The market for business process management suite (BPMS) software is booming, new research reveals.

According to IDC research, the BPMS market grew nearly 80 per cent in 2006 to $890m. The analyst firm predicts that rapid growth will continue throughout the next five year period to reach $5.5bn in 2011.

"This year and next are critical years for BPMS vendors," said Maureen Fleming, program director for Business Process Integration and Deployment Software.

"The market has had failures and consolidation, and this will continue over the forecast period. Most of the vendors have invested in their next generation capabilities. For those who aren't already, the focus should be on investing time, effort, energy, and cash building market share."

IDC’s report, Worldwide Business Process Management Suite 2007-2011 Forecast and 2006 Vendor Shares, notes that BPMS software penetration is “miniscule” and governs only a tiny percentage of the total addressable market. As more enterprises invest in BPM, a significant percentage of those buyers will purchase a BPMS.

The study goes on to note that many BPMS installations have been purchased on a project basis rather than as enterprise infrastructure. But as the platform vendors mature their BPM software and go to market with suites or BPM bundles, purchasing among their installed bases will be strong over the forecast period.

IBM, Oracle, BEA, and Tibco are all experiencing strong growth within their BPM portfolios, according to IDC. Microsoft, through its Business Process Alliance (BPA) , has also signalled an interest in this market.

“Over the next several years, the many BPMS pure-play vendors will be fighting against the larger vendors for market share. This will be a challenge when a small portion of a large project involves the implementation of workflow to solve a process automation problem. However, enterprises planning to invest in process excellence will be assessing BPMS based on the level of knowledge the vendor has about business process management in addition to the degree of sophistication of the product offering,” IDC stated.

“From that perspective, the pure-play vendors’ ability to innovate by continually responding to customer needs will help them battle the larger vendors and will continue to push the larger vendors to improve their own offerings.”