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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GlobiFlow for Podio
Score 10.0 out of 10
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GlobiFlow for Podio is a workflow automation and data visualization solution for Citrix Podio.
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.
GlobiFlow should be considered advanced software for a limited number of employees. If users of GlobiFlow don't work together, they could easily create processes that cancel out other work. GlobiFlow works very well when one person understands the program well and uses it to help coworkers think through processes. The most helpful way we've used it is in automating our hiring process somewhat. Instead of receiving hundreds of emails with job applications, we set up an app in Podio and used Globiflow to notify supervisors when applications were received through our website. As a candidate moves through the hiring process, GlobiFlow processes provide triggers to help us remember what needs to happen at each step along the way by automatically generating tasks, emails, and items in other apps.
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.
GlobiFlow allows one event to prompt a task or notification automatically, which greatly improves workflows and internal communications.
GlobiFlow makes it possible to automate some interactions we have with people outside the agency, for example, responding immediately to an application when it is received, creating a Sharefile folder to collect submitted documents all in one secure location, etc.
GlobiFlow suggests new ways of setting up workflows that makes us think through and improve our processes.
GlobiFlow helps us keep track of events in new and improved ways. For example, when a leave request is approved GlobiFlow automates the process for putting that date on an agency-wide calendar.
GlobiFlow helps us use Podio and Sharefile better so we communicate with employees in other offices and out in the field more effectively.
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.
There is a steep learning curve for your typical PC user. I've used GlobiFlow for over a year but there are many things I still don't understand about it. The help pages are somewhat helpful, but there is a whole vocabulary associated with GlobiFlow that is a bit mysterious at the front end.
Any limitations in Podio are repeated in GlobiFlow.
Setting up processes in GlobiFlow is somewhat complicated, which makes it a little tedious when employees change and responsibilities shift, as they often do in a growing organization. Naming your processes well is important so you can go back and find places where changes need to be made.
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 acquired GlobiFlow at the same time that we GlobiFlow Podio and ShareFile. GlobiFlow helped us use both Podio and ShareFile more efficiently. Podio has an internal automation function that performs some of the same tasks as GlobiFlow but is far more limited, which is why we decided to go ahead and learn how to implement GlobiFlow.
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.
