ABPMP vs. BPMG

One of the things that I have talked about with people in St. Louis is getting a local BPM users group formed.  There are eight St. Louis based companies with active BPMS projects (that I know about) and many more doing some process improvement efforts.  There are two national / international groups focused on BPM - ABPMP (Association of Business Process Management Professionals) and BPMG (Business Process Management Group).

My opinion is that both of them can co-sponsor the St. Louis chapter, and we can ask a vendor to "host" each event.  I recently talked with the person running the Toronto BPMG users group, and he had some helpful hints on what they are doing that I think we should follow here.

As I looked at both these groups, I spent the money (<$200 in both cases) to join them.  I thought it would be good to see what was behind the curtain.  Here are my quick notes for all you to know as you evaluate your options.

ABPMP: If you read the overview document, it says all the right things, and I believe they are focused on the right objectives.  But, in the members only section, I found:

• ABPMP news which had its last update in Sept 05
• BPM Resources which is a good list of links
• Links to Chapter Presentations which has strong content but only 3 presentations from all of 2006
• Member additional resources has 14 links from 2003-today

BPMG: They refer to themselves as a global business club and have over 18,000 members.  Although I sometimes get lost on the website, there is a lot of content and as a member, you get free online training around their 8 Omega framework which seems to provide a good launching point for thinking about BPM. 

• Their principles are very active writing and blogging. 
• They have ongoing training classes with a certification program.
• They take a point of view on the market and generate good dialogue.

Comments

[Sandy Kemsley]

Any further thoughts on this, given the apparent implosion of BPMG?

[George Van Antwerp]

Sandy - Good question. It doesn't change my opinion on which site offers better and more recent content. It does beg the question of association versus consulting business.

Now, I don't know a lot about the BPMG "implosion" but I expect we will see a few consulting groups come out of it. In that, I think the BPMG challenge was one of any small consulting group focused on a single topic.

ABPMP (as I have always said) has the right concept, but it is difficult to maintain with part-time resources. Somehow, they need to develop more content, refresh the site more often, and leverage the concept beyond holding meetings. I can do that for free.

All I can do is help develop the local community and share thoughts through the blog.

[myspace design]

Great insights on this. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this post. Very informative.