IBM Business Automation Workflow vs. IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
IBM Business Automation Workflow
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
IBM 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
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cloud Pak for Automation allows the user to design, build and run automation applications and services on any cloud, using pre-integrated automation technologies and low-code tools. IBM Cloud Pak is the latest deployment option of the IBM automation platform for digital business, available on Red Hat OpenShift.N/A
Pricing
IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
10.0
4 Ratings
20% above category average
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
6.4
1 Ratings
14% below category average
Dashboards10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
Standard reports10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
Custom reports10.04 Ratings6.41 Ratings
Process Engine
Comparison of Process Engine features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
10.0
4 Ratings
17% above category average
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
7.5
1 Ratings
18% above category average
Process designer10.04 Ratings8.21 Ratings
Process simulation10.03 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Business rules engine10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
SOA support10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Process player10.03 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Support for modeling languages10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Form builder10.04 Ratings8.21 Ratings
Model execution10.04 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Collaboration
Comparison of Collaboration features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
10.0
3 Ratings
20% above category average
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
-
Ratings
Social collaboration tools10.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Management Capabilties
Comparison of Content Management Capabilties features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
10.0
4 Ratings
21% above category average
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
-
Ratings
Content management10.04 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
-
Ratings
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
7.3
1 Ratings
18% above category average
API for custom integration00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Plug-ins00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Business Process Automation
Comparison of Business Process Automation features of Product A and Product B
IBM Business Automation Workflow
-
Ratings
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
7.5
1 Ratings
21% above category average
Business Process Modeling00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Decision Modeling00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
Code-Based Automation00 Ratings8.21 Ratings
No-Code Automation00 Ratings7.31 Ratings
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IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.7 out of 10
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Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Score 9.1 out of 10
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Score 9.4 out of 10
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User Ratings
IBM Business Automation WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(8 ratings)
9.3
(42 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(4 ratings)
9.1
(3 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 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 WorkflowIBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation
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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IBM
Well Suited Scenarios IBM Cloud Pak shines in scenarios where complex workflows, such as project management in web design, require automation. It's also highly effective for collaborative content creation, enabling seamless content approval. Less Appropriate Scenarios Conversely, it may be less suitable for organizations with simpler task management needs that do not fully leverage its robust capabilities. Also, companies with limited IT resources might face challenges during setup and customization.
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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
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IBM
  • I like how this tool provides us with automation capabilities to all our business processes hence improves our productivity.
  • Helps us to analyze complex workflows for our clients.
  • Accelerate our growth to digital transformation.
  • Reduce clients wait time. Hence we are able to deliver on time.
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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.
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IBM
  • For heavy load, the performance should be improved
  • The integration with the messaging system is a bit tricky and hence example documentation could be provided
  • It is a very nice and powerful tool however still not very known, marketing needs to be improved
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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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IBM
IBM Cloud Pak provides modernization in collecting, organizing and analyzing data. This product provides to unify market leading services such as data management, DataOps, governance, business analytics and automated AI. IBM Cloud Pak is best for resource and infrustructure optimization. IBM Cloud Pak is capable to accomodate our business automation needs.
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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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IBM
No answers on this topic
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.
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IBM
No answers on this topic
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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IBM
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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IBM
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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IBM
There are various products that are similar to IBM Cloud, but IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation stands out overall. IBM Cloud offers valuable features such as analytics, cognitive abilities, and data management capabilities. Additionally, it places a strong emphasis on security and compliance, with features such as role-based access control and encryption. Moreover, it allows for easy integration with other systems and platforms.
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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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IBM
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.
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IBM
  • Quick to automate repetitive tasks and finish them with speed and accuracy hence saving time and operational cost.
  • Bots are life saviours because they are able to learn fast without feeding any information most of the manual work is done accurately and diligently.
  • Reduce human errors by reducing how we manually input data into all our business processes.
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