IBM to acquire BPM vendor Lombardi 16 December, 2009 By Mark Cox

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Lombardi, which makes Business Process Management (BPM) software and services, helps organizations automate and integrate business processes to increase efficiencies and reduce costs. And it's a hot area. IDC says the market opportunity for BPM software will increase at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 15 percent over the next four years, from $1.7 billion in 2009 to $3.0 billion by 2013

"This is a significant enhancement to our software portfolio," said Craig Hayman, general manager, IBM Application and Integration Middleware. "Lombardi is designed to improve the management and integration of processes like product planning, supply chain execution, and human resources. What Lombardi does in engage in a conversation with clients how they want aspects of their business to be more effective, and rapidly bring that about."

Lombardi's software focuses on a department-level approach to delivering process management, which is different from, and thus complements, IBM's existing strengths in its WebSphere enterprise-wide process management software.

"What WebSphere didn't do, and what Lombardi adds, is this human-centric automation of business processes that sometimes begins at a departmental level," Hayman said. "This makes our offering complete."

"Lombardi's integration of these processes provides cost saving and productivity benefits and its' ability to deliver BPM at a departmental level while keeping businesses running is second to none," Hayman added.

"From our perspective, this is a perfect match," said Rod Favaron, CEO of Lombardi, who pointed out that the acquisition formalized long-standing partnering agreements between the two companies. "We primarily focus in business-facing departmental level value propositions. This will combine what we do very well with IBM's global footprint. It's an opportunity for us to scale and get in front of customers."

Lombardi has about 300 enterprise class customers, a high percentage of which are shared with iBM. One of them is Ford Motor Company. Both Lombardi and IBM are providing solutions for process improvement at the departmental level as well as a platform for process automation. These solutions are designed to help streamline development processes which typically have multiple iterations of designs from disparate teams.

Lombardi has strong customer relationships in the financial services, government, healthcare, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, retail, and telecommunications industries that IBM says will complement its' existing customer base and solid partner ecosystem. Consistent with IBM's software strategy, the investments of clients and partners in existing IBM and Lombardi technologies will be preserved, allowing customers to take advantage of the broader set of capabilities without needing to rip and replace existing systems.

Following regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, the acquisition will be completed and Lombardi integrated into IBM, with its CEO, Favaron reporting to Hayman.