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ARIS Process Governance vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

ARIS Process Governance
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
30th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (8th), Process Automation (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of ARIS Process Governance is 0.2%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 7.4%, down from 7.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

BPMexp67 - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps us evaluate the maturity of business capabilities and identify gaps in processes
I would recommend ARIS Process Governance to any company looking to implement enterprise architecture, BPM, or Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), as I thoroughly understand its functionalities. Its capabilities allow it to evaluate the maturity of business capabilities, identify gaps in processes, and facilitate projects aimed at enhancing business processes. I advise new users to invest time in understanding the core concepts and methodologies. Familiarizing oneself with the different functionalities and utilizing the training resources is crucial. Starting with small projects can help build confidence before tackling more complex use cases. Overall, I rate it a nine out of ten.
Muhammad Kamran - PeerSpot reviewer
Has efficient processes and intuitive workflow with many valuable features
You will have access to make any needed changes. Additionally, the review will be published on PeerSpot.com in written or audio format, available to other people. You can stay anonymous if you wish. Notifications and the use of the review are subject to PeerSpot's terms of use, which you can find at PeerSpot.com/TOS. I would give the solution an overall rating of ten out of ten points.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Using this solution we can design our own processor governance, assign some specific technical services, and also run tests of the process to make sure it operates as we need it to."
"They offer a variety of documentation, user manuals, and community forums for users to seek assistance and share experiences."
"Ability to use all the features that your catalog has inside the modeling and export it to a BPM augmentation engine."
"It's a very easy-to-use product."
"It is efficient in reducing costs."
"The solution offers great notifications."
"Provides the power to understand and automate processes."
"For me, the most important feature is the easy-to-use business process dashboard. It's simple to orchestrate business processes, and the interface is clean and intuitive. Once your workflow is designed on paper, it's easy for the business process manager to implement and follow it. Another IBM product that was good in the past is the IBM Case Manager. I haven't used it for three or four years, so I'm unsure if it's still available, but it was quite effective."
"Everything is coupled together and comes as one solution."
"Some of the features that I like the most are team management and process performance. They are both very useful and very powerful with regard to the workflow."
"Its Analytics is the most valuable feature."
"This solution has always been lacking in the user interface (UI), it needed to be improved a lot. However, from the acquisition of Spark UI, the UI is much better. Overall the solution is robust and has the ability to integrate with any product for complex workflows."
 

Cons

"There is a lot of complexity around licensing."
"The solution uses a coding language for process design that is specific only to this product. We would like to see this changed to something more universal."
"I recognize the product has areas for potential improvement similar to every tool."
"It's a bit annoying that you have to use two environments in the older version."
"IBM BPM's price could be improved."
"All our clients are changing to microservice and cloud service. However, BPM does not have a solution for microservice and cloud service."
"IBM BPM is stable, but sometimes there are issues with the server."
"When you have to integrate files for enterprise applications."
"There are a few areas, like triggering mechanisms, externally exposed variables, and changing its values."
"Importing and exporting between multiple environments is more difficult with other tools."
"It is a rather thick stack because you have to have WebSphere skills, IBM BPM skills, and an understanding of how the product runs on WebSphere. A lot of this will start to get a lot easier as they put it in containers, which will allow the platform to manage itself in some regards."
"You must have good experience to work with it. It is not that easy. Its installation is complex, especially in the new version for business automation, and it could be improved. It has a safety application embedded inside it, and you need to do a lot of configuration to install it. I have been working for two days to resolve an issue."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"I wish it was less expensive. I don't know why their pricing model is so high for a piece of software that could benefit so many. It just seems to me that they could have a lower cost, maybe with fewer features or whatever, but it should be possible to do a lower cost workflow software that uses the same interface and underlying engine but does not cost so much that you have to be a Fortune 50 company to buy it. It is annoying to me. There are a lot of solutions that IBM has that are really powerful but nobody can afford them. They know their business, but I still feel that there are a lot of customers who would benefit from this sort of thing. I don't know what this elitism is all about. I am sure they have people doing the money numbers, but it seems like you can make a lot more money by selling it to way more people for a little bit less."
"IBM BPM cannot be considered a cheaply priced product. IBM BPM is a really expensive product compared to other companies. One needs to opt for the perpetual licensing model offered by IBM."
"We have a yearly licensing model. It is not expensive. There are no addition costs to the standard license."
"IBM BPM is expensive, so most large companies opt for IBM based on their licensing options."
"I rate the solution's pricing a four out of ten."
"It should provide more flexibility to connect with external systems, and there should be in-built services that can be used to integrate with other systems quickly."
"The solution might be expensive, but I can't give you a precise number. In the market here, I've seen two main products for BPM: IBM BPM and Camunda. Camunda is very popular and open-source, so there's no direct comparison."
"Licensing is managed by the client, but we know it is yearly. Camunda is relatively cheaper. There is not much difference in pricing of IBM and PEGA. For large licensing, there are discounts as well."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Financial Services Firm
31%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ARIS Process Governance?
I recognize the product has areas for potential improvement similar to every tool.
What advice do you have for others considering ARIS Process Governance?
I would recommend ARIS Process Governance to any company looking to implement enterprise architecture, BPM, or Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC), as I thoroughly understand its functionalities...
Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
Once it is installed, maintaining it is not a big issue.
 

Comparisons

No data available
 

Also Known As

No data available
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market and 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
Find out what your peers are saying about ARIS Process Governance vs. IBM BPM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,270 professionals have used our research since 2012.