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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Square POS
Score 9.1 out of 10
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Square POS is a point-of-sale software solution with features such as accept credit cards with your iPhone, Android, and iPad along with the flexibility to accept credit card payments anywhere, from Square headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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.
Square POS is by far the easiest POS software to use at events and train additional team members on - even with temporary or first-time employees. It's easy to see how each event is doing in live time. It gives the event manager a real-time view of revenue earned. Its really easy to create/manage/delete users to keep the platform secure.
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.
Mobile transactions (not like from a phone, but in terms of the ability to physically relocate rapidly).
Simple setup.
Generally uncomplicated pricing.
Widespread customer familiarity: because it's so regularly in use in our industry (musicians/entertainment professionals), people know and trust it in a way that you might not with a different provider.
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.
I don't really foresee anything being able to dislodge Square from our organization—we're not evangelists or anything like that—it's just the best solution we've found for our use case. Being able to quickly handle transactions from customers and then track all of those sales for analysis/bookkeeping later on.
Once set up, Square POS is very easy to use. I feel it is a little too easy. Many other solutions have some layer of complexity to them but Square POS is pretty straightforward and this makes it the ideal POS solution in my opinion. If a solution can remove the barriers to use and allow end users to get on with their tasks without being slowed down, then it is a winner. This is what we were able to achieve with Square POS.
An admission - I have NEVER had to use Square POS support. The system is seamless, it just works! I have never had any queries about how the system worked as everything is so clearly laid out. I have never had any problems with payments. If their support systems are anywhere near as good as their software, I think we'll be in good hands.
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.
We only used Square POS while we were getting set up with Authorize.Net. It isn't as flashy or recognized by the general public, but in our industry, that isn't a priority. We do very large transactions so the higher rates and fees from Square add up insanely quickly making the lower rates and fees from Authorize.Net the nail in Square's coffin for us.
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.
The opportunity cost of waiting for payments and manually bringing them to a bank means that we don't have to visit our bank branch. That alone saves us several hours each month.
We can use ordinary computers and mobile devices with Square instead of paying for expensive software or terminals.
Our clients appreciate not having to process payments to us, and anything that helps our clients and makes them happy carries more import than I can explain in this space.
