What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for workflows. For example, we are dealing with a telecommunication company. We have a client who is interested in an installation site, the MPLS or the internet connection. Usually, there's a process where we have a project manager who will manage that project. He will assign an engineer. The engineer will go to the site to set up the installation. After that, he'll come to those who are responsible for assigning IPs, and he will assign IPs. After that, we do the project closure. Basically, the product is for the various flows just for the custom installations. Usually, a number of activities or a number of workflows are involved.
What is most valuable?
The workflow feature works very well. We also get very good notifications. At each and every stage, at least there are notifications on where the installation process is.
The integrations are very good. The BPM is still using the ESB to integrate other systems.
The scheduling and the calendar are very useful. For example, you can say to the system, for example, that today is Sunday so don't count SLAs and all that.
In the onboarding, they integrate into our internal active directory.
We don't have any problems with the BPM. It works.
What needs improvement?
Maybe they can also consider going to the cloud as most of our applications are dealing with the cloud. I know they have a cloud version, however, we've not tested it. Internally, we don't have the technical capabilities to do anything.
Ideally, if it can be just simplified so that even our developers can work on some of the workflow scenarios, that would be ideal. Currently, if we have anything that we need even to add, even a workflow, we have to go back to TIBCO. If they can just give us the software, then maybe with a little bit of training, we would be able to work workflows. As it is right now, we have to rely on TIBCO or the service integrators. They really need to reduce the complexity of BPM.
The initial setup is complex.
Technical support needs to be streamlined.
The cost of the product is far too high.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution since 20218. It's been a few years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is an issue on BPM. For example, I can send a workflow from myself to someone else. On my side, I can see that I've sent the workflow to the person. On their queue, however, you don't see it. There are those kinds of issues that we seem to get. That's why I would say that it's not stable. There are a number of issues. One day, users are complaining they can't log in as well. Stability I would rate it at a six out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
In terms of support, sometimes we get the engineers that are assigned. They don't understand the internal workings of BPM. The other issue is that sometimes they are so specific. For example, one engineer is only specific to a certain component. If there's another component where they suspect the problem is, then they have to refer you to another engineer. It would be more efficient and much better if the engineers could just have at least a holistic view of the internal workings of BPM.
Right now, with every scenario, you raise a ticket maybe to BPM, they will assign you an engineer and that engineer will assign you an infrastructure engineer, and then the infrastructure engineer might take you back to application engineer. Then that engineer will pass you off to the support engineer who will say it's not a support issue. It's just a lot of getting passed around.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is complex. We were just upgrading from one version to another and it took us almost two days just to do the upgrade. If just upgrading components takes two days, then to me it's a bit complex. Some of these upgrades should take one or two hours.
Now, we are doing them overnight or maybe over two nights just for the upgrades. I don't know the inside workings of BPM, however, it looks or sounds complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is crazy-expensive.
What other advice do I have?
It's hard to rate, as I don't have something similar to compare it to, however, based on my experience, I would rate it at a seven out of ten.
I won't recommend any TBCO products based on their prices alone. Their prices are just crazy. Right now, I'm just reviewing some of the open-source software. There's one called jBPM that's an open-source BPM, that also has an enterprise version. To me, the only thing that I don't like about TIBCO products is their ridiculous pricing.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.