Appian vs. DocLink vs. Vasion

Appian works great for automating manual processes and integrating multiple systems through its toolset. It gives great flexibility for establishing rules for approvals, routings, escalations, and the like. Because of the low code toolset, it's very easy to deploy and make changes as needed as processes evolve and as the organization learns to utilize the system better. Minimal maintenance is required to support the applications build on the platform. Some of the automated testing integration with tools like Jenkins is limited so that may be an issue for some.

Incentivized

It's a great tool that works well to automate processes and, once set up, reduce admin time on things like tracking the approval process. However, it can be challenging to initially set up because it requires an understanding of the process in the first place. We have a team of business analysts who work for us so one of them was assigned to understand our own internal processes and then set up the relevant workflows. I think without this we might have struggled. We also each use the expense receipt feature which is great. You can in a receipt and using OCR the expense forms are automatically populated. You do need to manually check it but this saves a lot of time in filling in forms. As we now have a workflow in place it is straightforward to submit your monthly expense report for approval straight afterward. The document tracking feature is good too - who has seen, worked on, or needs to see the document. It means we were able to stop using Slack.

Incentivized

The best case we've found for Vasion is the one that explains why we moved to Vasion in the first place. Our Windows print servers were extremely temperamental for our Azure devices and, in many cases, would take 20 minutes or more to just set up correctly. We would then have issues with printers not printing for long periods or with print jobs not showing up in the printer queue. It was also hard for the staff to install their own printers when the one they normally used went down. It was also very hard for staff to figure out how to navigate the printer list to install printers. Vasion made all of this very easy and gave the staff one easy web page to find the printer they want and install it.

Incentivized

• Allows at a glance workflow documentation which assists in the need we have for information readiation.
• Drag and drop interface for workflow development greatly speeds our apps time to market.
• Using the advanced features of Appian, we are able to create working sites in a fraction of the time it would take to do so using "traditional" development.

Incentivized

• Maintains all scanned and processed documents since we converted from paper files. 13 years and counting for our company.
• Able to create custom folders or "workflows" with specific permissions.
• Able to quickly search using a wide variety of search parameters.
• Allows the user to make notations, highlights, and digital stamps for future reference.
• Allows the user to scan or drag and drop documents into the program and will convert to the acceptable format (ie: PDF will convert to TIF).

Incentivized

• MaxxVault is a full-featured product at a cost significantly less than its competition.
• MaxxVault is end-user maintainable. I do not have to carry an IT staff to support this critical system.
• MaxxVault has the best customer service support of any vendor I've done business with in my 20 year career.

• Search issues when type ahead and database search are used in the same field.
• Buttons implementation where user is require[d] to click on the button description - if clicks on the button outside that text - button will not work.
• Problems with using certain off-the-shelf performance tools like WebLoad or Neoload. That is because of different dynamic variables being used internally in Appian - which these tools are unable to correlate. We are still investigating using other tools like Jmeter to overcome dynamic correlation problem for performance testing.

Incentivized

• Search engine can be enhanced to provide better results.
• The workflow module can be made simpler.
• Sometimes a little slow to load all the information.

Incentivized

• Learning curve is particularly steep.
• Some advanced features can be difficult to implement and test.
• Driver management is time consuming and could be streamlined.

Incentivized

We recently renewed our license with Appian. We are convinced that its flexibility, relative ease of use, the support they provide, there mobile advancements and their general willingness and desire to see us succeed all contributed to our reason to renew our agreement with Appian

Appian is a low code environment, because of this, a very good visual interface is required. Appian is providing a feature-rich dashboard [that] we can use for building the dashboards and other interfaces. Appian also provides patches and releases to enhance these features. A developer can start off development just by going through a basic course from the Appian learning community.

Incentivized

DocLink is VERY user-friendly! The daily functions are easily taught to non-financial individuals. It's easy to understand and easy to manipulate with a simple, functional layout. The Administrative module is not too complicated, but it would be more effective if there was a more thorough "help" section or an online forum for users. All of my knowledge is self-taught, trial and error, but it would be helpful for a new user to have an online resource to address questions or issues.

Incentivized

I would say its around 7. For us it was easy to do deploy, to use the centralised control, and not too complex compared to other printing services. However, some workflows became complicated depending on configuration. In our case, it was a bit complicated after a while. But its still user friendly.

Incentivized

DocLink is quite reliable and effective. Scanned documents are easy to read with very slight loss of integrity. Pages load quickly with occasional lag loading very large files. We use DocLink with MS Dynamics SL, and the two systems perform well together without much interruption or ambiguity in the process. One issue we have is in relation to the number of licenses and issues we have when a session will not close upon exit, thus suspending an available license rendering it unusable. Although very infrequent, IT has had to manually "end" a session to clear the license.

Incentivized

Appian is one of the leading low code business automation platforms that support RPA, decision rules, case management, workflow automation, and machine learning all in a single bundle. But it is also harder to implement and replace the traditional business process.

Incentivized

As analyst I participated in a developer boot camp. At times it was hard to keep up but most of the time it made sense. Trainer took the time to explain and slowed pace down to answer questions etc.

Incentivized

Very boring; hard to get through quickly, but rather effective in demonstrating the use of the platform.

Incentivized

It was really seamless. SaaS in the true definition of the word. We logged on and started using the product. Very easy.

Incentivized

Appian has enormously transformed and keeps on updating the product every quarter to meet the latest needs of the world with new innovations & technologies being integrated within the platform. What gives more pleasure than a product that keeps on continuous[ly] improv[ing]?

Incentivized

Document sender u can only send one at a time, doclink sends mass emails all at once and can archive all your documents, making it a complete solution.

Incentivized

Vasion had a much better interface for installing printers for staff. It was very easy for staff to manage their own printers and install what they want or need. Vasion also seemed to be better equipped for reporting and use by our non-technical staff. We were also impressed with the support of Vasion and how easily they answered all of our questions.

Incentivized

• I believe it has negatively impacted our release dates. There may have been a misunderstanding as to the learning curve, even though it is "low code."
• The look and feel of the applications created using Appian have uniformity and it's easier to have "reuse" between applications.
• There is less developer control when it comes to features. I think this mainly has to do with the amount of plugins available. I would think there should be many more available plugins. But again, our use case is probably different than most others.

Incentivized

• Now set up it has significantly reduced admin time for everyone. I would say on average 1-2 hours per month per staff member spent on expense forms and submissions.
• Cancelled paid version of slack as no longer needed.

Incentivized

• Having seen similar organizations implement software solutions costing upwards of $1 million, I can safely say the ROI on our MaxxVault implementation has paid off massively for our customers and staff. We could not do what we're doing without MaxxVault.