Bonita Reviews

I find process management and user interface designing the most valuable features.

The interface is advanced and quite good, but it could improve.

I have been using Bonita for approximately three years.

The solution is stable. However, we have experienced a few bugs. In some particular cases, there have been failures because of technical reasons from the server. For example, errors from the library dependencies but once we fix them, or once the provider fixes them, it works fine.

Globally, it is really stable when I consider the number of people using the tool.

We have not needed to expand the solution at this time. We have not experimented with it in regards to scalability.

We have more than 2,000 people using the solution in my organization.

The technical support is not exceptional but okay. We have not purchased the highest level of support. We only receive logical support.

We have different installation processes, we can have a very simple one and we have complex ones. It is a mix of difficulty levels.

We have a two-person maintenance team.

The price is fair for what we are using the solution for.

My advice to those wanting to implement Bonita is to be sure about resources before starting because the number of resources that are required to manage this tool is high. This is a critical point for me.

I rate Bonita an eight out of ten.

On-premises

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.

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.

We have been using this solution for eight years.

It is stable.

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.

We are their premium partners. They are very helpful and nice. They provide very good technical support.

It is a very straightforward process. It is a hassle-free installation. It took less than four or five hours.

We have a team of close to 20 members. For simple implementations, we have two to three members.

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.

I would recommend this solution. Small and medium businesses can use this product.

I would rate Bonita a seven out of ten.

On-premises

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. 

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.

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.

We have been using this software internally and for our clients since 2011

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).

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.

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.

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.

Previously, we developed custom business systems. We switched to Bonita because it cut down development time and is easier to demo to prospective clients.

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.

We implemented with our in-house team.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The documentation and examples definitely could be enhanced.

6 months

Not in production yet.

It has been very stable in our dev environment so far.

It was very easy to install both the studio and the server engine.

We installed it via our in-house team.

BizAgi, Process Maker

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.

• 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.

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.

Automation in vacation of a human resources replacement would be a good improvement in the product.

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.

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.

I never had scalability issues.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We considered ProcessMaker initially, but in those times (in the year 2012), Bonita was really the best option.

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.

• 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

7 months

No

No issues.

No issues.

Customer Service:

Good

Technical Support:

Excellent

No previous solutions.

In-house

** 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

N/A

* 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

I used Bonita for prototypes and small projects to demonstrate its functionnalities

Yes, some because lack of knowledge on the product

No

I didn't test the product in greater perimeter.

Customer Service: Very good, also the commercial team !Technical Support: Perfect ! and the community is a great help also

No

A little complex for a non initiate person

I was the vendor...

N/A

Yes, for the study. ACTIVITI, IBM BPM and BIZAGI

It's a good product and a rich service behind that

The most valuable features are:

• Development of forms and flows
• Flow execution
• Database connectors

In my MBA class, I use Bonita BPM to teach BPMN design and execution.

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.

I have used this solution for two years.

Bonita BPM is simple and fast. It is very easy to install and use.

Scalability of the Bonita BPM Community version is low. The paid version may be better, but I don't have contact with it.

I use the Community version that doesn't have support. Documentation is weak.

Oracle BPM was too heavy and complex, I needed a simpler solution and that is why I selected this solution.

The setup was very easy.

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.

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.