SAP NetWeaver BPM vs. Tungsten TotalAgility

It is well suited when we need to integrate business processes with SAP ERP and SAP CRM - the solution can be integrated with business rules/procedures defined in SAP ERP/CRM and NetWeaver can be used to monitor the rules and flag off exceptions. When there are multiple workflows running, it tends to slow down running of these processes. Also, it entirely depends on SAP portal for it to run efficiently.

Incentivized

The platform is an excellent solution for companies looking for a workflow automation system that can be used across departments and its return on investment becomes apparent once it is introduced in production for a business. Its ability to route work tasks dynamically between employees and outside parties, implement SLAs, and get information to a back-end source is excellent.

Incentivized

• Virtual paper trail. Iterations of process and current documentation are all stored as "artifacts", leaving a great trail.
• Configuration of users. BPM somewhat magically determines which users will be impacted and automates rules.
• A pro (that is also a con) is the design interface. If you know what you are doing, it is incredibly powerful and malleable.

• Ease of use. The drag and drop configuration to create the processes makes the product easy to use and configure. Most of the icons are intuitive on what they are and how to use them. The use of the colored icons for each value also helps to know that that value is looking for.
• Forms. The capture forms are easy to create and maintain. A new field can be added to the Extraction group and then the capture form is regenerated and that field is automatically added to the form with all the proper attributes. If an additional check box or field is added to the form, that field stays when regenerated. This differs from KTA 6.0.
• Kofax has done pretty well integrating all the pieces of Kofax into one product. KC (Kofax Capture), KIC (Kofax Import Connector), KTM (Kofax Transformation Module with OCR), and workflow are all combined into KTA (Kofax Total Agility). This lets all of these features work together in one product. Kofax does keep adding more to the functions that maybe were left out original version. This makes Kofax Total Agility a robust product.

Incentivized

• Live readings would be nice.
• Easier to maneuver
• Work with all systems with the press of one keystroke

Incentivized

• Exception management within the platform can certainly be improved upon. If a job is suspended for any particular issue integrations can be put in place to attempt to handle them but it is kludgy and does not always work as anticipated.
• The administration interface is based on Microsoft Silverlight which limits it to certain versions of Internet Explorer and the interface has seen better days. Their other application, Kofax Kapow, has a much more mature and intuitive interface. This supposedly is being replaced in the next major iteration but I have doubts it will be successfully done.
• The product is expensive. It is also the Cadillac of workflow platforms with document transformation built in. In many cases the product can do what you want it to do but there may be other more cost effective platforms.

Incentivized

As a big fan of SAP in general, the BPM solution fits right in with all the other things SAP does well, and does it with incredible efficiency

We have our own tech support for systems, I would say they probably could use more training on it, I don't really think it's anything regarding the SAP system, but more the knowledge they have on the system itself. It seems to take longer for them to fix any issues we may come across.

Incentivized

I found the initial setup of NetWeaver is much simpler than other products especially in an SAP environment where we have SAP ERP/HRM/CRM as it can be well integrated with other SAP products. The only drawback is the need/dependency on SAP Portal. It is better suited in an environment where SAP ERP is running.

Incentivized

Kofax TotalAgility is a beast of a package that gives you a thousand ways to tackle a problem, but it may not be the best platform for your needs. It is more of an enterprise platform that integrates well with other systems with moderate development time. Other packages may be cheaper, easier, and faster to implement depending on needs.

Incentivized

• Helped us harness integrated benefit from having SAP ERP/CRM by leveraging NetWeaver to define business processes/rules and monitor exceptions
• Did not have any negative experience except for the fact that at times when multiple rules run, it can be somewhat slow

Incentivized

• Kofax TotalAgility is very expensive. Some customers have reported that using the KTA workflow has increased productivity and has a good ROI overall. The customers have not shared true numbers for me to give details.

Incentivized