and reports, and a new graphic for analysis of process execution paths.
• Business Expert supports real-time analysis of in-flight processes and dynamically suggests changes to process conditions and rules to keep running processes optimal. It has strong reporting capabilities. Users can dynamically add new process performance metrics in the runtime environment to gain insight into current execution data.

Cautions

• Savvion's current release reflects the tactical needs of a few of its best customers more than its own, market-driven innovations. Two examples (which we find inconsistent with the requirements of this market) are a new tabular method of data entry for process activities and new support for project management (which is somewhat competitive with Microsoft Project). Customers should watch for developments that evolve in directions inconsistent with mainstream market demand.
• Beyond the U.S., Savvion serves its customers primarily through indirect sales channels, partners and resellers. (Savvion has a small direct presence in Europe and a larger direct and indirect presence in India.)
• As Savvion expands its sales through more indirect channels, such as system integrators and consulting partners, business process outsourcers, and OEM relationships, enterprises should watch for any impact to support and product release plans from resources being spread too thin.