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Appian vs IBM Case Foundation comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 29, 2024
 

Categories and Ranking

Appian
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
6th
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Process Automation (4th), Rapid Application Development Software (5th), Low-Code Development Platforms (4th), Process Mining (6th)
IBM Case Foundation
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
29th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of Appian is 6.5%, up from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Case Foundation is 0.4%, down from 0.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

Devashish Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 21, 2023
Low resource consumption, easy setup, and stable
To determine whether a platform, such as Appian, is suitable for your domain industry, you must first assess whether it offers any out-of-the-box features relevant to your needs. If it does, utilizing that platform would be the best option since it already has the required functionalities. If the available features do not align with your requirements, consider choosing a platform that can easily build such services. Attempting to modify pre-existing features on a platform is a challenging task, and any upgrades to the platform could pose further issues for users. The solution has high performance but the main issue is the lack of customization after deploying it. I rate Appian an eight out of ten.
SaidGaga - PeerSpot reviewer
Oct 30, 2023
Streamlined business process automation with user-friendly design
It is well-suited for financial management alongside other products. It is specifically designed for business process automation, providing a platform to streamline and manage various aspects of case-related information, and facilitating efficient and automated business workflows The designer is…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of Appian are workflow management and the ease with which you can build the UI."
"Even with an on-premise implementation, the scalability is still high, so it is easy to scale up."
"SAIL (Self-Assembling Interface Layer), a scripting language provided by Appian. It is the equivalent of JS and CSS. It allows creation of complex UIs which are also responsive. With SAIL, we have a single language for both the UI logic and its appearance. UI components can be built as reusable components and used in multiple UI interfaces."
"It has good integrations. We were looking for out-of-the-box integration with both on-prem and publicly accessible data sources. We needed integration with the cloud, OData, our REST API feed, and then on-prem passthrough to go to a SQL database or on-prem APIs through Azure local deployment, etc."
"This is the most complete solution of its kind."
"The initial setup was seamless. We didn't run into any hardships at all."
"The tech support is quite good."
"The process models provide self-documenting systems."
"It provides us the capability of producing b​​usiness processes for documents that are launched immediately when a document comes into the repository."
"The most valuable feature is the content manager part of the file as it is very stable, robust, and reliable."
"The most valuable feature is its stability, which is why we are using it."
"Flexible and the ability to divide search screens, and to search for documents. The ECM feature inside the system is great."
"The only thing is that we can easily track where the application is in the process, from manual to automation."
"The most valuable features are those involving decision making, analysis, and anything related to event documents because those processes are related to content as well."
"A valuable feature includes seamless integration with the document management system, along with robust capabilities in analytics and reporting."
"The client and the IBM content navigation are the solution's most valuable features."
 

Cons

"It needs better integration with our existing application ecosystem."
"The solution could improve by being more responsive when dealing with large quantities of data. Additionally, they can make the decision or rules engine better. It cannot handle too many rules or too many decisions at once."
"If that had more DevOps capabilities, it would be an excellent product."
"From a reseller's point of view, subscription licensing could be improved to be more cost-effective, especially for new prospects and smaller investments."
"Appian has a few areas for improvement, which my organization raised with the Appian team. One is the Excel output which is limited to fifty columns when it should be up to two hundred or three hundred columns."
"The tool itself is pretty good, but the main area that we struggled with was the backend. The frontend development is really good, but the backend modeling can be streamlined a little bit. There are good integrations, but tying them through the data layer and then up into the frontend could be improved a little bit. It does read/write on the data source, and you can configure it to just write or just read, but there is a little bit of work involved."
"The solution could use some more tutorials to help brand new users figure out how to use the product effectively."
"Native mobile capabilities or hybrid mobile app capabilities are very limited. Things like offline sync, offline storage, access to smartphone device features, etc. are not supported by the Appian platform yet."
"The service as it currently stands is out-of-date and lacks flexibility."
"We are now using microservices but there are some areas where the coordination with FileNet is problematic."
"The solution can be quite expensive."
"The cloud version could use more stability."
"IBM needs to update the user interfaces of all its products to make them more intuitive and accessible to beginners. Compared to Microsoft products, IBM solutions are less user-friendly. IBM programs are hard to master. It's a problem in my region because it's hard to find IT staff who can work with IBM."
"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."
"Once a workflow is launched then it stays static forever, which is a problem because if there is a change in the business then you cannot change the workflow."
"The limitation is only for customization because IBM doesn't support it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"When it comes to pricing, it's definitely not affordable. However, it really depends on the requirements that you're seeking from the solution."
"The price of this solution is a little high here in Mongolia."
"The tool is quite costly."
"The license is a bit expensive and the pricing model is sometimes confusing for new users or business users. It is difficult for them to know what volume of usage they will have to be able to purchase the best-suited license at the beginning."
"Appian is very flexible in their pricing. In general, Appian's pricing is much, much lower when compared to competition like Pega or other products. Appian also has a flexible licensing model across geographies. Pega usually goes with a single licensing cost—which is a US-based cost—for all global customers, and it's costly. Whereas Appian has a different regional licensing cost model and it can be cheaper, depending on geography. So Appian's licensing is very flexible, and cheaper when compared to other competition."
"I think that if somebody is really serious at looking at business value, then by all means, the product is well worth the value. You get representative business value for the price that you pay for the product, and for the implementation of the product."
"The price is high."
"It is expensive, but powerful. I would recommend comparing against cheaper licensing products and open source."
"IBM Case Foundation is a little expensive."
"This is not an expensive solution and we are using the standard license."
"Pricing is in the mid-range, it is not cheap, but it's not expensive."
"The price falls in the middle range—not overly expensive but not extremely affordable either."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
28%
Financial Services Firm
17%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
17%
Government
14%
Insurance Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which do you prefer - Appian or Camunda Platform?
Appian is fast when building simple to medium solutions. This solution offers simple drag-and-drop functionality with easy plug-and-play options. The initial setup was seamless and very easy to imp...
Is Appian a suitable solution for beginners who have no additional preparation?
Appian is actually pretty big on educating its users, including with courses that reward you with certifications. There is a whole section on their company’s website where you can check out the edu...
Is it easy to set up Appian or did you have to resort to professional help?
We had some issues when we were setting up Appian. It was quite surprising, since this is a low-code tool which, in its essence, means it is meant for business users and inexperienced beginners. So...
What do you like most about IBM Case Foundation?
A valuable feature includes seamless integration with the document management system, along with robust capabilities in analytics and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Case Foundation?
It was affordable, but right now, ten years later, the cost of the product is extremely high. That's why we are looking for another product.
What needs improvement with IBM Case Foundation?
The architecture is a bit difficult, but in BAW, they introduced the Business Automation Workflow. It's a bit easier compared to Case Manager. Currently, we use Case Manager, so it's a bit difficul...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Appian BPM, Appian AnyWhere, Appian Enterprise BPMS
Case Foundation, FileNet Business Process Manager
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Hansard Global plc, Punch Taverns, Pirelli, Crawford & Company, EDP Renewables, Queensland Government Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning (, Bank of Tennessee
Suncorp Group Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about Appian vs. IBM Case Foundation and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.