Nintex Automation On-Prem

Formerly K2 Software

A great platform for those having problems with optimization of processes, workflow, automation and deadlines. K2 boosted our productivity and allowed us to save some precious time on processes that took too much [time].

K2 is good for both the elimination of the emailed excel file approvals and the one-off access DB approval systems. This is also very good at removing the need for many share point approval systems. K2 could work on a better upgrade and implementation from older systems, older K2 and Info Path in particular.

K2 does what K2 does. It is great at forms and workflow automation. The ability to customize on the go is a strong point as well. When we build a form or process, we can make changes on the fly in the event that a launch is less than expected. We can tweak as needed. Very scalable. For some of our business customers that need things fast, K2 is perfect for that. Creating custom applications from scratch will still take probably twice as long.

Not well suited for: - automation of knowledge work (Adaptive/Dynamic Case Management); - use cases requiring application of very advanced business rules. There is a third party business rules engine that works well with K2 though; - Java engineers- wanna-be-BPM consultants - K2 is best suited for Business Technologists aka Citizen Developers; - outsourcing based delivery model - you need to train your onshore people; - teams and companies that don't want to learn on their own. if you want to outsource your DPA program to a foreign based IT services provider, pick a different vendor; Well suited for: - 60-70% of all digital process automation uses cases you will find in your organization; - department and enterprise-grade process automation applications; - Citizen Developer adoption; - integration intensive use cases; - software teams not afraid to extend K2 with their own code through well-documented APIs;

K2 is well suited for building applications around process improvement where the workflow engine can come into play. The workflow engine can quickly build many process automation tasks without writing much code at all. Managing workflows in the production environment are also very nice as where the workflows are at in the process are tracked and are easily re-started. Integration with SharePoint is also valuable if an organization has a deep use of SharePoint. This allowed us to quickly leverage existing SharePoint lists and sites already developed without starting completely over.

K2 blackpearl is appropriate if the user is familiar with building Visio diagrams, or versed in Visual Studio with multiple processes needing to be done at once.

They were always super helpful when I was learning how to use the program, and assisted me frequently when I came across unknown errors in the workspace.

It is well suited when being used outside of SharePoint by custom applications or when all you are looking for is Forms and workflows. As a SharePoint embedded workflow engine it has a long way to go to compete with the likes of Nintex

Just like any product, you need to make sure the product is solving the business use case and is the appropriate solution to the problem. K2 Blackpearl is for manual-centric workflows where work items are assigned to individuals (not queues) and immediate response on a work item assignment should not be guaranteed. It is not a form-based workflow or a synchronous work process - it needs to be used to manage the work of individuals on a per-work item basis when inventory, visibility, traceability/auditing, and system interoperability is required. For Smart Forms, like any forms modeling tools, the Data Capture and Presentation needs to be a concise, simple, and relatively basic validation. Like any Forms Automation tools or Forms Modeling tools, when you need to start verifying your claim number to a source of truth, your invoice to an invoicing system, and the complexity increases, you need to be smart with the product chosen and think through vision/strategy on how long the life span of your application is vs. the amount of build time to build.

K2 blackpearl is a very robust workflow tool. It should only be deployed in organizations that have the developers and engineers that can support it but I think that is true of many workflow tools in general. It does not reside directly on SharePoint servers as some competing products do so it is not as completely integrated into the SharePoint stack. This has pluses and minuses. Because the K2 server and database are separate this can give you some flexibility and it does not demand resources from SharePoint front ends. However, it also means that it is not as tightly integrated.

K2 is best suited for business process that involve

• Human participants (User tasks with rules around task assignment, escalations)
• Integration with multiple systems such as AD, SharePoint, Exchange, CRM, any custom in house application with supported database layer
• Ability to manage versions, robust error handling
• Reporting and audit for workflow processes

With other process automation such as BizTalk, it is important to distinguish that K2 is not well suitable for system workflows that involve data transformation, manipulation and exchange between systems.

K2 excels at business process automation compared to other common products because it can integrate with multiple systems and can truly be enterprise grade workflow platform leveraging common skill set of .NET, Web services, SSRS etc.

It is well suited for small departmental workflow. However, I'm not sure how it will work at the enterprise level where volume is very huge.

Key questions that we asked were the hows and how well:

• User friendly
• Reporting capability
• Auditing capability
• Workflow and business process management
• Line of Business Data integration

There need to be IT resources that can bridge the gap between understanding how the K2 blackpearl platform works and how end users need to interact with it. There are significant up-front deployment and development steps required to apply K2 black pearl's significant power.

And there needs to be a reasonable level of maturity in the business processes that K2 blackpearl will be deployed to support. This maturity implies that processes are stable, well-documented, and that there are established roles in the process that are understood and supported by the process participants.

If the above criteria are met, K2 blackpearl has the power and flexibility to bring some real discipline to key business process, and the tools to monitor, measure, and improve those processes.

How much is the organization dependent on email notifications and process handover delays? It's very useful when there is a need to perform tasks based on dashboards.

K2 blackpearl can be indispensable if you are managing a large, complex, or multi level workflow and approval process.

The key questions are following.
1) Budget
2) In house expertise (K2 BlackPearl resources are rare commodity)
3) Does it need to integrate with other Microsoft Products?
4) What will be duration of the workflows ( 1 month, 1-2 years)?
5) How many workflows requests/second are you anticipating?

Selecting K2 Blackpearl and its supporting tools should be done carefully. Key factors include:

• The amount of users and processes to be supported (costs can vary by user and process count)
• The features needed (K2 is feature-rich, if complex)
• How many systems will be integrated (generally the more the better for K2)
• Initial time to go-live (K2 requires time for installation, configuration, and training)
• Cost (K2 is probably not the cheapest solution, so establishing needs outside of cost is key)

K2 blackpearl is probably the best workflow engine available for the .NET platform right now. If you do not want to custom build your workflow logic I would suggest K2 blackpearl.