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Appian

Appian

Overview

What is Appian?

Appian is a low-code development and business process management platform. It features drag-and-drop design for app building, automated work processes, unified data management, and cloud-based deployment.

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Recent Reviews

Automation Platform

10 out of 10
December 19, 2023
Incentivized
Appian is being used by a department in my company, it usually helps us solve business problems provided by various customers. And …
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TrustRadius Insights

Appian has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for a wide range of use cases across various industries. Users and customers have …
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remote user

8 out of 10
December 21, 2021
Incentivized
attestations and validation for company policies (i.e. covid protocol and vaccine requirements). attestations prior to building entry.
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A+ for Appian

9 out of 10
December 16, 2021
Incentivized
Within my organization, Appian is utilized to provide a tracking solution for contractors going through the recruitment and placement …
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its helpful

10 out of 10
December 13, 2021
Incentivized
We have automated the whole business process and its associated business activities. We collect data from a lot of different users and …
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Popular Features

View all 6 features
  • Platform Scalability (73)
    9.4
    94%
  • Reusability (75)
    9.4
    94%
  • Drag-and-drop Interfaces (72)
    8.9
    89%
  • Visual Modeling (73)
    8.8
    88%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Appian Community Edition

$0

Cloud

Application - Input-Only

$2

On Premise
per month per user

Application - Infrequent

$9

On Premise
per month per user

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.appian.com/platform/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
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Product Demos

APPIAN DEMO RECORDING SESSION # 91-9866955524

YouTube

Appian Developer Tutorial for Beginners | Appian Training

YouTube

APPIAN DEMO

YouTube

APPIAN DEMO | Harsha Trainings |

YouTube
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Features

Low-Code Development

Low-code development tools allow non developers to build simple process applications with little oversight. These tools simplify the application building process, and are frequently used for simple process applications.

9.1
Avg 8.6
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Product Details

What is Appian?

Appian provides a software development platform that combines Full-Stack Automation and enterprise low-code to rapidly deliver business applications. Appian can be used to improve customer experience, achieve operational excellence, and simplify global risk and compliance.

Appian is a platform for building enterprise software applications. Appian boasts running some of the most important processes at companies like Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Aviva, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and the US Department of the Treasury.

Some Appian use cases include - Intelligent Business Process Management Systems (iBPMS), Dynamic Case Management (DCM), Digital Process Automation (DPA), Robotics Process Automation (RPA), and Low-code Development.

Appian Features

Low-Code Development Features

  • Supported: Visual Modeling
  • Supported: Drag-and-drop Interfaces
  • Supported: Platform Security
  • Supported: Platform User Management
  • Supported: Reusability
  • Supported: Platform Scalability

Appian Screenshots

Screenshot of Low-Code DevelopmentScreenshot of Business Process Management SuiteScreenshot of Dynamic Case ManagementScreenshot of Mobile App DevelopmentScreenshot of Appian RPA with Blue Prism

Appian Videos

The world’s leading enterprises trust Appian to unify humans, bots, and AI across their organization with speed and simplicity.
Ryder is the leader in commercial truck rentals and leasing, dedicated to continuous process improvement to solve customer problems, increase cost effectiveness, and ensure driver safety. Appian supports Ryder with the technology they need to deliver. Beginning with solutions ...
 Show More
FirstBank deployed Appian for intelligent case management to rapidly identify and resolve potential money laundering schemes. FirstBank ensures safety, achieves 100% compliance, and saves more than 1,000 work hours each year with the AML solution.
Alabama Power wanted to modernize their in-house energy improvement financing program. With Appian, they created the Smart Financing application, which automates and streamlines the entire financing process. Alabama Power has increased ally financing in some cases by 1200%.
In this video, Target IT and business leaders talk about their remarkable achievement and how they worked with Appian to transform customer journeys, streamline operations, and galvanize Target’s efforts to overcome the disruption that is so pervasive in the financial services industry.
Chris Lee of Merck and Evjatar Cohen of Appian delve into Merck's digital transformation with Appian. They discuss Merck's journey from siloed data and disjointed systems, to Appian's end-to-end solution providing workers with a simplified interface, unified data, and the comp...
 Show More
At Appian, we believe companies need a simpler, faster way to create powerful software. That’s why we pioneered the low-code market. Learn more about low-code in Appian CEO Matt Calkins' own words.
Hear from some of the world’s leading enterprises trust Appian to unify humans, bots, and AI across their organization with speed and simplicity.

Appian Competitors

Appian Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Mobile Web

Frequently Asked Questions

Appian is a low-code development and business process management platform. It features drag-and-drop design for app building, automated work processes, unified data management, and cloud-based deployment.

OutSystems and Pega Platform are common alternatives for Appian.

Reviewers rate Reusability and Platform Scalability highest, with a score of 9.4.

The most common users of Appian are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(268)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Appian has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for a wide range of use cases across various industries. Users and customers have reported success in automating business processes, improving productivity, and streamlining operations. Organizations have utilized Appian to replace manual paper-based systems, enabling online applications, document uploads, and simultaneous stakeholder reviews. This has greatly enhanced collaboration and cross-referencing of applications between different organizations.

In the healthcare sector, Appian has been instrumental in automating patient registration, diagnosis, and treatment workflows, eliminating paper-based processes and connecting patients with doctors and departments in a faster and more streamlined way. The platform has also been widely used for low code development and migrating older applications to the Appian code base. Additionally, Appian's capabilities in digital transformation and data analysis have allowed departments to study their own data and generate insightful reports.

Users have found Appian to be particularly beneficial for managing processes in areas such as trade reporting, client mailing process automation, onboarding new hires, workforce planning, case management, consumer marketing lists generation, CRM management, retail store remodeling, and even setting up cafes. They appreciate its ability to simplify complex tasks, automate mundane processes, and integrate with various systems. Furthermore, reviewers have commended Appian for its performance and scalability in handling large volumes of data and processes.

Overall, Appian's flexibility, customization options, user-friendly interface, collaboration features, advanced analytics capabilities, seamless integration with other systems, and overall capability for rapid development and deployment have made it a reliable choice for organizations looking to streamline operations and improve efficiency.

Intuitive User Interface: Users have consistently praised Appian for its visually uncluttered and intuitive user interface, with many stating that it allows for quick adoption by both internal and external users. The simplicity and user-friendly nature of the interface make it easy for business users with minimal training to navigate and perform tasks efficiently.

Low-Code Development Platform: Many reviewers appreciate the ease of use provided by Appian's low-code development platform. They find it beneficial that they can develop user interfaces without extensive coding knowledge, allowing for rapid application development and reduced reliance on traditional programming languages. This feature has made the development process more accessible and efficient.

Flexible Access Control: A significant number of users praise Appian for its flexibility in providing different levels of access to users based on their roles. This capability contributes to better data security and control within organizations, enhancing overall data management. Additionally, the ability to tailor processes for specific business needs and configure processes for new business users is seen as a major advantage, contributing to the software's adaptability.

Inflexible and Expensive License Model: Some users have found the license model of Appian to be inflexible and expensive, making it challenging for them to include end customer processes due to limitations in named user licenses or big bang packages.

Limited Exporting and Data Analysis Capabilities: Reviewers have mentioned limitations on exporting data to Excel, causing inconvenience for users who need to analyze large amounts of data. They have also encountered issues with the date-time stamp of exported data, leading to problems in data analysis.

Steep Learning Curve and Technical Limitations: Users have highlighted a learning curve associated with the different paradigms in Appian and experienced technical limitations when using certain browsers, particularly with date controls. Workarounds were needed to overcome these limitations.

The most common recommendations from users are:

  1. Try Appian for quick application development with less resources. Users have found Appian to be a reliable platform for rapidly building applications without requiring excessive time or resources.

  2. Create evaluation criteria and apply a defined score to each platform for an informed decision. Users suggest defining specific criteria to evaluate different platforms and assigning scores to objectively compare them. This approach helps in making an informed decision when selecting the most suitable platform.

  3. Develop a small Proof of Concept (POC) to determine the requirements before deploying Appian. Users recommend starting with a small POC to understand the specific requirements and capabilities of Appian within the organization. This allows for a better understanding of how Appian can meet the organization's needs and ensures a successful deployment.

By following these recommendations, organizations can leverage the benefits of Appian and efficiently develop applications while making informed decisions about their technology choices.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-22 of 22)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is one of our primary tool[s] for Business Process automation. The tool is used in conjunction with robotic process automation. There were a lot of manual workflows used by business teams and we were looking for a tool [that] can streamline the process. Appian is an easy use, low-code bpm tool which helped our firm to automate the workflows for business.
  • Easy to Develop (Low Code)
  • Intelligent Case Management
  • Integration using API's to a variety of technology tools
  • Graphs and Charts. I think it will be good to get some features of PowerBi
  • Additional DB options (Currently using MariaDB)
  • Better interface for Database explorer and query window
Appian is well suited for the areas which involve a workflow. For Example: Consider there is a task and 3 teams are required to work on the task, with Appian we can create tasks for each team and monitor the comments and completion. Together with the integration capabilities, this tool can function in many areas. In our firm, we are using it to automate the workflows for our business teams and help them in capturing the OLA's and SLA's.
Sneha Gangan Manore | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by departments with a variety of databases like Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, and IBM DB2. Operations of day-to-day tasks, from loan applications to processing, were entirely done using Appian. Also, the tedious task of configurations in various departments was worked upon using this tool smoothly and safely.
  • Drag-and-drop UX
  • Apps developed by exporting objects in XML and ZIP format
  • Low-code development platform
  • Test for completeness is possible
  • Appian framework reuse for ADA
  • Layman language
  • Some more utility should be available for performance testing
  • Multiple ZIP file creation with one import matching trick
  • Recommendation engines should be modified
Especially when Accessibility was introduced, the same reusable components were used, which reduced the time and efforts of employees. It was also well suited for repetitive tasks for litmus tests and value generation calculations. I have tried Pega also, but Appian has mastered the task, making it easier to perform.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Appian for our Client Acceptance form. Based on questions answered different questions will be shown to the user. After completion, the form is reviewed, and depending on the office, industry and other fields it will assign specific reviewers to the engagement. After it is fully completed it is then transferred into a printable file.
  • Process Models - they error in the background and the user does not know and support can fix it at a later time without the user having an issue.
  • Support - I have had a good experience with Appian support responding in a timely manner.
  • It's a Platform as a Service so the database, code, and application are all available through the same portal.
  • It would be good to be able to capture data as an expression from the process modeler rather than the 'Raw' format with square brackets.
  • Version Control that supports branching.
  • Ability to see the state of child interfaces in the designer.
I support Appian so when a process model errors. I like that users do not get an error in the UI and only the devs can see the error and fix it and afterward, the process model will complete them without issue. Debugging can be hard compared to other coding languages.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Appian across various parts of the organization. The problems that Appian addresses are the need for fast prototyping, low-code, and easy project iteration. We use Appian to create applications internally and to manage and onboard client accounts for the business. Appian is very useful for showing project progress to stakeholders.
  • Fast prototyping
  • Low-code
  • Easy UI design
  • Clear project element organization
  • More visual representation with variable relationships
  • More UI options for color style
  • More accurate error handling
If I were to recommend Appian to a colleague, I would recommend it for client account creation and management. It is very easy to manage user and email distributions. Also, it is very easy to manage permission and create an approval workflow. There are many manual workflows out there and Appian can help automate those workflows.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is being used across the IT organization in the company because of the low-code capabilities and works well in the modern agile environment with new RPA features and many more. And it addresses several aspects of the organization such as
  • Migration from legacy systems
  • Eliminating legacy approaches
  • Automating business processes
  • Customer onboarding reports
  • Drag-and-drop interface for workflow development greatly speeds our apps' time to market.
  • Using the advanced features of Appian, we are able to create working sites in a fraction of the time it would take to do so using traditional development.
  • Quick to the market, a real emergency problem solver (e.g., COVID time related apps).
  • Build once, deploy anywhere makes it easy to put an application in users' hands, regardless of form factor (desktop, mobile, etc.).
  • I would like to see more flexibility in Appian's UI components.
  • Appian's RPA capabilities are still growing. I would like to see more user-friendly management/creation of RPA processes.
  • Debugging can be difficult, as error messages are not always detailed enough.
Excellent for data integration, quick time to market solutions, bringing technology and people together. Appian is beneficial in organizations that need to address workflow problems (like CRM, change management, user and role management, customer onboarding, etc.). It can be configured to automatically assign tasks to groups of users and direct work based on pre-configured logic, speeding up hand-off points in the process. Appian currently isn't best suited to cases where you need a public portal where users aren't logged into an account.
August 03, 2021

A developer's opinion.

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is currently being used to develop any new software services applications within my department. Currently, Appian development is happening in a few different departments, but as of now, not many. The applications developed using Appian address the need for updated forms collections. The previous methods are tedious and require a lot of uploads/downloads for the tasking to be completed. Using Appian has made it easier on the user when completing forms and seeing tasks through to the end. This includes the processes where more than one type of user is required to complete one step of the process and push it to the next step. There are some issues that I've encountered, but I believe that these issues come from our specific business rules and how we are using Appian. Furthermore, after having several meetings with Appian representatives, a lot of our requests for features are already in the process of being created and it's just a matter to time before they are available.
  • It's easy to get started with little development experience.
  • Changes are immediately visible.
  • The Appian Community website usually has quick responses to questions.
  • Better configuration management.
  • Better control over change management.
  • Error messages contain more specific errors.
I believe it is well suited for the financial world, maybe even medical. I'm not completely convinced it is best for military yet. I would need more time in the coming years before giving that answer. I would also think that small businesses would benefit from using Appian, I'm just not sure they could afford the cost for something as simple as a basic website.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is being used to replace older technologies in development of the support tools for the analysts in Fitch. Currently, it is more of a pilot program on a department level. So far, it looks successful and has prospects to be used across the whole organization. Appian addresses problems which we had with other technologies which were not flexible enough to allow for implementation of the applications to meet their needs.
  • Appian speeds up the development.
  • Easier to build user interfaces.
  • When application using Appian fails - Appian throws pretty detailed errors helping debugging.
  • Search issues when type ahead and database search are used in the same field.
  • Buttons implementation where user is require[d] to click on the button description - if clicks on the button outside that text - button will not work.
  • Problems with using certain off-the-shelf performance tools like WebLoad or Neoload. That is because of different dynamic variables being used internally in Appian - which these tools are unable to correlate. We are still investigating using other tools like JMeter to overcome dynamic correlation problem for performance testing.
Appian is well suited to quickly develop a proof of concept (POC) to demonstrate to the business how the desired feature will work - before committing to a full development. In our organization, Appian proved itself to be well suited to replace applications build previously on Jira.

On the other hand, there are some limitations which require creating Java or Java script functions. At this point, we did not try to convert the larger projects currently developed in Java into Appian - this is where we foresee the Appian limitations.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian was selected as the platform to help implement a global workflow management process for contract, premium, and claim management in our organization. The implemented solution allows our organization to standardize our processes, consolidate the information and provide a dashboard for our executives. Aside from this, it has considerably reduced our time to market and improved the quality of the solutions we deliver to the users in our organization.

The solution(s) implemented in Appian are deployed worldwide across all Aon Reinsurance offices.
  • Low code platform.
  • High availability and scalability.
  • Streamline integrations with external APIs.
  • Monitoring and error logging.
  • Integration with third party source control tools.
  • Better CI/CD capabilities.
  • Debug capabilities.
  • OCR capabilities.
Well suited for work management processes. Not very well suited for solutions that rely on heavy (mathematical) calculations.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is currently used with more than 10 apps in different business areas. Credit onboarding, KYC, Customer Service, Compliance, Internal forms, Taxes, etc. So it is used by a wide variety of users and in very different numbers of users per app, from 5 to 800.
  • Easily integrate data over silos
  • Brings together business and IT people alongside a clearcut model and languange
  • Quick to the market, a real emergency problem solver
  • Strong stability combined with excellent architecture
  • Provides excellent customer services and insight
  • License model is rigid and expensive
  • Hard to include end customer processes due to named user licenses or big bang packages
Excellent for data integration, quick time to market solutions, bringing technology and people together. It creates huge ROIs not only business-wise (depends on the chosen use case and method) but also infrastructure-wise in managing and operating the solution.

Needs and pushes an agile approach. Needs internal people development in order to own the technology challenges.
Creates huge discussion with traditional developers, in fear of losing territory. Needs handling. Due to the rigid named-user-driven license model it is not so easy to involve end-customers in unknown quantities into your processes.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is a key component of our initiative to automate business processes and improve the quality of manual work through tailored LOB applications. It enables rapid delivery and iteration on these internal applications. We are also taking advantage of its strengths in the case management area.
  • Making process models the core of the solutions you build, with AI, Bot and human interactions through low-code UX.
  • Highly skilled professional services team.
  • Low code data integration that provides a platform for unifying data across back-end systems.
  • Ideal for building tailored case management solutions.
  • No built-in support for integrating with messaging or event streaming systems.
  • Limited ability to customize UX beyond the out of the box components.
  • No true cloud auto-scaling (yet); relies on reserved VM instances.
  • Great for internal applications where complete control of the UX is not needed and the rapid development cycle of low-code can really shine.
  • Great for building tailored case management solutions where the underlying escalation process can be customized via the BPM editor.
  • Not appropriate for external/customer facing web portals that are public and/or where per-user licensing is a concern.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is used [within] the company. My [department] is in charge of developing tools for the rest of the departments. Appian is helping us a lot for the digital transformation. Also It helps us studying the [data] and making our own reports so we take advantage of our data. Appian is [becoming] more and more important and [satisfices] our needs.
  • Avoid human errors
  • Centralize information
  • [Accessible] everywhere, via pc or mobile device.
  • Need individual [Appian] license
[Appian suits] well as a repository of information, [interaction] between [departments], [and] low-code developing. It is perfect if you are using an excel file for your daily tasks, Appian will do this for you. It might be less suitable for very complex applications that [requires] complex calculations.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appia is being used to automate processes within the company. We understand processes as the way EDPR employees do their own job. For example, if we have two departments that request information by e-mail and they are storing them in Excel files, then we implement an Appian tool to manage the requests and store the information. Also to generate automatic notifications or to support approval flows.
  • Easy way to develop.
  • Good to manage data and generate reports.
  • No high programming skills needed.
  • Not enough report capabilities.
  • Not easy to generate beautiful tools.
  • Sometimes rigid.
To support approval workflows is perfect because you can program automatic e-mails, the approvers can do their approvals really easily, and also it allows you to find the bottle knecks. To allow employees to interact between them, and have all the information generated in a process in the same place centralized.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Quickly implementing an approval process for form submission. Email mailbox integration with a Microsoft Graph API. Appian was offering a pre-built solution that we could easily customize to meet our specific purposes.
  • Easy to get non-technical people up to speed.
  • Compare and deploy means that deployments are simplified and avoid error.
  • Integration is generally easy.
  • Debugging can be difficult as error messages are not always detailed enough.
  • Support is hard to get for individual freelancers and small company business partners.
  • The flexibility between desktop and mobile development can sometimes limit specific development toward one platform.
Well suited:
  • Simple workflows with approval processes e.g. with e-mail notifications, etc.
  • Simple page-able and searchable lists to display data.
  • Simple data entry screens.
  • Quick implementations.
  • Proof of concepts, potentially a very powerful tool.

Not so suited:
  • Complex workflows with complex business validation rules.
  • Complex integrations or UIs.
Alex Peker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The custom application developed in Appian is used by the production group of our organization. It is used to maintain and run the processes that allow users to generate marketing lists based on a comprehensive set of multi-stage selection criteria and apply statistical models out of predefined consumer audience dataset. It involves building a complex UI and communication with various outside systems through the use of web services.
  • Ease of building modern uniformed and dynamic UI.
  • Web services support.
  • In-place testing.
  • Ability to extend application with usage of custom plug-ins.
  • Unstable and sometimes forgiving and/or implied behavior for various complex language constructs, especially involving collections processing.
  • Inability to customize UI only for a specific platform (e.g. Desktop) given priority to the notion of the universal platform support (desktop, tablet, mobile).
  • Run-time error descriptions are not really helpful in many circumstances.
  • The low-code environment is not low-code at all if you need to build UI of relatively medium complexity.
If you need to build simple workflow like approval process, for example, with e-mail notifications, rejections, etc., then Appian is great. Or, simple page-able and searchable lists to display data to the user, then it's great. If you need simple data entry screens, even supporting header/detail capabilities, then it's great as well. However, do not expect to have a no-code or even low-code development environment if you need to implement even not so complex validation business rules. The ability to communicate with outside systems is very well supported through the usage of web services and other integration tools. Complex UIs and complex screen navigation maps are not supported very well.
March 18, 2019

TrustAppian

Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We customize Appian to support various business processes in the organization. There are multiple business units that currently use it.
  • It's easy to configure/customize.
  • It provides a consistent workflow across multiple pages/functions.
  • It's designer interface allows for quick troubleshooting.
  • There are places that come out-of-the-box that we can't customize, especially the user profile which sometimes, depending on the country/region privacy requirements, we need to be able to modify.
  • There are places where brute force or hard coding is necessary
Well suited: Process workflows, requesting for approvals, submitting requests.
Not appropriate: Huge, complex business processes that would involve multiple users across a single transaction.
March 08, 2019

Appian Review

Raul E. Menendez, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is being used as a supplement to programs like Excel and Access to incorporate data for customers and business partners. Appian is currently helping in organizing data, and we are currently working on integrating Appian into replacing legacy systems, and allowing non-tech users to readily access data.
  • Organization of data into an easily, readable format.
  • Providing different levels of access, depending on the role of the user.
  • Being able to develop UIs without having to use code.
  • I am a new user to Appian, and am not too familiar with the product just yet to find a weakness.
Depending on the data, Appian is well suited for database-type functions. I am currently researching Appian’s functionalities so that it can be implemented in other areas as well.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is being used by different applications within the organization for managing different roles in CRM.
  • Manages database objects as CDTs which help in maintaining relational database
  • Provides user-friendly interface for mapping
  • Better explanation of various error emails which are received
I think it's good for CRM applications to manage data.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is mainly used by the Administration Department although there are plans to rollout to other departments. Processes have become heavy over the years with lots of re-keying and double checking. Combined with lean processing, Appian has enabled many steps to be removed from processes and increased the automation of the processes resulting in faster turn around speeds, less errors and headcount reduction.
  • Appian allows us to link systems together with data being automatically obtained from different areas of different databases. This has removed the requirement for the user to go to a screen and manually input data which then needs to be re-checked by a Supervisor.
  • Appian enables us to react quickly to an ever changing regulatory environment.
  • The re-useable components within Appian enable us to build and deploy new, straightforward, processes quickly.
  • We haven't found the on-premise upgrade process straightforward. The versions seem to change fairly significantly and the installation guide isn't a good as it could be.
  • Appian doesn't seem as resilient as other applications. For example, a VMware server recently had a failure and automatically failed over to a secondary. Every application running on the server recovered without intervention, but Appian didn't and was unavailable for around 2 hours whilst we worked with Appian support to diagnose and fix the issue.
  • Lacking flexibility around proxy servers but this seems to have been resolved in version 17.3

We have found that operational users can 'programme' Appian for basic functionality using drag and drop but we have had to deploy a number of developers to work with the operational team for the vast majority of our process engineering re-development.

Appian has proved extremely valuable for the vast majority of the operational processes which we run removing checklists, layers of complexity and removing some manual entry.

We have linked Appian to our online systems which enables seamless straight through processing with Appian tasks automatically raised where manual intervention or review is required.

Leonid Spektor | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[It's being used for] Large scale responsive web design for Ministry of Health sites.
  • Responsive
  • Instant results
  • Interpretive
  • Lack of version control and being different for all modules.
  • Expression Language is a Lisp dialect - that forces functional programming. JavaScript or VB would be easier.
  • Several users working on the same module might create problems. No individual work space.
  • API is not well documented with comprehensive examples.
  • Functions do not work well with large numbers when they should.
  • Training exercises are full of mistakes - that turns training into the worst experience. Training MUST be improved to provide quality good examples, and not guesses what should be there but was missed. How can one learn - if training examples are a trash, while the exams ask questions on topics not covered????
  • Too much documentation. Must be much, much more concise. Who can read and memorize so many pages of Appian "Britannica"???
  • Some errors are captured during editing, while others are not, or show up in a different window????
  • GUI widgets lack numerous hooks to make design more creative. Need access to all widget features. Otherwise developers are limited to "limited" widget behavior.
  • Response in a cloud could be too slow, following data entry. For example, one enters a name and validation takes up to a dozen of seconds.
  • Development environment is not coherent between different objects, some can only be edited using old GUI. A lot remains to be done to make development environment simple , intuitive and coherent.
Suited well for large scale responsive web design. Its widgets are sufficient but limited when it comes to GUI creativity. So - it is not suited for games design or intensive scientific computing, since its functions fail handling large decimal numbers.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Appian is starting to be used here. Its use has not yet been decided at the corporate level, the projects that are starting are departmental. Countries have autonomy to decide on the BPM they use, so we do not have complete control over its use of Appian or other BPM, although we participate in the selection and recommendation of Appian.
The type of use is the traditional BPM and also case management.
  • Case Management. We like how Appian manages the data through Records. In our view of what a Case Management system should have, Appian is the most complete product we know, only the lack of a State Engine prevents us from giving it the highest score.
  • Appian has all functionality included in only one product without additional installations. This include collaboration tools, reports, document management, integration connectors, etc.
  • Document Management, Collaboration tools and integration capabilities, always are welcome to simplify the projects. Appian include all of this without additional cost.
  • A state engine that can help manage the life cycle of the Cases, which can be changed from the process flows and from the outside.
  • We have had some problems with the searches in the document manager, that is something that they have to improve.
  • We do not like the management of WSDL documents, which have to be available on a Web server instead of a folder on the server, for example, and to change the endpoints have to edit the WSDL document.
Appian is a very complete product so it fits into any traditional BPM project and case management. Only the problem of its high cost prevents to implement it more in our corporation.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Appian was used to build a interdepartmental contracts management process that provided both structured and ad hoc reviews and approvals for multiple topics and subtopics using Tempo. Contract metadata and business rules drive contract template and ancillary document selection, reviewer and approver selection, along with risk management and security decisions. Archiving the discussions associated with the contract replaced an emailed document exchange that represented a risk.
  • Tempo was the key to providing flexibility and visibility to a varied and complex review and approval process while at the same time enforcing fundamental rules.
  • The configurability of Appian allowed us to rapidly prototype application processes and re-adjust and re-assemble as required in sprints. I estimate there was less than 8 hours of actual coding involved in building it out.
  • Business rules formulas, and constants can be very powerful in producing all the requirements of a process. If you can competently write an Excel macro you can learn Appian configuration.
  • Training. While configuration is accessible, being really effective requires either a lot of hands on trial and error and/or the supervision and guidance of an experienced user. Appian training is a forced march overview and not at all effective in getting a user up to speed.
  • Documentation. The online documentation, in the end, seems to be get lucky in finding what you are looking for or asking for help and waiting for an answer that may or may not be responsive. What may work well for their professional service people becomes problematic if you don't have a good understanding of the product in the first place.
  • Sales. it's an impressive product and that makes it easy for anxious salespeople to oversell capabilities to executives who may not be in a position to be critical about promises and implications. This can lead to unfulfilled expectations that limit additional applications.
It can be especially effective where the business side is prepared and committed to assuming responsibility for the development of the application. Truely "owning" the process by understanding and documenting it and its business rules lends itself to rapid configuration and re-configuration, often by business-side analysts. Collecting traditional "requirements", shipping the document to developers, and waiting for a UAT is not the way to use this product.
If the process is strictly a pipeline with little human touch and expected to remain essentially intact for a long period, there are probably other traditional products that would be more effective,
Galen Chock | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Appian was brought into the company to help solve the basic problem of rapidly creating business processes and workflows to automate or facilitate manual processes. The intent was to take 5 initial processes and to map them out using Appian and then to create workflows and end to end processes. Two of the processes that were begun was a "CAR Corrective Action Response" workflow that would replace a semi-manual process. It was to be used internationally by all departments. The second process was to create a way to request more workflow processes to be created. It was to be the one stop shopping site for when a user had a business process they wanted to automate and it would take them through the proposal, approval, design, development and implementation process.
  • I took the Appian training in Reston, VA and was impressed by the flexibility of the product. I am a software developer and found their JavaScript tools to be helpful and useful to customize and manipulate the various forms. It helped me leverage the out of the box product and add what I wanted to add without having to wait for them to develop a node that I needed to use.
  • There is a user community from which you can get help on almost any question or problem you may encounter. This helps when you have something you want to do and don't have the expertise yet to accomplish it. There are many who have come before you that probably know at least one if not 5 different ways to accomplish what you want to do.
  • The documentation of a workflow process uses standard BPMN language. It makes this more universal to have a process be created using third party tools and have it represent the workflow correctly in Appian.
  • I mainly had to get used to the different paradigms that the software has. They are constantly making changes to improve the software so I didn't encounter things that were so hard to work with that I couldn't figure out a work around.
  • At the time I was using the tool, I encountered some technical limitations when using certain browsers. Some browsers don't support the date controls so I had to do some work arounds. The revision control isn't too bad but it does create a lot of revisions that you may have to sort through in order to find what you were looking for if you wanted to revert to a previous revision.
  • We used a Cloud implementation rather than hosting it locally. There are limitations when you do that in that it is harder to access local databases but I was able to eventually get access to local data but I had to do some custom programming outside of Appian to get that to happen.
Since I do custom programming I tend to like to write programs to fill in the gaps for systems that are purchased or developed by other companies. Overall Appian does best with regards to workflows that have definitive starting and ending points or are repetitive processes that need to run when triggered by something else. When I was in training at Appian headquarters I noticed that the company uses their own product for their internal processes and even the employees use it to solve their own business problems. Overall it can be made to do many things. I still tend to write my own software when it comes to relational database tools and processes that I may need to be more asynchronous to any other processes but those can be done in Appian as well.
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