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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Esker

    Score7.4 out of 10
    N/AEsker is a global cloud platform built to unlock strategic value for finance and customer service professionals and strengthen collaboration between companies by automating the cash conversion cycle. Esker’s mission is to build a foundation that promotes positive-sum growth, increased productivity, improved employee engagement, and greater trust between organizations.N/A

    IBM Business Automation Workflow

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AIBM Business Automation Workflow is a solution that helps users automate digital workflows to increase productivity, efficiency and insights — on premises or on cloud.N/A
    Pricing
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Considered Both Products
    Esker
    No answer on this topic
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    78%
    Implementation went as expected
    7 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Esker and IBM Business Automation Workflow
    Feature
    Esker
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    26% above category average
    Dashboards00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Standard reports00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Custom reports00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Process Engine
    Comparison of Process Engine features of Esker and IBM Business Automation Workflow
    Feature
    Esker
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Process designer00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Process simulation00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Business rules engine00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    SOA support00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Process player00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Support for modeling languages00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Form builder00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Model execution00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Collaboration
    Comparison of Collaboration features of Esker and IBM Business Automation Workflow
    Feature
    Esker
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    3 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Social collaboration tools00 Ratings10.03 Ratings
    Content Management Capabilties
    Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of Esker and IBM Business Automation Workflow
    Feature
    Esker
    -
    Ratings
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Content management00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
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    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
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    M‑Files
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Process Street
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Square 9 Softworks
    Score9.3 out of 10
    TIBCO® BPM Enterprise
    Score8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Tungsten Capture
    Score9.5 out of 10
    IBM Blueworks Live
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (17 ratings)
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    5.5
    (2 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    EskerIBM Business Automation Workflow
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Esker
    Esker On Demand is great for Sales Order Processing order creation. We use it with web services. It can make table read calls, test order creations (simulate order), and help with order creation. They are also working on change order management, but if you have multiple order entry methods or touch points, this feature may not be usable for your company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Have your process first on paper Its important to first document the process before venturing into BPMS. It will save a lot of pain and heartaches. A BPM tool is no magic bullet, it merely automates your process. Its upto you to put visibility and tracking on top of it. Provide monitoring so that you get a chance to improve your process continously. BPM is not an application If you are trying to build an application with BPM, chances are that your are alraedy failing. BPM must be a strategic initiative for an organization. Yes, you build Dashboards, Reports and other software in BPMS, however you do it at a process level not at an application level. http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2011/05/bpm-initiative.html Know the difference between process data and business data http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2011/05/lombardi-best-practices.html http://bpmstech.blogspot.com/2012/02/bpm-system-architecture.html
    Read full review
    Pros
    Esker
    • Esker makes automated invoice sending very easy
    • Esker tracks the sending of documents & records whether or not the message was successful
    • Esker offers various reports that can be very helpful
    • Esker stores all of our customers' contact info on the cloud, and it can be accessed from anywhere
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • System does a great job normalizing business process and automating order processing tasks. Before TeamWorks, the process was much more manual and more expensive staff ($65k to $70K) were required to manage the process. Since implementing TeamWorks, we need much lower-skilled workers to manage order processing.
    • System ensures that we have consistent data across all systems.
    • Rules engine is really the “company playbook” – it is the heart and soul of how the company works. It handles thousands of orders per day
    Read full review
    Cons
    Esker
    • We can't enter credit memos in Esker. Need to enter in SAP and then link.
    • PO invoices that were trained to go into the PO bucket, route into the non-PO buckets.
    • Freight invoices that have had hundreds going into the non-PO bucket have a tendency to route to the PO-bucket because a PO number is referenced on page 7.
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The system gets crashed when many instances go into the queue stage. The system even crashes and sometimes restarts automatically when the load on the server increases. We had to develop a separate software for this and maintain the same.
    • We cannot manipulate the data during run time. It is difficult to develop user-interfaces with complex functionality.
    • In order to consume external services that follow HTTP protocol, we need to use IDE for that, and consuming services from IDE takes a lot of time to give a response.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Esker
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    This particular decision will be made by other people. Overall IBM BPM is the best BPM engine that I have worked with. It is implemented at our company and IT and business are already somewhat familiar with it. Therefore if asked I will recommend renewal as long as the price is reasonable.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Esker
    Esker does everything that it promises to do, but it is very hard to figure out. I am a very tech-savvy person, but I needed extensive training to be able to use the basic functions of Esker. Once you know what you're doing, it's not too hard, but I don't understand why they couldn't make it easier to use.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    • The system is easy enough to use but, by definition, is a complex tool. However, they have done a good job generally balancing tool complexity / capability with usability. When comparing to MS Biz Talk, for example, Biz Talk has less functionality but is actually harder to use.
    • Software is very flexible. For somebody with the right technical background, it’s quite easy to write some Java code to overcome any hurdles or make the product do what is needed
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Esker
    They have been very helpful and the online support site is awesome. They keep the site up to date with the latest changes and present challenges to keep learning the new updates to keep things entertaining. They are overall a great crew to work with
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Issues can be raised through tickets and it works based on the priority of the issue. The Support Team response is also good and the solution is provided in a short span of time. In a case where the issue is serious, they try to find out the root cause and provide an alternative for it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Esker
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    • Attended on premise sysadmin training for 4 days, 8 hours per day. Although further follow-up training was available, I never felt the need to go back. Training was very hands-on with real modeling (rather than just following a manual). Very effective.
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    Implementation Rating
    Esker
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    • Very satisfied – not too difficult at all.
    • We had a consultant available as part of our contract, but we didn’t really need to use (except for some advice on ActiveDirectory and single sign-on)
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Esker
    I have listed a few that we considered but there were many more in the initial assessment, Esker was priced well and had the best user interface. Was really easy to use and the implementation process was well designed. It was a system that could handle a two tiered delegations of authority for project expenditure and operational expenditure.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    IBM
    Pega Pega is a comprehensive suite which offers a unique theme of BPM development in the market. A no-coding approach based on rules with inheritance makes Pega a very powerful product. However Pega, falls short on integration centric capabilities and very rigid to customize. On the other hand IBM comes with array of products which suits needs of varying degree. Advanced integration is solved by BPEL Process Server which has support for state based patterns and mediation. Dynamic rules and event management can be solved with WODM, Cloud to on-premise connectivity with Cast Iron, Enterprise gateway and security usecases with DataPower, Social BPM with IBM BPM , WODM, mobify with Worklight. Pega has a little bit of eveything here and there. It solves the dynamic rule management, brings out the flavor of Social BPM and mobility with Antenna ( I guess) and predictive analytics as well in one single suite. There are certain usecases which needs to have a little bit of everything, however this little bits and pieces of functionality when its blows, Pega would have problems to scale. With IBM its a bit nightmare to maintain a variety of technologies, however you can wish to go for one without the other and go for something only when you truly need it. Pega vs IBM Its difficult to pick a winner. In nutshell when you want a full scale BPM with rich integration capabilities go for IBM BPM. On the other hand if you hava mature integration capability already, Pega can yield quick results for you as well. Pega's strength is its methodology. IBM BPM's strength is integration. Actually you can't go wrong with both in terms of implementation. My strong recommendation is to invest time to process analysis and pick a good vendor to support consulting and implementation.
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    Scalability
    Esker
    No answers on this topic
    IBM
    It scales from small team interactions to business processes serving thousands of employees, as well as straight-through-processing needs that go well beyond. Of course, scale is always in the eye of the beholder, but IBM BPM does a good job of giving you all of the hooks, APIs, and data that you need to take on whatever scaling approaches you need to meet the load
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Esker
    • We now have reporting available down to the individual field level (changes, errors, etc) and can calculate cost to serve.
    • It replaced on-premise hardware with cloud SaaS that is more cost effective and risk adverse.
    • It is more intuitive; we can put new hires on order entry and experience less user errors. As a solution owner who fixes problems and answers questions, I don't find myself having to "think" about Esker and it has become a smaller part of my job now that end-users are more self-sufficient.
    Incentivized
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    IBM
    • It has added value to the upper management to give visibility into what is happening at any time in the enterprise.
    • Boosted employee morale because it gives them all the information to work the case/task in a single location.
    • Identifies bottlenecks and improves the turnover.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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