The Details
Consolidation in the BPM market came this month in the form of a merger between a BPM pure-play and a relative newcomer to the BPM space. On October 5th, privately held Metastorm announced that it would acquire CommerceQuest, a longtime back end processing vendor who recently tried to gain a foothold in the emerging BPM market. The goal of the merger for Metastorm is to create an expanded BPM solution under the Metastorm brand, using a combination of Metastorm’s existing Metastorm e Work BPM suite and CommerceQuest’s EAI and BPM technology.
The combined privately held company will have a headcount of 160 and combined revenue of over $40 million. Metastorm will retain its corporate headquarters in Columbia, MD, and will continue to operate CommerceQuest’s former headquarters in Tampa, FL for product development, training, and professional services. The combined customer list for the new company will total more than 1200 across industries including retail, financial services, government, and manufacturing.
Metastorm is positioning the merger as a way to cement its leadership position in the BPM market, with increased size and financial stability as well as a more comprehensive technology offering. With the combination of the two companies’ technologies, Metastorm will be able to offer the market a BPM platform that includes tools for modeling and designing human-oriented as well as system-to-system processes, executing them across .NET and Unix/Java platforms, handling integration with back-end legacy and host environments, and supporting high-volume transactions. The company also plans to leverage the different customer bases and verticals that CommerceQuest has focused on to offer broader and deeper vertical market solutions.
Upside Uptake
Upside Research believes the results of this merger can have a significant impact on the BPM market if Metastorm executes its vision well. The two entities are complementary, filling in gaps for each other quite nicely.
Please note: This is a special, abstracted version of this Upside Update. For the complete analysis of this merger, including customer, technology, and sales implications, email us at info@upsideresearch.com.
