As we discussed last week, the Metastorm survey revealed some insightful findings from users of Metastorm software from organizations around the world as they navigate their IT decisions around the recession. When asked about return on investment (ROI), the majority of respondents cited an average ROI from each Metastorm software project to be between 16-30 percent, with some projects delivering a return of more than 100 percent.

And while some CIOs may worry that selecting a cost-efficient IT project could impair its long-term value, business process management (BPM) offers the best of both worlds: cost savings plus agility and business value. As Jim Sinur, analyst with Gartner, notes in his recent blog post, BPM is “an activity that not only cuts costs for survival, [it] can also grow value simultaneously.”

A BPM project does not need to be grandiose for companies to achieve these results. Sinur notes, “The numbers I have consistently seen for BPM efforts are in the 15 percent+ ROI arena with implementation schedules measured in weeks and months; not years.” When implemented on a smaller scale, a BPM project has the potential to increase efficiencies and ROI and achieve greater business value in the short-term – in most cases these results are achieved within the first year of implementation.

Sinur concludes, “I keep listening for innovative and high value BPM efforts and have not been disappointed.”

Stay tuned to the blog for case study examples of Metastorm customers that can attest to the cost savings and efficiency benefits realized from their own BPM projects.

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