Our main use for Signavio Process Manager is to document our process and look at how we can improve them. We also use it as a basis for communication, internally and externally, to show workflows and ask for feedback. You can really see what has to be done on both the development and user's side.
IT Team Assistant for Integrity and Compliance at TUI Group
A complete package that includes a QuickModel feature to help you start working right away
Pros and Cons
- "The formatting features are quite good because you can create very complex models, but you can easily clean them up so that they look very nice."
- "I would like to be able to include images in the documentation."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Signavio is very easy to use. I've seen some other products and the modeling in this solution is super fast. I like the QuickModel feature, where I can sit down with someone who isn't into process modeling at all. You can just type out the steps that there are, and then later clean it up into a proper process model.
Using this solution has helped when we work together on a project with a lot of different people. In our compliance environment, you have several people in different roles. There is me, who is the technical person on the team. There are lawyers that bring in the expertise and the content. Then, you have developers that actually build the platform for us. Having a diagram instead of a ten-page document that describes what we want to do gives us a language that everybody understands. We can all sit there, look at the process, and everybody understands what is going on. On the basis of that, it is very easy to talk about what we need to do. It actually surprised me to see how good it is for communication and for simplifying complex topics.
The adoption is good in our own team, although overall, it is not going as we'd like. There are other teams in our company that started using it, but usually, there are only one or two real modelers in each team. This is especially true because of the license, as not everyone is going to get a license for modeling. This means that you always have experts, so to say. Normally, the other users look at the Collaboration Hub and then use comments.
We have not yet begun the integration of process modeling, mining, and automation. In fact, we haven't really begun to optimize yet. We are still in the first process of documenting our current processes and unifying them.
We are trying to work on the process-improvement lifecycle at the moment, but we aren't there yet. I've seen that the Velocity update is going to provide us with something that's going to make this easier and nicer for us to do, especially from a visual perspective. Some users need a nice visual picture and there are some things that come with the update that I think will be very beneficial for us.
With respect to giving all of the users what they need, it is hard for me to say. We mainly have power users, experts, and then we have a few users who only leave comments. We haven't rolled out the Collaboration Hub on the whole company yet.
While we have not rolled out the Collaboration Hub company-wide, I can say that in my team, it has helped create a process-centric mindset. When we do a project, we try to document everything that we want to do in Signavio, including the lifecycle. It really helps to keep us focused on what we want to get and what we have to keep in mind for the whole process.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is modeling. It is very quick and easy.
The formatting features are quite good because you can create very complex models, but you can easily clean them up so that they look very nice.
The customization is very valuable because we use a lot of attributes, which helps us with how we look at our processes and also the steps in our documentation.
The QuickModel feature allows you to start right away, put down a model, and then clean it up later. It's very quick and easy and we like that.
What needs improvement?
As a standard user, I would really like to have more flexibility in the visualization, especially on the main page of the Collaboration Hub to make it easier. I would like it to show cycles and other things, rather than just boxes and arrows.
I would like to be able to include images in the documentation.
Buyer's Guide
SAP Signavio Process Manager
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about SAP Signavio Process Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I generally have not had problems with stability issues. It's running really fast and smooth especially for how complex some of the diagram sketches are. The only problem is that it's online-only, and there's nothing like an offline feature, which means that it is only as stable as your internet connection.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have set Signavio up in different departments and it is easy to just add more users. There is the option to set up a separate platform inside the company if it is necessary. It has always been easy to do, but we have not yet reached our full potential.
How are customer service and support?
Signavio's technical support is very good. They are very nice, helpful, and fast in replying. It is not the case, as with some solutions, where you feel like you are talking to a wall and only get standard replies. Our experience is that we've had a responsible person that has called us back and showed us things the right way. It is very nice and I really like the support.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
The other solutions that I have seen are BOC ADONIS, Camunda BPM, and some free stuff as well. That had a few nice features, but I really like the way that Signavio functions.
What other advice do I have?
Some of the quality-of-life improvements that I had wished for seem to be included in the new version. My understanding is that things have been made easier for an end-user to just click through it and find the way, like a Wiki.
My advice to anybody who is researching this type of solution is to connect with Signavio and ask them for a webinar or presentation. They are very good at showing things that you might not notice in the normal advertisements, or if you just look at it by yourself. They know the basic application and what you need it for, and they can show you the features that might be of interest to you.
I am very happy with the product. I have seen some other tools, and Signavio is the whole package. It is easy to use, quick to use, I like the features, I like the support, and I like the people who are working behind it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Operations Change at Morgan Stanley
Helps us to go back to basics and document our processes in a standard way, in a central repository
Pros and Cons
- "The reason we chose Signavio is it's a very robust industrial-grade business process modeling data tool, with data capture behind it, as well as a collaborative nature. A lot of it comes out of the box and requires less technology involvement. It can be run well by the business users. That's what we really like about it."
- "I think the interface itself can improve a bit. I think the interface is still stuck about a decade in the past, if I may be so brutal about it. Some of the buttons are really small, so you can't even see them. I think it needs upgrading to the 21st century with apps and the way we use mobile phones."
What is our primary use case?
Our use case is to get a better understanding of our process. We want to get right to the core of it. We went through a multi-year automation journey and we found that most people really didn't know their processes well enough. Signavio is helping us to go back to basics a bit and document our processes in a standard way in a central repository. It also gives us a better understanding of the process so that we can be more targeted, accurate, and effective in the way we do our transformation.
How has it helped my organization?
It is still early days, but we have big plans. We want to embed the use and maintenance of the process data into everything that we do. We have various roles and operations from line management and business management to risks, supervisors, and change people. We need to embed the consistent use of a single store, a golden source of data for everything that we do. Our plan is to get the process documented, but then make sure that people use that, so it's not something that sits on a shelf somewhere and people only look at it when there's a problem or issue.
In terms of a business transformation, we've had a couple of successes and good examples, but we're going slowly, so it's going to take us some time to get there. We're setting the foundation for it, hopefully.
Signavio's phone apps help improve employee's workday functions, certainly on the chain side. People that typically pick up a process map for everything that they do are getting a lot of use out of it. The feedback so far is this is great. This is something that we needed. We've gone through a lot of transformation over the last ten years, but this is setting the stage for the future.
What is most valuable?
The reason we chose Signavio is it's a very robust industrial-grade business process modeling data tool, with data capture behind it, as well as a collaborative nature. A lot of it comes out of the box and requires less technology involvement. It can be run well by business users. That's what we really like about it.
It is also easy to use. We were using Visio, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and Paint until very recently to document our processes. Through this automation program I was leading, we were using another product, which has the word blue in it, which was a leg up from Visio, but still not quite what we were expecting. For us, it's really about the data-driven aspect so we are able to access the data and stitch different things together, especially when you're looking at things in hindsight.
What needs improvement?
There are a couple of things that could be improved. First, I think the interface itself can improve a bit. I think the interface is still stuck about a decade in the past, if I may be so brutal about it. Some of the buttons are really small, so you can't even see them. I think it needs upgrading to the 21st century with apps and the way we use mobile phones.
Secondly, although the navigation is fine and the customization is absolutely phenomenal, it is difficult to create different perspectives and views without having to take the data out of the system and use a BI tool. Those would be sort of the two main things from my perspective.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using this product for less than six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
There have been no major issues, as we are on-premises. We're not on a cloud origin, although we'd like to move to that at some point.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We're actually working on extending our licenses. We want to almost double the number of licenses we have. That's because the amount of engagement we've had has been really good.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their support is okay. Sometimes, we find that the turnaround time isn't as great and it can sometimes takes a few chasers to get a response, but for the most part it's okay.
What was our ROI?
This is the kind of question my boss would ask me. He said, "What's the ROI?" I would tell him that the ROI will be in the future. We've had a couple of examples where people have told us that this is what they needed. It gives them the visibility that they didn't have. It is still in the early days, though.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We started this journey with Signavio two years ago. It was actually one of my colleagues that met them at an OpEx conference in the U.S. That's sort of been our top of the list choice since then. We knew we needed to prove to ourselves and the organization that we needed a tool. That's why we used that other blue tool for a year and a half to inform our requirements and get better at it. Then we made a case for it. I think the on-premises version was always important to us. We weren't ready to put all of our stuff in the cloud yet, but I thought we were getting better at it. The collaborative nature of it and being able to customize a lot of things that we wanted without having to rely on technology support is really good. Some of the features like the API for putting data in and out provide a lot of functionality. We did a pretty extensive assessment of other solutions, but we decided that this technology was the best of all.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate this solution somewhere between a seven and eight out of ten, because of a couple of things that we would want out of the box. The whole goal for us is not to be relying on technology to support us, but I can't customize a view or use customer attributes that I created. In some cases, I can use them, but it is very limited. Basically that and the interface are the only issues I have.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
SAP Signavio Process Manager
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about SAP Signavio Process Manager. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers
Helps change the way we approach business transformation but lacks an intuitive glossary
Pros and Cons
- "It's way of handling is really an advantage. It's quite easy to use, without too much training . That's the main point for me."
- "I think the intuitive handling is an issue which they should be more focused on, especially as we have issues with the glossary. If you want to implement Signavio within procedures in contact with other software, it's quite difficult to integrate and you will have several points where you have to double and triple the work, because you cannot maintain the data centrally. With other solutions, we can integrate it and have only one data transfer, to import and export with other solutions. A glossary is still limiting us."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Signavio mainly in the context of tax compliance management systems. We are supporting clients by documenting their processes, risks, and controls within Signavio. We also use Signavio to import processes into a workflow management tool.
How has it helped my organization?
Signavio is only a part of what we are doing, maybe 10% of a project. What's important for our clients, however, is to get that transparency about the processing. This is really the success we can show by using BPMN modeling.
This product helps change the way we approach business transformation. I don't know if it's really the Signavio tool itself. It's the BPMN modeling. This helps with convincing people and supporting them throughout their transformation.
What is most valuable?
Signavio's way of handling is really an advantage. It's quite easy to use, without too much training. That's the main point for me.
It's quite difficult for clients to change from describing their process in variety to a process modeling tool. This tool helps convince them in the projects, by using BPMN modeling, which is a close step of automation. There's a code that can be machine-read and so used for further automation.
My team does not use the process intelligence function but other colleagues of ours do use it. It's helpful, but there is still a long way to go for Signavio to be a leader in this area. There are other tools.
What needs improvement?
I think the intuitive handling is an issue which they should be more focused on, especially as we have issues with the glossary. If you want to implement Signavio within procedures in contact with other software, it's quite difficult to integrate and you will have several points where you have to double and triple the work because you cannot maintain the data centrally. With other solutions, we can integrate it and have only one data transfer, to import and export with other solutions. A glossary is still limiting us.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
From time to time we have performance issues with Signavio, but in general it's stable.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support team is quite responsive but we are so deep in the details that we are really challenging them. I think my team in some cases knows much more than their technical support.
What other advice do I have?
With regard to BPMN modeling, I would rate it a seven to eight out of ten. With regard to other functions, I would say four to five.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Operations Governance and Oversight at a consultancy with 501-1,000 employees
Enables us to carry out the entire process environment life cycle in a unified manner and for our employees to be more productive
Pros and Cons
- "The fact that the repository is available on the web is the most valuable feature. It's a very simple tool. If you can use something simple and visual, you should be able to use the model as well in Signavio. It has the ability, for example, to track versioning control, so if you make updates to the processes, you have the ability to track the versions as well."
- "I think the biggest selling point that Signavio talks about is its collaborative aspect. However, there's still a lot more improvement in terms of what they can do, how they receive comments, address comments, whether they actually provide feedback, etc. There is still a little bit more improvement to be made on those areas."
What is our primary use case?
We've had a restructuring in our company last year, so a lot of functions that have come are quite new and a lot of new staff are being hired as well. It's particularly useful to have this repository of processes so that new staff can get on board easily and use the knowledge that's available to start working immediately.
How has it helped my organization?
There was a lack of clarity at our company, in terms of how certain transactions were supposed to be done. I think with this step-by-step approach in terms of process definition, as well as the ability for people to access the repository easily, we can remove any doubts of how they should be doing their work.
The solution will enable us to carry out the entire process environment life cycle in a unified manner, although we have not gone to that full cycle yet. We are just able to document our new processes as per the new business model that we have. We hope to complete the circle to go into improvement analysis next year, followed by a new version of their processes.
The solution functionality gives everyone in our organization what they need. One way or another, people are sort of developing their business processes on their own, but it differs from department to department. Now, we have a consistent way to model the processes and communicate them. It is now in one unified language.
We have not needed to make changes to our processes yet, but I think as people model their processes, they already see at the outset that there are possible improvements that can be made.
Employees are more productive because they can do a transaction without any ambiguity or issues down the line.
Signavio is approaching the point where its collaborative features will help to create a process-centric mindset. The good thing is the fact that you can raise comments on processors, which gives a lot of power to the end-users. They can say which areas need to be improved or get back at the process modelers to improve their processes in the future.
What is most valuable?
The fact that the repository is available on the web is the most valuable feature. It's a very simple tool. If you can use something simple and visual, you should be able to use the model as well in Signavio. It has the ability, for example, to track versioning control, so if you make updates to the processes, you have the ability to track the versions as well.
We had a solution before that was not as easy to use. A recent internal survey showed that people have found that Signavio is much more user-friendly. One of our goals was to make sure that our own staff is able to learn a model as opposed to relying on external resources. Our staff was able to be trained on how to use this tool and the model they own for themselves. In terms of ease use, it's very good.
What needs improvement?
I think the biggest selling point that Signavio talks about is its collaborative aspect. However, there's still a lot more improvement in terms of what they can do, how they receive comments, address comments, whether they actually provide feedback, etc. There is still a little bit more improvement to be made on those areas.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I think it's been very stable so far. There have been no crashes or other issues. We're happy with their regular updates.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Currently, we don't have that many users, so we can't yet test it in terms of scaling up. So far we have gone from ten users initially up to 50 modelers. We are also increasing the number of people accessing the collaboration hub. So far, so good.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their technical support is very good. They have a very good way of accessing the users and are able to easily put our tickets forward to resolve them. On top of that, I feel that we still have customer success managers as well who check in periodically to see whether we are happy with the solution overall and see how they can help out with that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We had an older solution that was not as easy to use and our staff was not able to learn how to use the previous tool. With Signavio, one of the selling points is that everybody comes out of a one to two-day training able to model their processes. You get that ability to do it yourself and start modeling very fast.
How was the initial setup?
Our experience was that we used Signavio's own consulting team to do something called a rapid deployment. This was a quick and easy way to introduce Signavio into the organization. In just a few days, they came on site and talked to us to understand our context and situation. Then they could configure the entire solution. It's a very easily convertible solution anyway. Nonetheless, they walked us through it and it gave us the confidence to use the solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I think we're spending about $150,000 a year on licensing costs.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I think we were looking at a few state-of-the-art vendors that are out there. They were famous ones like Bizagi, KiSSFLOW, etc. Signavio ticked all of our boxes because you have the ability to model in open formats, such as BPMN, they have a web-based portal, and it was simpler. The other solutions can get a little bit more complicated. This one was a simple, easy to use software that was good for us.
What other advice do I have?
If you are thinking of a solution where you don't have to be dependent on external resources through the modeling part and you want to be more self-sufficient, Signavio is the way to go. It enables you to get your own staff to do the process documentation easily. The most important thing is that we're able to update the processes periodically, which is what we wanted. We didn't want an obsolete processing repository after a few years. We want to give the incentive to staff to update them. That's one of the major reasons I would say you should adopt it.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. It's still a developing product and I have confidence that there is still a lot of room to improve. Of course, I'm not using the Velocity Edition yet, so I do see a lot of things that are improving in terms of integration aspects. They look and feel the same. They've integrated all the different modules. I hope that I would be able to give the Velocity Edition a nine out of ten. I think one of the issues was the fact that the solutions looked different because they brought different modules. Now, however, the new one addresses them in a more integrated fashion. The user interface is a bit lacking, which is why I only gave it a score of eight of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Easy to use and collaborate using the web-based interface that allows us to work from anywhere
Pros and Cons
- "I love the collaboration function, especially the option to invite people who don't have any users on the licenses."
- "The user administration, the user-group administration, and the license models need improvement."
What is our primary use case?
We use this product in our Integrity and Compliance Organization. The product is not rolled out throughout the whole company. When I changed my job I brought Signavio with me because I started using it in another department and thought it made a lot of sense to have it in our Compliance Management Systems Processes. It is a way of documenting and sharing the processes with the compliance community.
We haven't started the life cycle improvement because we are still working on the as-is process documentation.
We use Signavio to create our processes for digitalization and software development, also, for the improvement of the software we have. We have both, software improvement and process improvement for our compliance platform, for example.
How has it helped my organization?
We don't cover the use of business transformation. In our area, we work in the way of the process documentation and the sharing of the information with the Collaboration Hub, but in another department, they use, for example, Workflow Accelerator for the cloud migration and the transformation process.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is that this is a 100%, web-based software as a service solution. This was the reason we chose Signavio. We are working in different countries, so we need a product that is easily accessible from everywhere and is easy to use, especially in collaboration for all users. It can't be complicated.
For me, it's really easy to use this product, and it helps to model processes and to comment on them.
I love the collaboration function, especially the option to invite people who don't have any users on the licenses. This is beneficial to use and work on processes and model processes.
What needs improvement?
The user administration, the user-group administration, and the license models need improvement.
In discussions with other departments or people, a problem that I always have is the license models. They are called licenses.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. We have not had any issues or bad experiences, and also the support is very good. If we had an issue they would help resolve it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable. It has increased from when we started with only two licenses for our department, to now having three more departments with ten licenses throughout our company.
How are customer service and technical support?
The Signavio technical support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. You can set it up in the way that you want if you know it.
Not everyone should set it up on their own. If you have your administrators and people who know the system then they can set it up the way that you want.
Also, you have the support available from Signavio.
What was our ROI?
Signavio is not a strategic investment in the company. It's more for us and improving our work environment. It's a tool used to assist us in the documentation, knowing what to do and in the sharing of information. These are the benefits that this solution provides.
It's not an investment in the monetary sense, but the investment is to have a tool that we can use to become better in our process and especially in finding software. For example, when you know your processes, you know what you want then it's easier to look for different software to suits your needs.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I know other models, that have concurrent licenses, and I love it. It would be easier to promote it in this way.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
When I was looking for a new product, I had a difficult time finding a solution that covered one hundred percent of the service. Also, it was a challenge to find a good configuration, mostly in the customization, which costs money when you want to set it up in your own way.
Signavio was really flexible and very customer-minded, and this is what I really liked.
It is so easy to use, with good support.
There may be other solutions that have more functionalities, but for me, this is not what I was looking for. I wanted to have a product where I knew what I was purchasing, I didn't need extra features adding to the cost.
What other advice do I have?
We haven't used the process intelligence function.
I don't use all of the functionalities, but with what I have used, I would say that it's a product that I like to work with. There are some small points that I would change or think that could be better, but they are minor.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Gives us a single source of truth, making it easier to find and fix operational problems
Pros and Cons
- "I really like the Collaboration Hub because it's so easy to communicate. And what is really important is that you can use it asynchronously. It doesn't matter if you're working in Italy or in America. You are using the same process and you can speak about the same process."
- "There is room for improvement in the reporting function. At the moment, for example, while it is possible to report on how many users you had in the last month, you can't use it to tell you how many users you had from the first week to the second week. This is really a drawback because when you have an activity to promote Signavio or BPI, it would be good to be able to measure how many people you had in the system."
What is our primary use case?
We use Signavio as a documentation tool so that everybody gets an overview of all our processes: this is the input to the process, this is the output, and these are the people who are involved in this process.
We want to use Signavio more and more as a process tool to document how long a process runs, and maybe to see how the KPIs are running.
How has it helped my organization?
Before we had Signavio, we didn't have a single source of truth. Nobody in our organization wanted to use the old tool anymore because it was not user-friendly. With Signavio, we have a tool that the employees like because it's easy to work with. For example, in the Process Manager, everything is drag-and-drop, making it really easy to model processes. It's also easy to approve processes from the process owner. These functions are much easier than in our old tool.
Signavio Process Manager also helps bridge the gap between operational excellence and customer experience. When you have all your processes documented in the tool, if there are any operational problems, it's easier to fix them. Everything is defined—every role and every responsibility—making it easier to find and solve a problem.
What is most valuable?
I really like the Collaboration Hub because it's so easy to communicate. And what is really important is that you can use it asynchronously. It doesn't matter if you're working in Italy or in America. You are using the same process and you can speak about the same process.
I also really like the fact that even if you are just in a draft version, you can share your process with others, so that they can comment on the process, and then you can continue working on it and incorporate the suggestions of others in your process.
What needs improvement?
There is room for improvement in the reporting function. At the moment, for example, while it is possible to report on how many users you had in the last month, you can't use it to tell you how many users you had from the first week to the second week. This is really a drawback because when you have an activity to promote Signavio or BPI, it would be good to be able to measure how many people you had in the system.
Another issue is that you have revisions, and every time you save the process, it is a new revision. It would be better if we had full versions, so that when we approve a process it would be, for example, the 2.0 version. And when we work on it, it would be 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, et cetera. Once it's approved again, it would be 3.0. That way, you could see at a glance how many times a process was approved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We bought SAP Signavio Process Manager in September 2019.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In its day-to-day operation, the solution is really easy and helpful to use. But in the last few months, we have had a lot of performance issues. Sometimes Signavio has not been available for many hours. That happened three or four times within six weeks and this had led to acceptance problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We currently have about 1,000 processes in Signavio. The tool makes it easy to get an overview of the processes and it makes it easy to handle such complexity. If you only have 30 processes, it might not be necessary to have a real process management tool, but the more processes you have, the better it is to have such a tool.
We have 50 people working in Signavio and we want to increase the intensity of its use but without increasing the number of people who are modeling. The more people we have, the more complex things become. It is not easy to have all the people in meetings to keep them updated.
How are customer service and support?
Signavio's technical support is good. We have used it often and most of our issues were solved. Sometimes there have been things that can't be solved and they have been added as a feature request. But overall, the support is good because every time you send them an issue, you get feedback about it.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used BHC Vision. One of the reasons we switched was the fact that, with Signavio, everybody sees the processes well, in terms of modeling. Before, we only had a sequence flow from top to bottom, but now we have processes within lines and you can see, at the first glance, who is responsible for a given step.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the decision to buy Signavio because I was not in the organization at that time. However, I was the project manager for the implementation. I joined the company two months after the decision to go with Signavio, and I set it up.
The setup process was complex because there are so many things you have to keep in mind. There is the configuration of the system, and not only making the tool available, but the roll-out of the processes, the training, and learning all the interfaces.
In addition to me working on the setup full-time, we had an additional person who worked on it half-time. We set up the system and configured it according to the requirements of our organization. Of course, for the BPI content and the processes, there were more people involved.
We had an old tool where we had all our processes and then we had to transfer all the processes from it to Signavio. In the beginning, we thought we would do it in less than a year, but that was not manageable. It took us more than one and a half years to go live.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Due to the fact that Signavio is now part of SAP, the prices have been raised. I don't like that, of course, because we're a customer.
And what I really don't like is that when they introduced their customer Journey Modeler, we signed up for a beta version and they said to us that we could use this version for the next year without having to pay anything for it. Three months later they said, "Okay, so now the beta version is finished and you have to buy the licenses." And those licenses are really expensive. In comparison to Process Manager, it's not reasonable. The customer Journey Modeler is more than twice the price of Process Manager, which is a lot.
What other advice do I have?
Don't do everything on your own. Ask for help at an early stage. If we had involved Signavio's consultants at an earlier stage, we would have benefited from their best practices that they have learned from working with other customers. We should have trusted their evaluation because Signavio said, at the beginning, with our scenario, that we wouldn't go live in less than a year, and after a year we agreed with them that we wouldn't manage to do so. But it does take time and effort to run such a project.
We don't use the solution to identify and quantify issues during the customer journey. At the moment, for us, it's really only a documentation tool. But of course, in the future, when our organization is more customer-centric, we'll definitely use this.
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Manager at a consultancy with 51-200 employees
High usability and good collaboration tools help bring everybody closer to the process
Pros and Cons
- "The collaboration hub, which helps us in terms of being able to communicate with our customers, brings everybody into the tool and close to the process, allowing them to comment and to implement their own processes."
- "One of the most important points in Signavio that would be a great change would be the management of variants of the process."
What is our primary use case?
We are working to help our customers with manufacturing use cases from areas such as the automotive sector, mechanical engineering, production, and OEMs. Most of the time, it is end-to-end processes.
Our specialty is supply chain management on operational manufacturing, and in this environment, we usually use Signavio to model end-to-end processes.
How has it helped my organization?
I would rate the ease of use for this solution at five stars. The customers are more open to actually work with the product and in the product landscape because it's so easy to use compared to other products, where changes and remarks are very intransparent. This is a big advantage to Signavio.
We worked together with Signavio for a customer and six months ago they had nothing. That was a complete greenfield approach. I would say from March this year up to November they began with zero users to now it's a complete 180-degree change. They started from nothing and now everybody's using Signavio, communicating and collaborating and modeling their processes.
With regard to the solution’s integration of process modeling, mining, and automation, we usually get started from a maturity-level point of view. We've got our own framework to independently assess different customers process landscapes, and this is firstly done by our maturity level questionnaire, then intense interviews and workshops, and by having a thorough look at the data documents. It's pretty much hands-on and a lot of talking.
This solution enables us to carry out the entire process-improvement lifecycle in a unified hub, otherwise, we wouldn't use it.
I think that this solution gives our users everything they need in terms of functionality. In my opinion, it's customizable enough that you can realize your own ideas, but it's also standard enough that you don't have to make too many changes.
What is most valuable?
The usability of Signavio is at a very high level.
The Collaboration Hub, which helps us in terms of being able to communicate with our customers, brings everybody into the tool and close to the process, allowing them to comment and to implement their own processes. That is very important for us because that makes the process-based change really successful for the customer.
Signavio one hundred percent underlines the mind change that is required to implement a successful process landscape.
What needs improvement?
We very often face situations where Signavio comes to its limits. One of the most important points in Signavio that would be a great change would be the management of variants of the process. This is very unhandy at the moment and what would bring a benefit to Signavio, as well as to the customer, is an even closer integration of the collaboration tools. These are the process manager, workflow accelerator, and process intelligence.
For how long have I used the solution?
We are using the process manager and the Collaboration Hub.
This is a solution that we deploy for our customers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have no worries with respect to stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's always a little work to scale this type of solution. When you start with, for example, two modelers and a handful of collaboration app users, it's very easy to handle. If you scale, you have to think of different aspects like user management or rights and so on. That said, we have had no problem with scalability.
We've implemented Signavio for companies with about one thousand employees. We have also implemented Signavio for a company with fifteen thousand employees and the scaling never was a problem.
How are customer service and technical support?
I had a situation last year on the 24th of December, which is Christmas Eve in Germany. Usually nobody is working. I had a problem with my workspace and I rang up the support line. One hour later, everything was absolutely fine. That was really the best customer service impression I've ever had.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I personally found out about Signavio about seven years ago and just followed the company, their internal roadmap, and the development. I liked what I saw because they kept the pace over the last six, seven years.
But in general I had worked and I'm still working with different solutions. It's most important that we can work with the tools the customer requires.
How was the initial setup?
From the technical point of view, it's very simple because as soon as you use a cloud solution, you don't have to worry about anything.
From the hands-on and from the working point of view, it might be a little bit difficult if you have never worked with BPMN. However, as soon as you get into it and based on the help Signavio or the tool provides, as soon as you start to work in it, it is pretty straightforward. If you're a motivated user it might take one to two weeks and then you are fully functional in Signavio.
What was our ROI?
We just finished a proof of concept with an automotive supplier in Germany where we completed a very rough analysis of about two weeks. We tried, based on the process intelligence approach, to improve the procure to pay process. For example, in this process we identified a quarterly potentially for savings of about €70,000 ($77,000 USD). That's definitely a saving.
We also have a customer that started from a blank sheet of paper and now they have an entirely functioning process landscape. This is intangible and not really a money-wise benefit, but they gained a thousand people in the process landscape during half a year. That's amazing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
To get a more objective view, we did a study last year. This was an internal study where we compared seventy BPMN tools and in the end, there were four or five tools, depending on the use case, that we put on our internal chart list.
Signavio was one of them. Depending on the use case, there might be one or two tools that we also would recommend to a customer. From an overall point of view, Signavio just had the best evaluation based on our survey. When it comes to high-end tool functionalities, they are very close to each other. However, with Signavio, it was also the support, the service, and the prospective. They are really trying to build some good features into the tool over the next one or two years. I'm very sure that they will outperform even the other vendors on our shortlist.
What other advice do I have?
Our clients are not currently using the process intelligence functionality because of a lack of quality data. However, some are starting to implement SAP this year and based on this implementation and the gathered data, there will be definitely a process intelligence or process mining approach. This will happen in the next two to three years.
From our internal BPMN survey of over seventy tools, I feel that Signavio is still a very good choice. That said, there is always room for improvement.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a consulting partner of Signavio
Director at Celeris Software, Inc.
Ability to do business process models, but needs better automatic rendering of data
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of SAP Signavio Process Manager is the ability to do business process models."
- "SAP Signavio Process Manager needs better automatic rendering of data."
What is our primary use case?
SAP Signavio Process Manager is used for business process management and enterprise architecture.
How has it helped my organization?
SAP Signavio Process Manager has helped create a centralized repository using an industry-standard business modeling paradigm.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of SAP Signavio Process Manager is the ability to do business process models.
What needs improvement?
The ease of use for creating business process models could be improved because the modelling interface is crude and primitive. SAP Signavio Process Manager needs better automatic rendering of data.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SAP Signavio Process Manager for almost a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SAP Signavio Process Manager has good stability. I rate SAP Signavio Process Manager a nine out of ten for stability.
What other advice do I have?
I am using the latest version of SAP Signavio Process Manager. Before choosing SAP Signavio Process Manager, check for its ability to integrate with other applications in your landscape.
Overall, I rate SAP Signavio Process Manager a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: October 2024
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