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Appian Bolsters Business Process Management with SaaS

By Michael Dinan, TMCnet Editor

Officials at a Vienna, Virginia-based provider of business process management software announced today that they’ve bolstered their so-called “BPN platform-as-a-service” for business users.

 

Specifically, Appian Corporation says users now can model and run process improvements through an affordable Software-as-a-Service subscription, and choose from among different SaaS (News - Alert) deployment models.

 

“Appian customers can also utilize pre-built applications and components that further accelerate BPM project success,” company officials say. “Appian Anywhere provides a cost-effective, low-risk way for companies to speed the process improvements that are critical to weathering the turbulent economic climate.”

 

Generally speaking, SaaS is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By getting rid of the need to install and run an application on the customer’s own computer, SaaS reduces the cost of software maintenance, operation and support.

 

Increasingly, in this recession – as Appian notes – companies are turning to software-based communications to save on upfront and maintenance costs.

 

Today, as TMCnet reported, a France-based document process automation provider announced that it saw 66 percent revenue growth last year on its SaaS products.

 

Officials at Esker, which has its U.S. headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, SaaS represented $9.25 million in sales revenue for the company, representing 26 percent of its total revenues.

 

According to Jean-Michel Bérard, the company’s chief executive officer, Esker’s (News - Alert) growth bolsters its position as a leader in on demand document automation solutions and SaaS.

 

“The SaaS model has been at the heart of our strategy for several years following the success of Salesforce.com (News - Alert), and our goal is to achieve, by 2010, more than 50 percent of our sales revenue via our on demand offerings,” he said.

 

Citing a report from Gartner Inc., Esker says the SaaS market is expected to double by 2012 from $6.4 billion last year.

 

And, analysts say, it isn’t just IT businesses that should be looking into software-based technologies.

 

As TMCnet reported, one new study says that the U.S. government could save billions by moving to more open source software, virtualization and cloud computing.

 

Officials at Appian say their “Appian Anywhere” environment is now available, here, for full-featured free 30-day trials.

 

Bruce Spicer of Surrenda-link Investment Management, a specialist asset manager advising on assets worth more than $1.9 billion, said Appian offered a unique approach with the the SaaS solution for BPM needs.

 

“Appian was the only vendor we found with a fully integrated suite, a good commercial model, and a proven track record in SaaS success,” Spicer reportedly said.

 

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Michael Dinan is a contributing editor for TMCnet, covering news in the IP communications, call center and customer relationship management industries. To read more of Michael's articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Michael Dinan