BizFlow BPM Suite (also called BizFlow Plus BPM Suite) is a BPM platform offered by BizFlow (formerly HandySoft). Capabilities include process design and execution, case management, business rules, web application and form development, tasking and action tracking, ad-hoc reporting, and mobile access. The product can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud.
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Bonita Platform
Score 4.0 out of 10
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Bonita is an open-source business process and workflow management platform created by the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science. It is available as a free community edition or as a commercial subscription product.
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SAP BPM
Score 7.0 out of 10
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SAP NetWeaver Business Process Management is a business process management offering and application infrastructure. It supports joint modeling of processes, central process execution via a Java-based engine, provision of interfaces for users, and integration of business rules into processes.
Bonita BPM has much more connectors than SAP NetWeaver BPM. It's easier and cheaper to develop processes with Bonita and also the consultants are less expensive on that technology.
Although the tool was developed locally in South Korea, it is still a good tool and is already validated in a number of industries. The problem is, no one seems to know the future of the product. It is okay to use it as a pilot tool for any non-commercial purpose, but to be used in a professional or enterprise setting, maintenance, licensing, and other things need to be guaranteed by HandySoft.
Well suited for low code/no code applications centered around approval flows. It has built-in task management for users to see their pending actions, comments, statuses, etc. It has a very nice design for process flows. Less appropriate may be for generic type applications with complex screens and logic within those screens that need a lot of data to process.
It is well suited when we need to integrate business processes with SAP ERP and SAP CRM - the solution can be integrated with business rules/procedures defined in SAP ERP/CRM and NetWeaver can be used to monitor the rules and flag off exceptions. When there are multiple workflows running, it tends to slow down running of these processes. Also, it entirely depends on SAP portal for it to run efficiently.
BizFlow has a long history of development and implementation in a variety of industries. Its modeling tool is well-designed and user-friendly.
BizFlow supports seamless integration with backend services like MySQL databases and web services. Since it is an enterprise-wide BPM tool, system performance was stable and robust.
It supports modern m-health requirements, with social BPM functions and mobile support. Mobile integration especially was good, with the provider's secure messaging functions.
Bonita seems particularly suited for processes requiring a great deal of human interaction. Its user model allows you to control access to business processes in a fine-grained way. This allows for business processes to move smoothly between users and services as the process advances.
The definition and usage of custom forms from the latest version of Bonita seems particularly powerful. It allows for a thorough customization of the look-and-feel and does not require complex developments.
The web interface and administration section have greatly improved in the latest versions. Installation and configuration of processes has become more flexible and more structured. The administration section gives a good view on failed processes, allowing to analyse problems in an efficient way.
It's not even clear that BizFlow is still managed by the company. It was a good tool before, but it looks like it's been fading out.
Although this was an R&D project in an academic institute, business support was extremely poor. We had no idea how to resolve issues; there were no online communities, documentation, or anyone who knew this product.
Few references in healthcare and clinical settings. We tried this for a proof-of-concept though, so it didn't matter.
There is a learning curve beyond the boot camps that needs to be addressed with more structured curriculum.
The full stack technologies are industry standard, but these [are] challenging to learn and could use a learning path and orientation. There's probably opportunity for third-parties here to help with learning and adoption.
Bonita Platform has allowed us to develop GUI relatively fast using its UI Designer while being able to seamlessly integrate our business logic in Java in a BPMN2 process diagram. It gives a nice productivity boost but still requires programming know-how to be able to deliver the final solution to your business problems.
Engine itself is efficient enough for most cases I dealt with. It can also be extended by clustering. I have done performance tests with JMeter and only managed to induce the crash of... JMeter. If there are efficiency issues they usually concern bad design/implementation of created apps or bottlenecks in integrated systems. Although I have met two cases with efficiency loss.
1. Java 7 related PermGen saturation caused by big number of installed apps (there is no jar dependency reusal between apps option).
2. Big number of waiting event handlers in processes stresses the database.
We have our own tech support for systems, I would say they probably could use more training on it, I don't really think it's anything regarding the SAP system, but more the knowledge they have on the system itself. It seems to take longer for them to fix any issues we may come across.
At the beginning of the project, we considered popular tools for the modeling and execution of business processes: jBPM, Activity, Tibco, etc. jBPM is the tool we liked because of its strong support of BPMN 2.0 and strong online community and support. We had different expectations for BizFlow, like professional and business supports. In the end, although haven't decided yet, most likely we will move forward with jBPM instead of BizFlow. Unless things change, the tool will fade out from the market silently.
I found the initial setup of NetWeaver is much simpler than other products especially in an SAP environment where we have SAP ERP/HRM/CRM as it can be well integrated with other SAP products. The only drawback is the need/dependency on SAP Portal. It is better suited in an environment where SAP ERP is running.
Respect of BPMN standard over the long term. Good enhancements by Bonitasoft for new use cases, for example the introduction of a real form editor even if it has been technically difficult to manage. Once done though, we have far greater possibility of human interaction.
We ended up deciding to not use BizFlow for future projects. The main reason wasn't due to ROI or cost, but was due to our uncertainty of the management and future direction of the tool by the company.
Besides the business issue, as far as reasonably priced software goes, it is a good tool.
Adopting BizFlow into a healthcare industry may come with additional expense due to its lack of references in the industry, which should be additionally considered.
