consider using a BPMS for processes with the following characteristics:
- The process is distributed, i.e., spanning multiple applications
- The process involves complex rules
- If the process is complex overall
- If you have a need to monitor the process
- The process requires improvement
- If many instances of the process will be deployed
- If you have sufficient availability of legacy interfaces to support the process
We concluded that the way to use this list is to apply these criteria to your own list of internal company processes, using the criteria to eliminate processes that don’t fit the criteria, and thus are unlikely to produce a sufficient ROI when deployed via a BPMS versus other approaches. We also concluded that ETL (extract transform load) and other point-to-point style of integration projects were not very good candidates for BPMS technology.
source: http://blogs.gartner.com/benoit_lheureux/2009/03/25/a-simple-%E2%80%9Cwhen-to-use-a-bpms%E2%80%9D-decision-framework/