Low-Code vs BPM Software: What’s the Difference?

BPM software has always been known for being clunky and hard to use. Despite this, it’s an essential tool for any organization that wants to excel at process management. Taking full advantage of BPMS, however, is far from easy: to make even the most basic changes to your apps (or processes), you’d need the help of a specialized engineer. To make the process easier, BPM provides have been focused on developing low-code platforms, which allow users to create apps with extreme simplicity.

The Need for Low-Code BPM

BPM software has been around for a while – it’s been a must-have for enterprise companies since the 1990s.

And the reason for this is crystal clear. Process management and improvement provider a lot of different benefits for your organization.

• Process Enforcement – Formal BPM processes enforce protocol. i.e, your employees will follow whatever rules you set up for the process.
• Agility – Without BPMS, you’d need to spend a lot of time on convincing your employees to do things in a certain way. With the software, you can simply make adjustments to the process & your employees will simply follow new protocol
• Improve Company-Wide Productivity – As a result of the first two, your company becomes more productive, which leads to higher profits.

While this does sound amazing on paper, though, it often doesn’t hold up in practice. Getting BPM to work isn’t easy.

To begin with, the software is hard to set up – you’d need to spend months looking for the best deal, and even longer for your software provider to install it for you.

Let’s say you already went through the initial trouble of installing the software – you’d think that you’re half-way there. Well, not really. Actually getting your company to use the software is a whole different dilemma.

See, from a user experience perspective, most BPM providers tend to have a very big drawback. They’re…

• Hard to Use. You would actually need to train your employees on how to use any given BPM software. It’s a known fact that tech adoption is already hard for your employees – they won’t be too happy if your BPM software will take weeks to learn and make sense of. To make sure that the BPMS is used, you’d have to monitor your employees, which is a hard task on its own.
• Hard to Customize. To make any changes to your processes, you’d need the help of specialized software engineers. So, if you mess up something when setting up the processes, you’ll end up paying a bunch to have them fixed.

So now you have 2 whole new problems to deal with. Because of this, some companies tend to simply forget about their new BPM software, call it a sunk cost and move on.

Using low-code BPM software, however, can help solve both of these problems.

Low-Code BPM

For the past few years, most BPM software providers have been focusing on developing low-code capabilities. i.e software that doesn’t require almost any development experience to use. Depending on the software, this is done through different means. Some use BPMN2 with drag & drop graphs. Others, such as Tallyfy, have their own proprietary process design model.

The simple user experience allows your organization to create and modify apps without any intervention from the C-suite – it’s as simple as your average task-management software and can be used by just about anyone. This, in turn, makes BPMS setup much easier & yields results that were previously impossible.

The following table describes the main differentiators between the two platform types…

Conclusion – Low-Code is the New BPMS

Looking at the benefits offered by Low-Code BPM, it’s pretty nonsensical to even consider the hassle of adopting old-school BPM software.

Low-code allows you to build apps within minutes, rather than months. The traditional BPM adoption process – months of planning, researching and development – is replaced with a simple 5-minutes registration.

So, why don’t you give low-code BPMS a try?

Related Questions

Is BPMN low-code?

BPMN itself is not low-code – it’s just a way to sketch out business processes, drawing a picture of how work transmits. Although BPMN diagrams are just as applicable in low-code as they are in traditional development, they’re simply the design. Get exposed to BPMN, it’s like the architects’ drawing, and low-code platforms are the modern building blocks that allow you to build the working solution so much quicker.

What is the difference between low-code and software development?

In the world of traditional software development, it’s building a house from the ground up – you cut every piece of wood and swing every hammer. Low-code is more akin to using pre-made blocks that snap into one another. With low-code, you can organize applications by dragging and dropping elements, whereas conventional development is about manually writing out code line by line. This allows low-code to be far more efficient and the domain of the non-programmer.

What is the difference between BPM and workflow?

BPM (Business Process Management) is analogous to managing traffic in a city, whereas a workflow could be considered just a form of managing the traffic in a single street. BPM will examine all of your business processes together, making it possible for you to optimize and enhance them as a whole. Workflows are more straightforward, concentrating on getting work from one step to the next, similar to following a recipe. BPM tools frequently offer workflow features, however, and they have far more sophisticated functionalities for analyzing and optimizing overall business processes Fare from it.

What is a BPM code?

BPM code is simply that code that makes up Business Process Management software. It’s the commands that let the software know how to process various business rules, conditions and actions. Yet contemporary BPM platforms – e.g. – can cut the necessity for coding and comprehensive technical understanding by presenting non-technical users with visual interfaces and a set of pre-built components, allowing such users to design and edit businesses processes more easily.

How do low-code platforms compare to BPM software in terms of flexibility?

Low-code platforms are great for quickly delivering straightforward apps, but can falter when faced with more complex business logic. In comparison, BPM software may take longer to roll out; however, it allows for greater customization in business processes that may be complicated. It’s the difference between a flat pack piece of furniture and a bespoke bit of carpentry – both have their uses depending on what you want.

Can low-code platforms replace traditional BPM software?

Low-code platforms can accomplish a lot of rudimentary process management, but they won’t necessarily supplant traditional BPM software altogether for complex enterprise demands. They may be just what you need for simpler workflows and faster development, but if you have complex process needs, your organization might still require the features and functionality of more traditional BPM systems.

What are the cost implications of choosing low-code vs BPM software?

Low-code platforms usually have less upfront costs and faster time to value, more manageable for smaller companies that are more budget-conscious. More traditional heavy weight BPM software can take more to set up, time and cost wise but may offer more long term value for enterprise level complex requirements. Think of it as deciding whether to purchase a prefab shed or build a custom garage.

How does the learning curve compare between low-code and BPM platforms?

Low-code platforms are meant for rapid uptake, with user-friendly tools that business users can wrap their heads around in weeks. in contrast, BPM software is more complex and can require months of ramp time and don’t really need this many technical skills. That’s a bit of a steeper learning curve, but provides you with some of the most powerful process management on the system.

Which option is better for scaling business processes?

BPM software tends to do large scale process management better than LCM with features to support complex organizations. Low-code platforms are gaining ground, but could be restricted in the case of very complex or high-volume processes. Consider low-code as ideal for dept level applications, where BPM suits more enterprise-wide deployments.