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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VisualCron
Score 7.0 out of 10
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VisualCron is an automation, Integration and Task Scheduler tool. VisualCron combines many features into one product. VisualCron was founded in 2004. Through scheduling users can set Jobs to run on a specific time or event with the help of Triggers. The Tasks in each Job automate scripts to eliminate human errors. Through various Tasks users can integrate different systems through file transfer, encryption, compression and…
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Pricing
Bonita Platform
VisualCron
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Bonita Platform
VisualCron
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Yes
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
$1,499 per Server
Additional Details
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More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Bonita Platform
VisualCron
Features
Bonita Platform
VisualCron
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Bonita Platform
6.4
43 Ratings
20% below category average
VisualCron
7.7
1 Ratings
1% below category average
Dashboards
6.041 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
Standard reports
5.540 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
Custom reports
7.740 Ratings
7.01 Ratings
Process Engine
Comparison of Process Engine features of Product A and Product B
Bonita Platform
7.7
53 Ratings
8% below category average
VisualCron
4.2
1 Ratings
52% below category average
Process designer
9.052 Ratings
7.01 Ratings
Process simulation
6.910 Ratings
3.01 Ratings
Business rules engine
8.242 Ratings
2.01 Ratings
SOA support
6.440 Ratings
00 Ratings
Process player
6.78 Ratings
8.01 Ratings
Support for modeling languages
9.038 Ratings
00 Ratings
Form builder
8.148 Ratings
4.01 Ratings
Model execution
6.948 Ratings
1.01 Ratings
Collaboration
Comparison of Collaboration features of Product A and Product B
Bonita Platform
5.9
24 Ratings
34% below category average
VisualCron
-
Ratings
Social collaboration tools
5.924 Ratings
00 Ratings
Content Management Capabilties
Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of Product A and Product B
Bonita Platform
6.8
34 Ratings
18% below category average
VisualCron
-
Ratings
Content management
6.834 Ratings
00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Bonita Platform
-
Ratings
VisualCron
3.5
1 Ratings
70% below category average
API for custom integration
00 Ratings
4.01 Ratings
Plug-ins
00 Ratings
3.01 Ratings
Business Process Automation
Comparison of Business Process Automation features of Product A and Product B
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.
VisualCron does accommodate continuous file processing. Like packing and unpacking compressed files, splitting or merging files, sending E-mail's and executing queries on databases. VisualCron in less suitable for performing very complex operations on files like, arithmetic with numbers, dates or amounts. Very complex job scripts become cluttered. Debugging Job scripts is not easy.
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.
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.
VisualCron should more specifically indicate the root cause of an error.
If copying a file goes wrong, VisualCron reports 'can't copy file'. I expect 'no read permissions from original' or 'no write permissions from destination'.
VisualCron offers no way to execute a Job script line by line
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.
Questions and problems can be addressed to VisualCron 's support department via E-mail. I usually get a good answer from them fairly quickly. There is also a VisualCron forum where you can ask questions that will be answered by other VisualCron users.
For simple processes, VisualCron is easier to use and maintain. For complicated processes, Quadient Inspire offers more options. The graphical representations of waiting, running or completed jobs is adequate for both products. The logging of job actions is better in Quadient Inpire as in VisualCron.
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.