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IBM Blueworks Live vs TIBCO Business Studio 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

IBM Blueworks Live
Ranking in Business Process Design
12th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
TIBCO Business Studio
Ranking in Business Process Design
20th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Business Process Design category, the mindshare of IBM Blueworks Live is 3.5%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of TIBCO Business Studio is 0.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

AjarMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
An easily scalable and affordable solution that enables users to document and digitize processes with ease
IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts. There is only one kind of BPMN 2.0 diagram. It is a process diagram. It doesn't have the concept of separate tools, which other products offer. If I had to do a hardcore BPMN 2.0 modeling, the product would have its own reservations. There were features we could not explore from a BPMN 2.0 perspective. Most of the time, people who are shifting from Microsoft Office tools to a digitized way of working still want the reporting capabilities to be strong. Some tools, like ARIS or Signavio, offer customized solutions from the reporting perspective. If I have documented my whole finance process and want to fetch out a complete SOP report in a very customized manner, IBM Blueworks cannot provide it. We have to rely on some other services. So that's one area in which we always struggled, how to really customize the reporting aspects. I understand that we need to keep the tool a little more asset-light. It's very difficult to keep adding many options, but at least a few BPMN 2.0 options were needed. We have been suggesting to IBM that we should have some way of customizing the reporting. At least we should get a custom way of reporting it into different formats like Excel or putting up a logo for one of the clients so that their SAP can be printed that way.
Choon Hwa Khoh - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good flexibility to users
Improvements are required in the tool licensing area as it is a bit expensive. The tool's user interface needs improvement. If you don't know the tool as a beginner, it is very hard for you to design the workflow. The interface is actually quite confusing. There are a lot of places we need to configure here and there since there are multiple locations involved. The features or functions available are good enough for me to implement for my business activities. The tool can include topics like AI. I encountered an issue with the tool during the deployment into production. The server itself experienced a slowness-related issue caused by the configuration, where the resources were not enough for TIBCO, not because of the physical server. I raised a ticket with the support team and got some advice from them. I then went to study the server configuration, and finally, I found out that there will be a need to increase the threats in order for the server to process the multiple parallel incoming requests.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Business users understand it really well, which means we can then help them automate their business processes."
"Collaboration is most valuable. You can collaborate online with many people. People can comment, and you can comment back. It is just like a social network, and that, for me, is very good."
"For me, what I find to be the most valuable is its simplicity and the association with Microsoft Office."
"We are you using the product as a process mapping tool and as part of a larger process improvement project. We use it with IBM BPM and IBM ODM. We get an automated workflow solution for our customers, an improved workflow automation."
"In terms of the collaboration features, from the point of discovery, it was useful to go to load up the policies and the rule sets that the client had. And in terms of exploring options and being able to model a variety of different processes, that was incredibly useful as well."
"The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave."
"The solution is stable. All the refreshes run very well."
"It has the ability to document in different formats. It is not tied to a specific model. You can look at it from different angles and see the intuitive nature of it. It always generates a valid diagram. You cannot create something that is not BPMN compliant."
"The product's initial setup phase is straightforward."
 

Cons

"The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing."
"The APIs are great, except the normal business user doesn't know how to create APIs. So it's hard because IBM comes to us as the business users and tell us to create reporting with APIs, except we don't know that, so we have to turn around and flip it to our IT people."
"Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking."
"In the solution Signavio, they have a customer journey mapping feature that should be added to IBM Blueworks Live. It's valuable to map or document the customer journey to identify the pains and opportunities in this process."
"I would like to see integration with ERP systems. This would help us to simulate the process and see where the problems are. Though IBM Blueworks Live is a good tool for documenting, it is not good for simulating."
"The solution is a very basic discovery product so it doesn't have that much modeling capability. This can be improved."
"I can't insert any images. For example, within the process map, if I want to put it in the box or rectangle, or circle. If I have to use one image or icon, that's not possible."
"Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively."
"The interface is actually quite confusing."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."
"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."
"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."
"Making it less expensive would be good."
"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."
"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."
"The solution is very, very cost-effective."
"The solution is not very expensive."
"For my company, the tool costs about 2,0,000 Euros for three years...If one is bad and ten is good, I rate the price as one out of ten."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution costs around 600-700 dollars/year, which is quite affordable.
What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?
Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TIBCO Business Studio?
We use multiple products, such as TIBCO Business Studio, TIBCO BW, and TIBCO EMS, so a large amount of money was paid for the license. For my company, the tool costs about 2,0,000 Euros for three y...
What needs improvement with TIBCO Business Studio?
Improvements are required in the tool licensing area as it is a bit expensive. The tool's user interface needs improvement. If you don't know the tool as a beginner, it is very hard for you to desi...
What is your primary use case for TIBCO Business Studio?
I use the solution in my company for file transfer, data extraction, and ETL.
 

Also Known As

IBM Lombardi Blueprint
Business Studio
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council
Airbus Helicopters, Bank of Montreal, BroadReach Healthcare, Caesars Entertainment, CargoSmart, Children's Hospital, Citibank Brazil, Citihub, Colonial Life, Con-way, Consorsbank, Deutsche Bahn, EDF Energy, FrieslandCampina, Hellmann Logistics, Ignite, Istrabenz Plini, Sage Human Capital, Siemens Healthcare
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Camunda, Sparx Systems and others in Business Process Design. Updated: December 2024.
831,020 professionals have used our research since 2012.