Today, one of the gradually-evaporating pool of specialist BPM technology providers – Appian – shared some details of its trading in 2009. We’d already seen revenue increases of 20-30% from some of the other pure-play vendors, but Appian’s figures today do yet more to demonstrate the power of BPM discipline, and the specialised technology that can be used to supercharge it – even (or especially) in hard economic times.
The highlights: in 2009 Appian’s license revenue grew 67% and its customer base more than doubled. Additionally, “international” (ie non-US) revenue grew 59%. In my book this means Appian actually has more opportunity to draw on internationally: here, it’s building on a much smaller base, and all other things being equal, I would be expecting international revenue to grow at least as fast as US revenue in 2010 (although this depends in part on how much US stimulus-related money washes Appian’s way via its deep links into US Government agencies).
Business process improvement is one of those rare business-technology investment areas which appears to be pretty immune to economic cycles. In good times, organisations look at BPM to help them bring products to market faster, enter new markets faster, buy competitors more efficiently… in bad times, organisations look at BPM to help them wring cost out of their business.
The company is privately-held, so full disclosure is hard to come by – these figures are naturally the most exciting highlights. Although Appian is making a lot of noise about the takeup of its on-demand offering (Appian Anywhere) it’s not yet published hard facts about revenue, so it’s difficult to say precisely how much Appian Anywhere has contributed to the company’s growth. Nevertheless customers we’ve spoken to (and researched in-depth – see our case study of Appian customer Surrenda-Link Investment Management) see real value in the ability to work and explore a BPM opportunity in an environment which doesn’t demand big up-front investment.
There’s no doubt that today, Appian is a robustly healthy contender in the market for specialised BPM technology. 2010 should be a very interesting year for the company given the shifting competitive landscape.
You can read our free Capability Summary and Overview of Appian’s BPM software offering here. Advisory service clients can read the Full Capability Assessment for Appian here. For more analysis of BPM trends and best practices, click here to download free Guest Pass reports, and click here for more on our premium BPM advisory service.
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