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ELMA 365 vs IBM BPM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ELMA 365
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
41st
Average Rating
0.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
CRM (54th), Robotic Process Automation (RPA) (53rd)
IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
4th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
111
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (8th), Process Automation (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of ELMA 365 is 0.4%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM BPM is 7.4%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
 

Featured Reviews

PT
A great ERP for medium and even small businesses
If one has experience in the ERP market, big brands like Microsoft require a lot of money over other platforms like Odoo. We can implement an on-premise model for some enterprise customers because it gives privacy and security. For other customers, we provide the cloud version. Currently, we recommend customers implement the ERP platform on the cloud environment because of the flexibility and scaling. I recommend that customers invest in a solution with the possibility of scaling in the future while providing many functions and features out of the box. In many ERPs we provide, although we would recommend ELMA as a default option for medium and even enterprise customers, they need bigger brands. ELMA 365 should be the second or third option for customers right now. I rate ELMA 365 a ten out of ten.
SureshThota1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Good automation, stable, and scalable
The initial setup is complex, but once we have a mature framework in place, it has been working well. When deployed properly and as expected, customers are happy to use the solution. However, there is still a lot of configuration and installation taking time. IBM BPM provides a cloud-fast model, where it is possible to integrate automation of the process and where manual interaction is only necessary if automation is not available. We have implemented an ultimate installation that includes both capabilities, but some features were not enabled in the process access station. For example, I could not open KFC documents, they all uploaded, and saved the data, but could not do a profile page without manual interaction. IBM is still working on a permanent solution for this. The deployment time depends on the requirements, which can be critical, low, or medium-high. If the requirements are critical, it will take six to eight months. For medium requirements, it will take five months, and for low requirements, it will take only one month. Eight people were part of the deployment team.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"A lot of customers, when we introduce this kind of product into their organization, it provides a lot of analytics."
"The most valuable feature for the organization is the Document Store."
"Automating the whole workflow process to give our data steward the ability to take actions rapidly, and making sure we have all the data synced within the different platforms that we are using."
"IBM BPM is equipped with all the functionalities which are needed for building BPM enterprise-level applications."
"The possibility to add Java code as embedded .jar, that increases the flexibility of the solution."
"We are receiving good assistance from the technical support."
"It is a very powerful solution."
"There is a component of this BPM pool - I can't recall the name. What it does is, it allows you to create various scenarios and then run them quickly, before actually putting them onto a tool. So I think that part of the tool is really fantastic, because that enables you to create scenarios, create simulations, before actually going out and putting it into the tool itself"
"IBM BPM is a stable solution."
 

Cons

"Customers want improved productivity."
"From the testing perspective and minor enhancements perspective, customization is something that is a little tedious as compared to new tools. In addition, various open-source tools that are available are not working with IBM BPM."
"I would like to see a lot more case studies."
"UI is an area with a shortcoming that needs improvement."
"Except for the Lucene the index - we had a couple of issues in the Process Portal where the Lucene index went out of sync, and we had to work at least 15 - 20 hours to have it back in sync with the database."
"It needs more customization. We like to customize the screens to show more things related to our company."
"New users will need at least six months to get comfortable with IBM BPM, at least initially. So, there's a learning curve."
"We have been experiencing bad performance and instability."
"Performance on large scale requirements could also be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten."
"It has a low cost to implement. You'll get your money back in the same year that you complete the project."
"Starting out with Express can also help reduce the cost for adopting the product."
"We chose to purchase IBM BPM because it was bundled with the actual RPA program/solution that we decided to purchase. We decided to use Automation Anywhere tool (RPA), and it is was bundled with IBM BPM."
"I give the pricing an eight out of ten."
"I rate the tool's pricing a seven out of ten."
"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."
"We have a yearly licensing model. It is not expensive. There are no addition costs to the standard license."
"The pricing is quite high, I would rate it two out of five."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
38%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
32%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ELMA 365?
A lot of customers, when we introduce this kind of product into their organization, it provides a lot of analytics.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ELMA 365?
I rate the solution's pricing a five out of ten. It's not so cheap and not so expensive.
What needs improvement with ELMA 365?
Our customers mention three main topics when they review our product. The first point of improvement is the cost, the second one is they want improved productivity, and the last point would be cent...
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

 

Also Known As

ELMA BPM
WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Air Astana, GS Nanotech, Kapital Bank, Mriya Resort & SPA, Obninskorgsintez, VestaBank, pwc, Zarubezhneft, lockobank, Rosatom
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 Camunda, Apache, Pega and others in Business Process Management (BPM). Updated: February 2025.
838,713 professionals have used our research since 2012.