Worldwide Business Process Automation Deployment Software 2004 Vendor Shares: Who's Winning and Who's Winning Big

This IDC study of the results of leading suppliers in the worldwide business process automation (BPA) deployment software market for calendar-year 2004 measures software "deployed" based on a value proposition of use by nonprofessional developers and preference for a combined development/deployment instance (among other characteristics). This study updates the BPA deployment software market "share tables" released in February 2004. This competitive analysis complements related IDC research deliverables that overview detailed demand-side data about the BPA value proposition; analyze many of the suppliers' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in more detail; and forecast the BPA deployment software market through 2009 by geography and operating environment.

"Two big questions exist going forward," says Dennis Byron, vice president of Business Process Automation and Deployment Software Research at IDC. "First, almost every supplier in the market is growing; the key competitive analysis question is, Who's winning biggest? Can suppliers of today's application deployment software and traditional middleware move to dominate the BPA deployment software market, or will new products — either industry or role specific — better meet tomorrow's BPA user needs? Second, will BPA software supplant ERP (or vice versa), or will next-generation BPA be subsumed by the infrastructure software on which it depends? The answers to these questions are critical to the long-term success of all but the four largest software suppliers."