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IBM Business Automation Workflow vs IBM Case Foundation 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

IBM Business Automation Wor...
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
14th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Case Foundation
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
31st
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of IBM Business Automation Workflow is 2.2%, down from 2.6% 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

Bhasker ReddyPIdintla - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates workflows and removes the delays encountered with approvals
The tool streamlines operations, especially from an operational perspective, by facilitating decision-making and ensuring timely approvals. This helps prevent delays in the approval process, where business process management adds significant value for us. What I find most valuable is how it creates process instances and handles issues. There's no delay in addressing process issues and getting approvals on time. It provides a product-agnostic approach to business process management, allowing us to create workflows quickly. Case management helps us create, handle, and resolve cases step by step, providing an end-to-end solution. It's especially useful when using cloud-based business automation, often including built-in case management features. The main benefit is creating workflows. For example, with IBM BAW, we can handle end-to-end processes, from taking requests to assigning tasks for approvals. It can also integrate with third-party APIs and business rules to make decisions, providing flexibility in our operations. AI is integrated into the IBM BAW in two main ways. First, we can use RPA for tasks requiring human intervention. Second, we can leverage IBM's Watson AI to accelerate business processes with automation. I can predict how soon requests will be approved and decide based on certain criteria. For example, let's consider our recent implementation in the customer care center. When customers call in, they often have common queries. We've incorporated AI features to address these queries by leveraging data from our customer database. We use tools like OpenAI. Additionally, we've automated most processes for business process automation to minimize the need for human intervention. However, we hold requests for certain scenarios until a resource takes action. But for common tasks that can be automated quickly, we've integrated AI and machine learning features to expedite approvals.
Nouman Nawaz - PeerSpot reviewer
Mature product in terms of security and stable product
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 difficult to upgrade and handle, but BAW is comparatively much better and easier to handle. The limitation is only for customization because IBM doesn't support it. In some scenarios, if you want some business processes to be customized, we have already spoken two or three times with IBM representatives that we have to customize some of the features in this business process. They would say that if you want to do this automation at your own end, then okay, fine, go ahead, but we are not supporting all this customization. The only thing is the customization because it's a complete standard application.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It has integrated UI and deployment models, and it has a deep set of consultant and service provider ecosystem features."
"It is the only product that includes capture content management and a process suite, as well as rules in RPA."
"The solution reduces the time to the resolution which is essential for businesses."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow is useful for helping us design custom user interfaces and processes we require."
"The dashboards are helpful because you can display reports directly on your screen."
"It provides a solution for integration orchestration. This solution is for any organization in the banking, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and all domains and industries."
"The solution's most valuable aspect is the fact it is highly configurable. We can do configurations very easily."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow provides a seamless streamlined collaboration within the organizations."
"Flexible and the ability to divide search screens, and to search for documents. The ECM feature inside the system is great."
"It provides us the capability of producing b​​usiness processes for documents that are launched immediately when a document comes into the repository."
"The solution is scalable."
"The content management is great."
"It is easy to set up workflows that notify the user depending on certain events."
"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."
"It's very easy."
"The most valuable feature is the content manager part of the file as it is very stable, robust, and reliable."
 

Cons

"Improvements could be made in debugging and troubleshooting."
"The initial setup is actually a really complicated process."
"The main improvement would be to make it easier to implement and deploy so that customers can kick it off and run quickly."
"While everything is integrated into one platform, I'd like guidelines on when and how to use ODM. This applies not only to implementation but also to automation processes. Additionally, proper instructions should be provided when installing on the cloud."
"Sometimes, we feel like we are not getting the full features of the content management capabilities."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow is not a very user-friendly solution."
"I would definitely like to see a unified interface between the BPM side of the house and the case side of the house. Something that just seems a bit more cohesive, because right now there is sort of a disconnect between the BPM and the case side of the house. That makes it a bit of a hard sell sometimes. That is definitely first and foremost on my wish list."
"Integrating the solution with existing systems can be complicated and it needs careful planning and execution."
"The limitation is only for customization because IBM doesn't support it."
"​The place of improvement is merging or combining all of the workflow functionality into one seamless tool. Now, there are multiple installations that are different. Case Foundation, before you can put Case Manager and you've got IBM BPM, and the roadmap is there to merge them altogether. But that's the struggle at the moment, it's having multiple installations and disparate workflow applications.​"
"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."
"There are some features that could be enhanced like the document viewer"
"90% of the feedback we receive states that the UI is not very user-friendly."
"We are now using microservices but there are some areas where the coordination with FileNet is problematic."
"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."
"Comparing the solution with other interfaces, IBM BPM is much better than Case Foundation. They need to make this solution's interface more user-friendly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is on the expensive side, but it provides excellent supportability and an ecosystem that is proven to be a great fit for our organization."
"Licensing varies by use-case."
"The solution's pricing is a little bit expensive."
"While it can be quite costly, it offers significant benefits for users."
"IBM Business Automation Workflow has a flexible pricing mode, but the price is expensive. The price of the solution reflects the quality of the solution which is very high. The technical support is an additional cost."
"There is still a relatively high total cost of ownership to actually implement, support, and stand up solutions."
"When you compare with Laserfiche and M-Files, IBM is expensive."
"The product is 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."
"IBM Case Foundation is a little expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
37%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
15%
Government
15%
Insurance Company
12%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 do you like most about IBM Business Automation Workflow?
The most valuable feature of IBM Business Automation Workflow is cost management.
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...
 

Also Known As

Business Automation Workflow
Case Foundation, FileNet Business Process Manager
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Key Bank, Barclays, Control€xpert, MIR Insurance Brokers, Conqord Oil
Suncorp Group Limited
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Business Automation Workflow vs. IBM Case Foundation and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.