We use Bonita for business processes development.
Executive Director at Pilares Consultores
Helpful features, effective processes management, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "Bonita is user-friendly."
- "Installation could be made easier."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
Bonita is user-friendly.
The features are useful.
What needs improvement?
Installation could be made easier.
I would like to see more automated processes.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Bonita for two years, and last used it six months ago.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Bonita is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I believe that it is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I have not contacted technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also use Visio and Bizagi.
Depending on my customers, I use a variety of programs for business projects. Some enterprise businesses use Bonita, while others use Visio and Excel.
Our clients use Bonita, Visio, and other programs. I need to use all of them because I'm creating a consultant system.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was not simple, but it was difficult.
What other advice do I have?
My company is a reseller and distributor of other software, both Canadian and American, but I would like to resell Bonita as well.
I would rate Bonita an eight out of ten.
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.
Senior Director Practice & Delivery at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Good integrations, helpful for quickly building workflows, and has a Community edition
Pros and Cons
- "Flexible and drag-and-drop type of UI is very valuable. The integrations are also very good. You can build workflows very quickly, which is my favorite activity. By using the GUI, you can build the entire mechanism, notifications, and all this kind of stuff."
- "I should be able to park the tasks that are within a process in a kind of container, and dynamically, a super admin should be able to connect these processes. This kind of feature might be helpful."
What is our primary use case?
We are an implementation partner, and we implement Bonita. Most of our implementations are on-premises.
It is used for process and workflow automation. When there is heavy customization in the process Bonita is the best compare to other products in the market. We have implemented 30+ processes for various customers (Pharma, Manufacturing, Financial). The tool is very easy to use and built on open-source technology. Easy to integrate with external systems.
What is most valuable?
Flexible and drag-and-drop type of UI is very valuable. The integrations are also very good. You can build workflows very quickly, which is my favorite activity. By using the GUI, you can build the entire mechanism, notifications, and all this kind of stuff.
What needs improvement?
I should be able to park the tasks that are within a process in a kind of container, and dynamically, a super admin should be able to connect these processes. This kind of feature might be helpful.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this solution for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. It is robust enough to scale to additional properties. You can also have a clustering mechanism. It is robust enough for a workflow solution.
We have four active customers, and we have done implementation for close to eight customers.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are their premium partners. They are very helpful and nice. They provide very good technical support.
How was the initial setup?
It is a very straightforward process. It is a hassle-free installation. It took less than four or five hours.
What about the implementation team?
We have a team of close to 20 members. For simple implementations, we have two to three members.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing cost for the Enterprise edition comes out to be around 40,000 a year. There is also a Community edition, which is free. Some customers can go for the Community edition, but some of them require the Enterprise edition. Big companies go for the Enterprise edition, which comes with a lot of additional features such as a mobile app.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. Small and medium businesses can use this product.
I would rate Bonita a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
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Partner with 51-200 employees
Previously, we developed custom business systems. We switched to Bonita because it cut down development time and is easier to demo to prospective clients.
What is most valuable?
With our own processes, we have found the extensible connector system to be very useful (our processes can connect with legacy and 3rd party systems in a simple, well defined way).
When we interact with clients, the BPM workflows from Bonita BPM make defining processes and clarifying system flow much easier. We used to draw system diagrams on whiteboards; now, we create simple models as functional demos.
How has it helped my organization?
Our lead generation system involves both automated and human tasks. By centralizing the workflow to our internal Bonita BPM system, we have improved the conversion rate (leads to customers) and lowered the number of leads dropped. Things do not slip through the cracks any longer.
What needs improvement?
A number of the problem areas that we have run into in the past have been addressed in the newest version (7.0 beta). Things like custom app integration and human task forms have been greatly simplified.
That said, creating custom connectors for 3rd party applications and APIs is still a challenging task. Debugging, in particular, is difficult. I feel that when the development process for custom connectors becomes simpler, there will be many more available connectors.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using this software internally and for our clients since 2011
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
We have always deployed servers using Apache Tomcat. Our team is most familiar with this Java Application Server. Since our applications have always run as stand alone systems, this makes sense - if they required a full JEE stack, we would look at JBoss (with it's increased functionality and complexity).
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The deployed systems have been fairly stable. Most of the challenges we have run into have been as a result of the hardware and network infrastructures - not as a result of Bonita.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
So far, we have not had to scale beyond a single server install. The software has scaled up to hundreds of concurrent processes and run well on the single server.
How are customer service and technical support?
Generally, the customer service has been great. I have interacted with a number of people at BonitaSoft (Jon Sanchez and Olivia Halaimi stand out in my memory as particularly nice to work with), all have been pleasant and helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we developed custom business systems. We switched to Bonita because it cut down development time and is easier to demo to prospective clients.
How was the initial setup?
The initial install of Bonita Studio is very simple.
The jump from Bonita Studio to a full installation requires a solid understanding of IS and the resources to implement internal server deployments. It's quite a large jump from a demonstration with a desktop studio to even a simple deployment in a real world system.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented with our in-house team.
What was our ROI?
The return on investment is difficult to quantify because Bonita BPM has become tightly integrated in all our internal processes.
I can say that 2014 saw a 50% increase in staffing and an 80% increase in gross revenue over 2013 (when we first implemented Bonita BPM internally). 2015 is on track to show even more significant increases.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We took a look at a number of the open source BPM solutions (including Activiti, JBPM and Drools). We found that Bonita BPM provided the best balance of clarity for non-technical users and development flexibility.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Since the end of 2013, Geek Inc has been a registered Experto partner with BonitaSoft. We do BPM development (processes and connectors) for clients interested in using Bonita BPM.
Sr. Software Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees
It doesn't use any type of proprietary scripting language, like in some other BPMs. Documentation and examples could be enhanced.
Valuable Features:
I was tasked with evaluating three different BPM vendors for my organization. Of the 3 I evaluated, Bonita was the best in:
- creating forms
- ease of customization of forms
- versatility of supported platforms (we have both Macs and Windows machines, and the Studio will work on both)
- It is the only BPM platform that I've seen so far that allows for versioning of artifacts.
- Though we'd like to have a totally non-programming implementation, Bonita facilitates scripts where needed. It doesn't use any type of proprietary scripting language, like I saw in some other BPM products.
Improvements to My Organization:
Our first use case is not in production yet, but our business users have expressed how they feel it will add the needed checks and reviews to an area where data was updated without any type of review process.
Room for Improvement:
The documentation and examples definitely could be enhanced.
Use of Solution:
6 months
Deployment Issues:
Not in production yet.
Stability Issues:
It has been very stable in our dev environment so far.
Initial Setup:
It was very easy to install both the studio and the server engine.
Implementation Team:
We installed it via our in-house team.
Other Solutions Considered:
BizAgi, Process Maker
Other Advice:
Before choosing any BPM product, definitely do a real world POC with and test ease of connectivity to external systems via REST or SOAP, evaluate ease of form development, and ease of custimization.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Dueño at a tech services company
Java integration is powerful enough to solve any complex problems
Pros and Cons
- "Process automation with Bonita BPM is really easy."
- "Automation in vacation of a human resources replacement would be a good improvement in the product."
What is most valuable?
- Process automation with Bonita BPM is really easy.
- Price to service ratio with Bonita BPM is good.
- Forms to interact with users are really good in Bonita BPM.
- Integration with existing systems is easy with Bonita BPM connectors.
- Java integration is powerful enough to solve any complex problems.
How has it helped my organization?
I have solved a lot of Banking problems using Bonita BPM, from customer hiring to credit evaluation.
We have developed more than 20 processes in banking industries using the Bonita BPM platform.
What needs improvement?
Automation in vacation of a human resources replacement would be a good improvement in the product.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Bonita BPM for five years.
I have used Bonita BPM since version 5.10. The current version is 7.5.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product runs steadily stable every time.
It is recommendable to use a stable version. This means do not use a new version. In example, if the last version is 7.6 it is recommendable to use the last update of 7.5. This is nothing different to other softwares.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I never had scalability issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
I rate technical support with a nine out of 10. They have two support centers and they can cover all the time zones. Depending on the level of contracted support they can answer in a day or hours.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I do not use a previous solution but I tested some others before I used Bonita BPM.
I chose Bonita because their price/service relation. You have a good value for your money invested in Bonita BPM.
How was the initial setup?
Initially with version 5, it was really simple to develop our first solution. We could to program our first solution without any training course. We used a consultant service just to configure our production server.
Now, I think that a training course is a good idea to apply the better practices using the product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price is good, but I do not like the process instance annual quantity pricing base used today.
Nowadays, I think the price would not be good for small companies. For medium and large companies, it could still be a really good option.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We considered ProcessMaker initially, but in those times (in the year 2012), Bonita was really the best option.
What other advice do I have?
If you are trying to use a BPM solution for a core business implementation, I would strongly consider to use a subscription version (a licensed one). Do not use a community edition for business core implementations: Just because of the support service. In the community edition, you will be quite alone because Bonita BPM community is not as active, like others.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partnership with Bonitasoft, SA.
Product Manager at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Studio provides an opportunity to get early feedback and quickly change the process and forms.
What is most valuable?
- Ease of implementation
- Reduced cycle time to implement a process
- Studio provides an opportunity to get early feedback from real users and quickly change the process and forms
For how long have I used the solution?
7 months
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
Good
Technical Support:Excellent
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No previous solutions.
What about the implementation team?
In-house
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Consultant at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
A BPM platform with a wide range of connectors
What is most valuable?
** Collaborative model based on a shared BPM repository ** Business process models and various integrated Look'n'feel Custom ** Assistance for queries creation, connectors and component services ** Java REST API + EJB2/EJB3 and Clustering ** Research data and processes + Error Handling ** Application server Tomcat, JOnAS, JBoss, and Weblogic and other ** Multiple connectors (ERP, CRM, Web Services, Social Networks, ECM, Google products, couriers ... etc..) for free use ** Mobile portal available (rendering and performance not tested yet) ** BPM engine used on platform or isolated ** Research modules on our implemented data and processes
How has it helped my organization?
N/A
What needs improvement?
* The support is mandatory to access all features (Subscription), may they can have a different business model * Requires programming knowledge for implementation and management of heterogeneous connectors. I'll advice to combine some features/connectors for internal offer without using an external editor * Rules engine recently added and with gaps, must be optimized
For how long have I used the solution?
I used Bonita for prototypes and small projects to demonstrate its functionnalities
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
Yes, some because lack of knowledge on the product
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I didn't test the product in greater perimeter.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: Very good, also the commercial team !Technical Support: Perfect ! and the community is a great help also
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No
How was the initial setup?
A little complex for a non initiate person
What about the implementation team?
I was the vendor...
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
N/A
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Yes, for the study. ACTIVITI, IBM BPM and BIZAGI
What other advice do I have?
It's a good product and a rich service behind that
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Technical Team Lead at Wipro
In my MBA class, I use this tool to teach BPMN design and execution. Documentation is weak.
Pros and Cons
- "Development of forms and flows."
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are:
- Development of forms and flows
- Flow execution
- Database connectors
How has it helped my organization?
In my MBA class, I use Bonita BPM to teach BPMN design and execution.
What needs improvement?
The Cloud version should have a different billing model. I have installed the image of Bonita BPM on Amazon AWS and there is just one option to use and pay for.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Bonita BPM is simple and fast. It is very easy to install and use.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability of the Bonita BPM Community version is low. The paid version may be better, but I don't have contact with it.
How are customer service and technical support?
I use the Community version that doesn't have support. Documentation is weak.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Oracle BPM was too heavy and complex, I needed a simpler solution and that is why I selected this solution.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was very easy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated other solutions, such as Oracle, IBM, and MuleSoft.
The important criteria while selecting a vendor are support, good price, good quality and performance.
What other advice do I have?
You should check also Oracle and IBM BPM on cloud. However, if your company doesn't have a big budget, then Bonita BPM could be a good option.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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I totally agree with "In the community edition, you will be quite alone because Bonita BPM community is not as active, like others."