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IBM Business Automation Workflow vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Business Automation Workflow

    Score9.7 out of 10
    N/AIBM Business Automation Workflow is a solution that helps users automate digital workflows to increase productivity, efficiency and insights — on premises or on cloud.N/A

    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AIBM Cloud Pak for Automation allows the user to design, build and run automation applications and services on any cloud, using pre-integrated automation technologies and low-code tools. IBM Cloud Pak is the latest deployment option of the IBM automation platform for digital business, available on Red Hat OpenShift.N/A
    Pricing
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    91%
    Would buy again
    30 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    30 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Happy with the feature set
    32 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    18 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    30 Answers
    Features
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    20% above category average
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    6.4
    1 Ratings
    23% below category average
    Dashboards10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
    Standard reports10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
    Custom reports10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
    Process Engine
    Comparison of Process Engine features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    18% above category average
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Process designer10.04 Ratings8.21 Ratings
    Process simulation10.03 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Business rules engine10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    SOA support10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Process player10.03 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Support for modeling languages10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form builder10.04 Ratings8.21 Ratings
    Model execution10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Collaboration
    Comparison of Collaboration features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    3 Ratings
    17% above category average
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Social collaboration tools10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Management Capabilties
    Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    20% above category average
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    -
    Ratings
    Content management10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Customization
    Comparison of Customization features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    API for custom integration00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Plug-ins00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Business Process Automation
    Comparison of Business Process Automation features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    7.5
    1 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Business Process Modeling00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Decision Modeling00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Code-Based Automation00 Ratings8.21 Ratings
    No-Code Automation00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Small Businesses
    IBM Blueworks Live
    Score8.9 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    TIBCO® BPM Enterprise
    Score7 out of 10
    Okta Workflows
    Score8.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Blueworks Live
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Okta Workflows
    Score8.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.9
    (42 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    Have your process first on paper Its important to first document the process before venturing into BPMS. It will save a lot of pain and heartaches. A BPM tool is no magic bullet, it merely automates your process. Its upto you to put visibility and tracking on top of it. Provide monitoring so that you get a chance to improve your process continously. BPM is not an application If you are trying to build an application with BPM, chances are that your are alraedy failing. BPM must be a strategic initiative for an organization. Yes, you build Dashboards, Reports and other software in BPMS, however you do it at a process level not at an application level. http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2011/05/bpm-initiative.html Know the difference between process data and business data http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2011/05/lombardi-best-practices.html http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2012/02/bpm-system-architecture.html
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    IBM
    Well Suited Scenarios IBM Cloud Pak shines in scenarios where complex workflows, such as project management in web design, require automation. It's also highly effective for collaborative content creation, enabling seamless content approval. Less Appropriate Scenarios Conversely, it may be less suitable for organizations with simpler task management needs that do not fully leverage its robust capabilities. Also, companies with limited IT resources might face challenges during setup and customization.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    IBM
    • System does a great job normalizing business process and automating order processing tasks. Before TeamWorks, the process was much more manual and more expensive staff ($65k to $70K) were required to manage the process. Since implementing TeamWorks, we need much lower-skilled workers to manage order processing.
    • System ensures that we have consistent data across all systems.
    • Rules engine is really the “company playbook” – it is the heart and soul of how the company works. It handles thousands of orders per day
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    IBM
    • I like how this tool provides us with automation capabilities to all our business processes hence improves our productivity.
    • Helps us to analyze complex workflows for our clients.
    • Accelerate our growth to digital transformation.
    • Reduce clients wait time. Hence we are able to deliver on time.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    IBM
    • The system gets crashed when many instances go into the queue stage. The system even crashes and sometimes restarts automatically when the load on the server increases. We had to develop a separate software for this and maintain the same.
    • We cannot manipulate the data during run time. It is difficult to develop user-interfaces with complex functionality.
    • In order to consume external services that follow HTTP protocol, we need to use IDE for that, and consuming services from IDE takes a lot of time to give a response.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • For heavy load, the performance should be improved
    • The integration with the messaging system is a bit tricky and hence example documentation could be provided
    • It is a very nice and powerful tool however still not very known, marketing needs to be improved
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    This particular decision will be made by other people. Overall IBM BPM is the best BPM engine that I have worked with. It is implemented at our company and IT and business are already somewhat familiar with it. Therefore if asked I will recommend renewal as long as the price is reasonable.
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    IBM
    IBM Cloud Pak provides modernization in collecting, organizing and analyzing data. This product provides to unify market leading services such as data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI. IBM Cloud Pak is best for resource and infrustructure optimization. IBM Cloud Pak is capable to accomodate our business automation needs.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    IBM
    • The system is easy enough to use but, by definition, is a complex tool. However, they have done a good job generally balancing tool complexity / capability with usability. When comparing to MS Biz Talk, for example, Biz Talk has less functionality but is actually harder to use.
    • Software is very flexible. For somebody with the right technical background, it’s quite easy to write some Java code to overcome any hurdles or make the product do what is needed
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    IBM
    Issues can be raised through tickets and it works based on the priority of the issue. The Support Team response is also good and the solution is provided in a short span of time. In a case where the issue is serious, they try to find out the root cause and provide an alternative for it.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    In-Person Training
    IBM
    • Attended on premise sysadmin training for 4 days, 8 hours per day. Although further follow-up training was available, I never felt the need to go back. Training was very hands-on with real modeling (rather than just following a manual). Very effective.
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    • Very satisfied – not too difficult at all.
    • We had a consultant available as part of our contract, but we didn’t really need to use (except for some advice on ActiveDirectory and single sign-on)
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Pega Pega is a comprehensive suite which offers a unique theme of BPM development in the market. A no-coding approach based on rules with inheritance makes Pega a very powerful product. However Pega, falls short on integration centric capabilities and very rigid to customize. On the other hand IBM comes with array of products which suits needs of varying degree. Advanced integration is solved by BPEL Process Server which has support for state based patterns and mediation. Dynamic rules and event management can be solved with WODM, Cloud to on-premise connectivity with Cast Iron, Enterprise gateway and security usecases with DataPower, Social BPM with IBM BPM , WODM, mobify with Worklight. Pega has a little bit of eveything here and there. It solves the dynamic rule management, brings out the flavor of Social BPM and mobility with Antenna ( I guess) and predictive analytics as well in one single suite. There are certain usecases which needs to have a little bit of everything, however this little bits and pieces of functionality when its blows, Pega would have problems to scale. With IBM its a bit nightmare to maintain a variety of technologies, however you can wish to go for one without the other and go for something only when you truly need it. Pega vs IBM Its difficult to pick a winner. In nutshell when you want a full scale BPM with rich integration capabilities go for IBM BPM. On the other hand if you hava mature integration capability already, Pega can yield quick results for you as well. Pega's strength is its methodology. IBM BPM's strength is integration. Actually you can't go wrong with both in terms of implementation. My strong recommendation is to invest time to process analysis and pick a good vendor to support consulting and implementation.
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    IBM
    There are various products that are similar to IBM Cloud, but IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation stands out overall. IBM Cloud offers valuable features such as analytics, cognitive abilities, and data management capabilities. Additionally, it places a strong emphasis on security and compliance, with features such as role-based access control and encryption. Moreover, it allows for easy integration with other systems and platforms.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    IBM
    It scales from small team interactions to business processes serving thousands of employees, as well as straight-through-processing needs that go well beyond. Of course, scale is always in the eye of the beholder, but IBM BPM does a good job of giving you all of the hooks, APIs, and data that you need to take on whatever scaling approaches you need to meet the load
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    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • It has added value to the upper management to give visibility into what is happening at any time in the enterprise.
    • Boosted employee morale because it gives them all the information to work the case/task in a single location.
    • Identifies bottlenecks and improves the turnover.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • A platform with multiple functions, automations and system monitoring.
    • The components of this software help to obtain results from the first month of its implementation.
    • Each module has a price and can be purchased according to the direct need of the company; this helps to adapt to our budget.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots