Gartner defines business processes as the coordination of the behavior of people, systems and things to produce specific business outcomes. 'Things' in this context refers to devices that are part of the Internet of Things (IoT). A BPM platform minimally includes: a graphical business process and/or rule modeling capability, a process registry/repository to handle the modeling metadata, a process execution engine and a state management engine or rule engine (or both). The three types of BPM platforms — basic BPM platforms, business process management suites (BPMSs), and intelligent business process management suites (iBPMSs) — can help solution architects and business outcome owners accelerate application development, transform business processes, and digitalize business processes to exploit business moments by providing capabilities that manage different aspects of the business process life cycle.
Gartner defines enterprise low-code application platforms (LCAPs) as software platforms for the accelerated development and maintenance of applications, using model-driven development tools, generative AI and prebuilt component catalogs for the entire application’s technology stack. Enterprise LCAP features include support for the collaborative development of all application components; runtime environments for high performance, availability and scalability of applications; and application deployment and monitoring with detailed usage insights. Enterprise LCAP platforms feature governance controls and insights, self-service capabilities, APIs for integration with external DevOps tooling, success management with exhaustive technical documentation, training programs and a comprehensive global partner network. Enterprise LCAPs provide the foundation for developing a wide range of applications and application components with distributed data architectures, including complex multimodal front ends, business workflows, agentic AI and integration capabilities. The enterprise LCAP market is closely related to the citizen application development platform (CADP) market, as they both aim to address the use cases listed below. However, they are distinctively different in terms of the target audience and complexity of the applications built on the platform.
Gartner defines IT service management (ITSM) platforms as software that offers cohesive workflow management and automation for organizations to plan, deliver, support and improve integrated IT services. ITSM platforms provide a system of record for ITSM practices, including request, incident, problem, change, knowledge, service level and configuration management. Typically offered as SaaS, ITSM platforms are also available for on-premises deployments as per organizational needs. ITSM platforms are key tools used to manage IT support issues and aid employee productivity. IT leaders require robust ITSM platforms to drive business value in the services they provide, and are increasingly looking for these products to support digital business transformation outside IT. By capturing, tracking and reporting on service-related activities across the estate, the platform acts as a coherent system of record for ITSM-related actions. ITSM platforms boost infrastructure and operations (I&O) teams’ efficiency through automating processes, streamlining decision making and providing seamless integration with third-party applications. As organizational needs grow, advanced multichannel support features enhance the end-user experience, helping IT services remain agile and aligned with business goals.