Business process management (BPM) is a great solution for the right problems. Over the past few years, many organizations have seen quick and positive results from the automation of their first critical business process. For many companies, BPM actually does a good job delivering on its promise of bringing real business returns. In many cases, the result has been a land rush, with business managers and IT alike searching the far reaches of the enterprise to find processes that are ripe for optimization. However, the challenge that many of these organizations now face is the pattern they have fallen into. Focused simply on finding the next process to attack, many enterprises are becoming trapped in a cycle of discrete automation, or automating individual processes to experience immediate gains.

This Upside Research white paper takes a closer looks at the current growing pains facing many enterprises in the wake of BPM's popularity. It offers a look at next-generation BPM, and how different an enterprise view can be from tactical process automation. Finally, this paper highlights the components of next-generation BPM and illustrates how Metastorm's comprehensive solution for BPM and enterprise architecture can help organizations fully realize the potential of BPM for today and tomorrow.