webMethods.io Reviews

We use this enterprise integration application to support web service portals, B2B processes. I'm a consultant and we are customers of webMethods.io.

The internal services that they provide make it easy to work with. It's easy to construct new interfaces like apps, client portals, and so on because they consume the portal services that we provide.

I think rules engine processes and BPM processes should be improved. I think they must accommodate the future of the communication between systems and that is related to web services and the like. 

I've been using this product for 20 years. 

The support is at a medium level of satisfaction. 

The initial implementation was straightforward but then there are multiple requests that follow and that may be more difficult. WebMethods is used to provide services to the portal. Users don't directly use our platform; they use the platform that uses our platform and in that sense we probably have about 1,000 users. We don't have plans to increase usage for now. 

My advice is to pay attention to the human resources because it's difficult to have senior consultants in all areas, it's rare. There aren't many good, experienced consultants in the market. 

I rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Primary use case is to provide ESB for legacy and SOA services, Business Process Management with BPMS and API Gateway for external partners.

We moved from EAI to SOA architecture while moving to webMethods. Both of these decisions made the reusable services approach available across the organization.

Best feature is Insight for monitoring, and as a debugging tool. It has saved us a lot of time during crisis situations.

The product needs to be improved in a few ways. First, they need to stabilize the components of the whole platform across versions. Also, they should stop replacing old components with brand new ones and, rather, improve by evolution.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

Average. No super-fast responses, no problems ultimately in resolving, and also no long, unresolved issues.

Complex, regarding previous architecture and full SOA stack deployment.

Microsoft BizTalk, JBoss SOA.

It is a bundled product stack for A2A and B2B usage. It is one of the best products which I have used during my integration career.

It has all the features required to integrate and manage file transfers, Partner Management, logging mechanisms, adapters for mainframes, SAP, and many others.

Need to see more API portal features like monetizing APIs and private cloud readiness.

I have been using this product stack for several years now.

There were no deployment issues.

There were no stability issues.

There were no scalability issues on-premises, but I have yet to check with the virtualization concepts and cloud scalability coming up.

Customer service is good.

Technical support is good.

We did not try another solution previously.

The setup was well-documented.

We implemented with an internal team and we had vendor support.

It is worth the cost.

We checked with TIBCO for EAI and the MQ series for messaging.

It is a good product stack.

Customers use it for B2B integration, such as exchanging EPI or EDR documents, as well as settlement documents.

With webMethods, the creation of servers and the utilization of Trading Networks facilitate B2B integration. It resolves any related issues effectively.

Perhaps in the area of Microservices, where I think Trading Networks could benefit from some improvements.

We have experience in webMethods for 20 years. We have a lot of experience using Trading Networks for B2B integration. Our customers also use Trading Networks for B2B integration.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable.

The customer service and support team has been good.

Neutral

The setup is easy. Moreover, it is easy to maintain.

The feedback we receive indicates that the value they derive from webMethods surpasses the cost.

Trading Networks is high priced and quite expensive.

Our customers use this solution because it is well-known to them, so they choose Trading Networks when they require B2B integration.

I would definitely recommend using this solution. Overall, I would give this solution an eight out of ten.

Currently, we're using this solution for the integration server which helps us to integrate with the mainframe.

This solution could be improved by offering subscription based licensing.

We have been using this solution since 2012. 

This is a stable solution.

This is a scalable solution. 

I would rate the initial setup of this solution a three and a half out of five. 

I would like to have training for my team members, but the training offered is a little bit expensive.

When we started using this tool, we compared it with different tools like IBM message broker and Method. 

Some who consider this solution often avoid it due to its price. Overall, webMethods offers a good user experience and is easy to use for our company. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. 

Having experience with various EAI and ESB tools like Oracle Service Bus (former BEA Aqualogic) and Webmethods summary would be that everything can be done with any technology.

However the difference may be the time needed in order to implement the same integration features based on the existing product features.

From my point of view a good EAI and ESB solution needs to have what Webmethods offers

• a layer on top to isolate developers from the J2EE implementation ie to avoid implementing integration services in pure Java as if you were just coding the integration in Java
• Provides needed adapters yes, but with an intuitive front end that allows you to configure and use them (e.g setup number of retries for transient connectivity errors) rather than program in Java to implement calls to use the adapters
• A platform that allows continuous integration with a deployment engine and dependencies (and their changes) resolved and centralized in the server as a repository.

Some features reviewed

• Unit testing & Debugging capabilities: Webmethods allows you to debug your services in a step by step mode with variable watchers whereas in other programming oriented EAI solutions the testing in not dynamic and we can only rely in SOAPUI executions and reviewing returned XMLs and logs. From my point of view this is a decision driver.
• Data Mapping capabilities and XML management: In Webmethods you don’t need to work with XML parsing (if you don’t really want to) and data mapping and transformation is natural and based on UI drag&drop capabilities (No need to use XQuery or XPath if not needed). In webmethods you work with the Pipeline concept and needed transformations using a GUI designer. Canonical document transformations can be created fairly simple. Document structure/schemas are centralized in the server repository so there are no discrepancies when a document structure changes. If a document structure changes all services using that document get automatically updated. I still recall how complicated it was to manage XML transformations, parsing and schema dependencies within other EAI packages. Mapping was basically relying again on coding, XSLT transformation and library dependencies.
• In other solutions, basic tasks (like setting up a DB connection and test that) should not start a huge discussion troubleshoot thread leading the developer to spend most of his time troubleshooting and discussing about technical issues e.g not why he/she cannot connect to the database.
• Deployment and code changes: Webmethods has a central repository where an app dev resource is locking a given resource. Until that resource is unlocked nobody else can work on that item. Once a component is changed there is no deployment, changes are already in that environment. Once the code has been changed and unit tested migrating this to the next environment is a matter of a couple of clicks (no need to restart the server or wait minutes before you can see the changes). This helps having a system that allows maintaining continuous integration.
• Audit and logs: This is natural and simple in Webmethods, you can flag any service to be audited in their log database (on success and/or errors, when the service starts, exits, including parameters or not). You don’t need to have any extra coding for that. You can then use those logs to run your reports in SQLServer.
• Small features that help speeding up development, just as an example: commenting steps in an integration process is fairly simple in Webmethods while in other EAI solutions is a nightmare or impossible.

We used webmethods in an EAI project to integrate transactions from a bespoken HR Portal (e.g bank details change, new hire, salary increase, etc...) to update two different customer ERP systems in the back-end (SAP HR and PeopleSoft) thus providing self service capabilities to end users and reducing the need for manual data entry by agents (prone to errors and systems not being synchronized)

At least in SAG Webmethods 8 there was no Data Value Repository tool that would allow to map values/codes from source (in our case HR portal) and transform that into target ERP codes (SAP and PeopleSoft)

We therefore had to create our own solution and make calls at runtime to that repository (we called it Value List Repository or VLR for short) to resolve correct values in target.

We use webMethods Trading Networks mostly for B2B use cases.

webMethods Trading Networks is a stable solution.

The solution could be improved in the VTA part.

The solution should include REST API calls.

I have been using webMethods Trading Networks for more than 20 years.

webMethods Trading Networks is a scalable solution. We mostly recommend the solution to big companies.

The solution's initial setup is straightforward.

Since webMethods Trading Networks is much like proprietary software, users should try it on the trial version first and do some POC.

Overall, I rate webMethods Trading Networks a nine out of ten.

The tool helps with the integration between multiple entities at the same time.

webMethods Integration Server needs to add more adapters. 

The product is very stable. 

webMethods Integration Server is scalable. We use it daily. 

webMethods Integration Server's setup was straightforward. The tool's deployment took one to two hours to complete. 

I would rate webMethods Integration Server an eight out of ten.