Getting Better All The Time

Despite the benefits, deployment can present significant challenges. See chart

Nearly three-quarters of those implementing business-performance management said they've had difficulty changing or adapting their corporate business processes to use it. About two-thirds have grappled with technical-integration issues in linking BPM technologies with existing financial systems, and half have had a hard time educating IT and corporate employees about BPM.

PepsiCo has struggled with systems-integration issues, in part because it uses products from multiple vendors, Svenkeson says. He hopes business-performance management vendors will develop products that make it easier to link components, such as dashboards, with legacy systems.

Covenant has also had problems with integration and providing easy access to performance data. "We're dealing with a number of systems such as general ledger, payroll, decision support," says Tavaf. "Integrating all that data is a challenge."

Enterprises are taking steps to alleviate some of the challenges. See chart hereThese include early project planning and reviews, training business managers and employees on BPM and its potential benefits, testing products prior to widespread deployment, training IT staff, working with vendors to better understand the technology and/or measure returns, and hiring consultants to help with implementation.

As a result of these and other efforts, such as standards, companies hope to achieve improvements not only in performance, but in their ability to measure their progress.