Over half of business process management (BPM) programmes will fail over the next two years because they are implemented without the supporting disciplines, according to a new report from Gartner.

The analyst firm found that a quarter of companies are not using a standardised approach to BPM, and only 29 per cent have a business process competency centre.

These centres are highly recommended by Gartner as places where IT and business users can work together on the planning and implementation of BPM strategies.

"Too many user organisations are adopting BPM technologies without applying BPM disciplines via the competency centre, and find that their efforts do not deliver the promised results, and their BPM initiatives are disbanded," said Gartner research director Elise Olding.

The report also predicted that the economic crisis will force many firms, especially in the financial sector, to trim costs by using cloud-based services to support common processes.

Gartner recommends that firms identify the necessary skills, techniques, methodologies and tools to successfully implement BPM, and use the competency centre to establish guidelines for usage.