IBM Business Automation Workflow Reviews

Our primary use case is completely banking driven. We select the account to open, determine the complimenting and storage core, cooperate on their calls, do analysis for the core customer, uphold compliance policy and anti money laundering payments, and all the functions we define in the process.

Currently, we are using it on-premises with a roadmap for into the cloud. We call that the private cloud, because this is a bank space so we are not going to the public cloud due to regulations and compliance policy.

The features that we have found most notable are similar to what we have with IBM BPM. Because we have done the automation so that when a document comes from the customer as a soft copy, there is an optical character reader ensuring that the data will be integrated with the BPM. We thought of the human interaction, checking everything, and you can create a case file identification like in BPM.

From the optimization perspective, this is better than what we have currently with BPM where we are also doing automation. We can move where the cash mechanism and the external cash mechanism are, where we put the cluster to a policy, where the service will be available. Even when service fails, it will be taken within a cluster of seconds, as things are on the optimization solution provided by the BAW.

Other improvements include a couple of reusable artifacts. These were not there with BPM and now BAW provides that.

We've got a list of features that feed from IBM. We get them on a weekly basis in the subscriptions. These are the benefits we are getting from IBM - small snapshots level, how you are going to deploy automation, integrated data set ups. That is a pipeline where you can do automation, the process for operational specifications, where it goes to the end-to-end automation process level.

A lot depends upon the customer. Let's say a customer wants to get a good system where you can crop in and automate the process, that feature was not available in IBM. So we spoke to them and they released the setup for tax availability for BAW. We are working on features based on our requirement specifications.

IBM Business Automation Workflow is a new solution that we implemented four months ago. 

This is a new product, so we are getting a couple of bugs on the product level. We have spoken to IBM and it's up to the product vendor to provide product complications, like deployment snapshots and where we have automation in the process. We keep talking to the IBM guys to write a PMR and get it refurnished. 

We use the auto-scaling mechanism. So maybe the volume is too high for utilization and we use the load balancing, distributing the load balancing to multi-use cloud packages. We use that for the availability.

The solution is being used country-wide. That means five to eight million people use it on a daily basis. Globally, we implemented it for the National Bank because it exists across all the countries and all the 128 branches in the different countries.

In terms of scalability, we have implemented auto-scaling. There are on-premises flows, and on-prem/cloud users, and settings on the IBM cloud.

Customer service is good. It's the leader from a customer service perspective.

Before using BAW, I was using BPM for development, designing architecture, and providing a solution for the automation workflow process. I worked on automation without manual interactions.

The initial setup is actually a really complicated process. We did the proper enterprise access to the server. Then we have the front desk, principal, policies, standard regulations, practice assessments, and the architecture, then with the business IT, the whole concept is complex.

We have two types of set ups, micro-services and services in the interaction section. For the services in the interaction section we use the IBM Integration but for the micro-services we use IBM Connect.

We don't have other costs, except for license and support. If you buy the software you can get one year support free of cost. When it is upgrading the PMR and product level issues, there are technical discussions with the vendors. So those things are free of cost provided by the vendors.

We evaluated a couple of vendors like Pega, and Oracle BPM. We evaluated four vendors. We choose IBM at end of the day for their support team, costs, and availability. These factors are a concern for a vendor from a traceability metric perspective. We chose IBM since it is available for implementation and we already have an agreement with them as partners.

IBM Business Automation Workflow is a good tool provided you can use it cross-platform where there are a lot of features. Another good thing, which other products, like Pega and Oracle don't have, is that it is a very optimizing solution providing the IBM BPM process orchestration.

On a scale of one to ten, I would give IBM Business Automation Workflow a nine. 

Since I have been working with multiple vendors on multiple projects in the billion dollar  project range, I see that it works for end-to-end functionality.

It provides a solution for integration orchestration. This solution is for any organization in the banking, telecommunications, healthcare, manufacturing, and all domains and industries.

We have multiple clients. We provide them multiple solutions. So, based on the customer needs, we propose different solutions to them. These solutions include FileNet, Datacap, etc.

We have contact centers, which we have also built for our client resolution. The contact centers interact with customers and understand their queries. We also create a case, so case management is also coming into the picture. There are different steps within the case activities where we try to resolve and close the case.

Right now, our clients are using ODM for rule engines, BPM processors, and the case management part.

It helps with compliance and governance issues.

It has had a positive effect on decision-making in my organization. It helps us with our dispute process. 

Most valuable is how it improves the customer experience. Our company adds the value for the overall implementation, and clients always ask us, "Based on our investment, what value we will receive?" Automation will help them to improve their efficiency for any case resolution and improve the customer experience.

The usability is nice.

In the market, Appian is quoting, "Low quote or no quote." IBM is almost to the point of no quote, but it is not there yet.

Every client is moving to the cloud. We are still a little behind with IBM, but we are catching up from my point of view.

More education and training of users is required.

It is stable.

The scalability has been good so far. We don't have any problems with it.

With technical support, when we create a ticket, we receive a response on time.

There are old versions, which are not being supported in future, so we have to upgrade.

We have our own team for the deployment.

The solution increases productivity.

The solution has decreased operating costs. We see this at our customers' sites after implementation.

It has saved our customers time by automating manual tasks.

Nowadays, clients are looking at pricing as one of the major factors. For IBM products, they always think it is expensive for them. We are still educating our clients on the IBM FlexPoints licensing.

From an integration and security perspective, I think IBM is far better compared to others.

The hybrid solution is something very good. We promote it to the client to try it out. It is great holistic, end-to-end tool, which is why I recommend it.

For the IBM portfolio, we have DBA, ODM, and BPM. They are very good for scalability and performance. They are also pretty stable right now.

We have third-party applications too. For integration, we are exposing our APIs, then they are consuming them. So, most of them are REST APIs.

Within the VPN, we have connectors that we are using.

We do have plans to expand our use of automation.

I will be attending the technical tracks. In the technical track, I would like to explore all the components specific to AI, which is very hot in the market with our clients. They want to how AI can help them and how automation plays a role.

The use case is a wide range of things. We have implemented it from standard claims automation to getting your video from the studio to air, removing it from Netflix and things of that nature. Anytime there are business processes, business rules, and you need distinguishing workflows between users, that's where the DBA platform accelerates.

As a partner, we do a lot of finance and healthcare industry. We support the entire back office operations for a $111 billion brokerage. Anything from IRA contributions to distributions to money transfers to wires. Anything like that is all done by DBA.

IBM has spent a lot of time on the connections between the rules engine and its other product, the core BPM platform. They've really centralized the suite as one offering now. That's something that should have been done a while ago but is something that's a real big game-changer for them.

It is the only product that includes capture content management and a process suite, as well as rules in RPA.

The main areas which need improvement are specifically around reporting and analytics. The analytics suite is limited in this regard. I know they're working on something, but it's still a ways away. I'm waiting to see what they come out with on that.

The product is extremely stable. Obviously, there is always performance tuning and things that happen over time. Usually, if there is any major issue, it's usually the database's fault, but the impact of it is that your product goes down. You have to monitor the database and that is the area which people often forget to do.

It's scalable. Right now we're running 10 million transactions a day.

I work closely with the support team. There are varying levels of quality of support between Level 1 and Level 2. 

Once you've worked with support and know how to build a package of what they're looking for, it's very quick and easy. It's more about making sure that you have the package ready: All the logs and the other things which are important. If you don't have the package, you're going to spin your wheels for a bit.

Over the years, the setup has become straightforward. Back in the day, it was complex. With the move to containerization, it will become a lot more straightforward. You're just going to be spinning up containers.

I rate it at nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement. I've used the product for many years now so I appreciate the power of the tool.

We are working in the banking industry. The bank has a data lake and they make use of the dashboards and reporting to access and work with their data.

The ability to connect between BAW processes and robotic processes is very useful.

The UA features in the framework are very good. It promotes reusability, which is an advantage for us.

The dashboards are helpful because you can display reports directly on your screen.

We are having a problem because we want to migrate to the cloud, but it necessitates using the Red Hat OpenShift platform.

Sometimes, we feel like we are not getting the full features of the content management capabilities. We find that some of the small players like NewGen and Documentum are doing a better job at this.

It is difficult to integrate with FileNet. It is already bundled and they are now using automatic integration, but it is lacking in usability.

We want something that is more platform-independent. For example, using the scanner application, we have to use a thick client. Even though we have a content analyzer, in some cases, we first scan with a thick client and then replace it with a thin client.

I have been working with IBM BPM systems for the past 20 years.

This is a scalable product.

The technical support is very good. We're getting on-time responses to all of our queries. We are working with the Middle East support team.

I have worked with different BPM products over the past 20 years and I find that IBM BAW has become a very mature one. It works very well compared to competing solutions.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

We are IBM partners and I'm an enterprise architect.

This product is tightly integrated with the RPA automation process which has a lot of good features. They have recently made some enhancements and added new features. 

There are several areas where improvements could be made including with engagement of OCR capabilities. We currently need to write a lot of customization code and I think if that could be reduced it would improve performance. A similar solution like Pega doesn't require that level of code writing.  

I've been using this solution for 11 years. 

The solution is stable. IBM leads when it comes to automation.

The customer service is very good, we're happy with it. 

Compare to other solutions, the licensing costs are reasonable. 

I rate this solution eight out of 10. 

We use it to manage our client's business processes. This process is related to insurance claims, particularly for situations like house damage, accidents, or loss. When a policyholder files a claim, a person uses a mobile device to collect all the necessary information. Once all the data is gathered, it triggers a series of backend processes. Recently, one of our clients provided us with a workflow that needs to be implemented in both Business Automation Workflow and Business Automation Manager to estimate the project's scope and requirements.

Its interface is well-designed and user-friendly. Often, when you initiate an action, you get a pop-up notification that appears on the screen. The issue with this is that it's disruptive and can interrupt your workflow. You have to either close it or wait for it to disappear before you can proceed to the next step. This can be quite frustrating, especially if these notifications keep coming up frequently. As an IT user, it's important for me that the interface doesn't constantly disrupt my work with a barrage of pop-ups.

One significant challenge is the lack of accessible forums or resources to seek help or information when problems arise. This can indeed slow down the learning process and add to the time required for mastering the tool.

I have been working with it for the last three months.

I would rate the stability capabilities nine out of ten.

I would rate its scalability abilities eight out of ten.

I recall posting something on their support platform, but it was a bit frustrating because I had to wait for the next day to receive a response due to the time zone difference. This delay felt like it was wasting my time. I would rate it seven out of ten.

Neutral

Setting up is relatively straightforward, with a clear and simple installation process.

While it can be quite costly, it offers significant benefits for users. It excels in terms of features, functionality, and handling of various tasks, making it a valuable asset for improving efficiency and productivity. I would rate it seven out of ten.

Implementing IBM Automation Workflow has the potential to significantly enhance business operations by reducing game time and increasing post-automation efficiency. This includes the ability to generate reports for analyzing and optimizing processes. In the long term, it's a seamless investment that can lead to substantial savings in terms of both time and money and this improvement will result in increased customer satisfaction, making it a valuable choice for businesses. Overall, I would rate it eight out of ten.

We are in the initial stages and using general approvals in the office within the departments that move through this system.

It's a flexible solution.

I feel that the features are not user-friendly. For small things, we contact the consultants.

There should be some reporting feature for data access, as well as easy dashboards. 

There are third-party reporting features available, and IBM's own reporting features, but they are much more expensive.

In the next release, they should have a good dashboard.

We have been working with IBM Business Automation Workflow for two years.

We are using the latest version.

It is a stable product. We have not had any issues.

We are still in the initial phases and not that many people are using it. We have not faced any issues with scalability.

We have between 30 to 50 users in our organization. We plan to continue using this solution.

We are trying to roll-out company-wide with the next couple of years and move towards IBM Business Automation.

Currently, we have a contract with the consultant and we do not need support from the vendor.

Previously, we did not use another solution. Most of what was used were manual.

We have a small team of three to four in-house and the consultant has a team of four to five.

The installation was done through a consultant.

There are licensing fees.

When you compare with Laserfiche and M-Files, IBM is expensive.

We being a government organization, our options are to select the product to open bidding. 

At this time this product is being rolled out in the initial phase of implementation with the intention of going company-wide. So at this point, it's too early to switch to some other product.

This is a product that I would recommend to others who are interested in using it.

I would rate IBM Business Automation Workflow a seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for business process management.

The solution's most valuable aspect is the fact it is highly configurable. We can do configurations very easily. 

You can do customizations very easily and because of this, it is highly flexible. 

The setup is very easy.

The UI of the solution is not good. They should work to update the solution and make it better and fresher.

They should consider adding robotics.

There should be a move to integrate the solution with RPA.

I've been using the solution for five years.

The level of stability varied at first. Initially, we had issues in terms of setup and things like that. Now, as time has passed, I believe it has improved. 

We might have had issues because of a lack of knowledge on our part.

From the second year on, we haven't faced any issues with stability. We now consider it to be quite stable. 

The level of scalability a company can achieve depends on what version they have.

Depending on the version, users can do horizontal or vertical scaling.

We haven't had any problems with scaling so far in our organization.

We have about 3,000+ users on the solution currently.

When we have any issues, we raise a ticket with support. However, I don't recollect raising a new ticket with IBM in the past 24 months now at least. We don't have too much contact with them.

We found the initial setup to be very straightforward.

The first deployment took about three to four weeks.

We handled the implementation ourselves, in house.

It's very difficult to quantify a return on investment in the entire class form. What we do is we take a process and then we look at implementing the process for the entire platform.

There's just a standard licensing fee. There aren't additional hidden costs to worry about. For example, a company wouldn't need to pay extra for access to technical support.

The solution is like a chart on the overall operations of our organization. We use it every day. It's a part of our processes. It's used every minute.

A company that is considering implementing it must make sure they have people on staff that have the right skill sets from day one to manage the solution. I would suggest if there isn't someone well versed in IBM, that someone gets training before the implementation process.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.