Appian vs. IBM Datacap vs. Tungsten Capture

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

Once highly customized, IBM Datacap can suit any business unit and scenario. To realize accurate knowledge and insight base on business documents, I would emphasize use of IBM Datacap since it has robust OCR tool that ease document capturing.

Incentivized

Kofax [Capture] meets our needs and for the most part is easy to use and setup. Configuration could be a little bit easier. The scripting language is a double edge sword if you will. It gives you nearly unlimited possibilities to script what you need, but the downside is you have to script it. Does a good job at batching and scanning documents. The tool integrates well into our workflow which makes our business partners happy and in turn provides for happy customers.

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

• Machine learning automates document processing from external applications and sources like scanners.
• Exporting data with just a click to other content repositories.
• Redaction of data based on requester role. Therefore, we are able to block irrelevant or sensitive information based on the specification of users.

Incentivized

• The VRS application included with Kofax Capture is the best image pre-processing platform available on the market today. It can handle a wide array of common document problems such as skew, flipping, wrinkles, lines, and dots.
• The platform is incredibly scriptable and can be customized to handle all sorts of unusual document contents to allow information to be extracted that many other platforms just struggle on. Table extraction, line item matching, and smart extraction are all strong points with this platform.
• Through the use of SBL and .NET the platform can be expanded and scaled quite easily to allow for the software to be integrated into existing business processes and platforms with ease.

Incentivized

• 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

• Supporting documentation is poor
• UI is old fashioned

Incentivized

• We struggled with configuring Kofax with AP Automation. We used to receive vouchers in different formats by different companies, by different departments. The people from different departments used to scan those vouchers through regular scanners to a central location, which ended up as image pdfs. We fed these image pdfs through Kofax Capture for character recognition, which was painful as the accuracy of recognition was 50 to 60%.
• Having a connectors with a workflow tool would be helpful where people can validate and approve the output.
• More samples and documentation related to use of API in .NET applications would be a good improvement, that would help users to adapt the product easily into their organization.

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

Cost of Kofax is high, however the cost to benefit scenarios always pay off.

Incentivized

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

It's good.

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

Generally they are very good and reactive to our requests. if we find an issue our error they are quick to add a fix to the next release if needs be.

Incentivized

Haven't really used their support yet

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

It's easier to extract data from documents for analytics, unlike other similar platforms.

Incentivized

Quality of data capture. Automatic data integration with Oracle and SAP ERP. Automatic image integration with Oracle and SAP ERP. Automatic invoice booking in Oracle and SAP ERP.

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

• We have protected and safeguarded business information by redacting documents to ensure that confidential data doesn’t reach to irrelevant business users or cyber attackers.
• Business procedures automation has been enhanced by IBM Datacap as part of the Cloud pak, which eases workflow and decision management.
• Being based on modern modular, IBM Datacap allows us to pay for what we use, thus no losses are encountered.

Incentivized

• We were able to decrease personnel expenditures as there was not a need for individuals to index documents prior to incorporating them into the record.

Incentivized