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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    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

    Power Apps

    Score8.1 out of 10
    N/APowerApps is a low code / rapid application development product from Microsoft that allows users to quickly build apps.

    $20

    per month per user

    Pricing
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Power Apps Premium
    $20
    per month per user
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Considered Both Products
    IBM
    No answer on this topic
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    90%
    Happy with the feature set
    19 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    81%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    16 Answers
    Features
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Reporting & Analytics
    Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and Power Apps
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    26% above category average
    Power Apps
    -
    Ratings
    Dashboards10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Standard reports10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Custom reports10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process Engine
    Comparison of Process Engine features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and Power Apps
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Power Apps
    -
    Ratings
    Process designer10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process simulation10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Business rules engine10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    SOA support10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Process player10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Support for modeling languages10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Form builder10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Model execution10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Collaboration
    Comparison of Collaboration features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and Power Apps
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    3 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Power Apps
    -
    Ratings
    Social collaboration tools10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Management Capabilties
    Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and Power Apps
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    10.0
    4 Ratings
    21% above category average
    Power Apps
    -
    Ratings
    Content management10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
    Low-Code Development
    Comparison of Low-Code Development features of IBM Business Automation Workflow and Power Apps
    Feature
    IBM Business Automation Workflow
    -
    Ratings
    Power Apps
    7.8
    24 Ratings
    7% below category average
    Visual Modeling00 Ratings7.722 Ratings
    Drag-and-drop Interfaces00 Ratings7.423 Ratings
    Platform Security00 Ratings8.523 Ratings
    Platform User Management00 Ratings7.923 Ratings
    Reusability00 Ratings7.423 Ratings
    Platform Scalability00 Ratings7.622 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
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    Process Street
    Score8.2 out of 10
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    Score7.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    TIBCO® BPM Enterprise
    Score8 out of 10
    AppSheet
    Score8.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Blueworks Live
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Oracle APEX
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.2
    (26 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.9
    (7 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.7
    (6 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM Business Automation WorkflowPower Apps
    Likelihood to Recommend
    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
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    Microsoft
    Power Apps is ideal for scenarios that are neither too complex nor too large. It is easy to begin development in Power Apps, as it is one of the best tools for low-code development. Power Apps can be implemented for complex scenarios as well, provided there is strong knowledge of the tool and ample time for planning. Our applications benefit from Power Apps' cross-platform support, making it easy to use on any device, including desktops, laptops, and mobile devices.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    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
    Microsoft
    • Power Apps has formats that are pre-built that don't require any coding which makes it easier to achieve your vision. This does become a challenge if your App needs don't fit into that format.
    • We deal with a ton of data so the fact that you can connect to any data source in addition to their pre-stablished data connections makes the process a breeze.
    • The online learning resources and tutorials are helpful as well for those who are tech savvy.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    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
    Microsoft
    • Sometimes the cost of solutions is greater than the benefit. Licensing is expensive relative to the scope of some business user-created personal or team-level solutions.
    • While there is a starter-kit for Governance, it is complicated to stand up and requires dedicated resources to provide on-going governance operations. Many organizations are not going to be able to dedicate resources to governance and this causes the sprawl, solution duplication, silos, unneeded and unplanned licensing expenses, and a general "wild wild west" environment.
    • There needs to be better direction and best practices given around Power Platform Environment utilization and optimization.
    • The accessibility to the platform and ease for business partners to independantly create solutions is both a benefit and a negative. When the business outcome needed is a good fit for PowerApps it is a quick win, but when not a good fit it becomes a frustration for the business partner attempting to make the platform do something it is not well-suited for. The business partner entangles tech teams in the effort which drains resources and provides a lack-luster solution. All of this to say, it would be beneficial to have some tools that business partners could leverage to determine\understand if the type of business outcome they need is well suited to PowerApps or not.
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    Likelihood to Renew
    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.
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    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
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    Microsoft
    PowerApps is a great solution and I have spent the last year familiarizing myself with the platform and building custom applications to complete a whole range of tasks such as asset management, custom invoice generation, and item restriction tracking. We as a company have barely begun to scratch the surface of what can be achieved with PowerApps.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    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
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    Microsoft
    The community forums are extremely responsive to questions asked, there is a good body of online documentation and many community posts to draw from. Although the platform has changed, which means some of the posts are out of date and the solutions provided aren't relevant. Of relevance, I read over 400 articles plus documentation to get this first app built in SharePoint, move it to SQL and make it work exactly the way it should.
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    In-Person Training
    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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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    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)
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    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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    Microsoft
    1. PowerApps functionality comes with E1 over E3 License without adding extra costs 2. For Nintex you pay (at the beginning) for each workflow, so my intention would be, to do no workflows to prevent additional costs, but I want a platform with a fair price that allows me to create workflows without thinking about the price for each workflow and we use only some workflow and relative easy workflows and forms as a medium-sized company. 3. PowerApps provides a lot of functionality without needing to invest in premium features directly.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    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
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    Microsoft
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    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
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    Microsoft
    • Automation of manual processes brings an ROI on labor costs.
    • Intake of data provides clean database design.
    • Connectivity to data-lake provides insights and trends into the data.
    • Able to scale operations with efficiencies provided by the app.
    • Can mature the process and workflows to do more.
    Incentivized
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