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Pros and Cons of IBM Blueworks — with an IBM Blueworks Alternative

Profile Photo of Amit Kothari
By Amit Kothari
Updated November 2, 2024
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IBM Blueworks

This is about the strengths and weaknesses of IBM Blueworks BPM along with a viable alternative for Blueworks (Tallyfy). Much of it is borrowed from Gartner, with some portions edited and cleaned up.

IBM is enhancing the intelligence of its Smarter Process products through the use of complementary Watson technologies, resulting in what it calls Cognitive Business Operations. It also improved cloud-based deployments by enhancements in Blueworks Live and a licensing approach that allows customers to apply purchase credits to either on-premises or cloud versions of BPM. This review centers on IBM Business Process Manager v.8.5.6, IBM Business Process Manager on Cloud, Blueworks Live, Operational Decision Manager (ODM) Advanced v.8.7 and Business Monitor v.8.5.6. iBPMS projects also may include IBM Analytical Decision Management, IBM Bluemix, IBM Streams, IBM FileNet Content Manager, IBM Integration Bus, IBM MobileFirst Platform and other products.

Strengths of IBM Blueworks and IBM BPM

  • IBM offers a notably broad set of product features, capable of supplying almost any function desired to address the eight dimensions of the Gartner Process IQ Framework. Its products support most relevant industry standards, so developers can readily mix and match IBM products with software from other vendors.
  • IBM is a leader in decision management and analytics, including rule processing in IBM BPM and ODM, BAM in IBM BPM and Business Monitor, CEP in IBM ODM Advanced and IBM Streams, and advanced analysis in Watson Analytics and Watson cognitive services.
  • IBM has made it easier for business people to participate in development through enhancements in Blueworks Live and a new Simple Process Accelerator process design tool. IBM Business Process Manager also helps business users execute unfamiliar or complex tasks at runtime using its familiar Process Coach UIs.

Weaknesses of IBM Blueworks and IBM BPM

  • IBM BPM-based systems can be challenging to design, configure and deploy because most advanced applications require combining multiple products and setting many parameters and options. IBM products overlap each other in content management, business rule processing, BAM, CEP, portal, workflow/orchestration, alerting and other capabilities.
  • Customer references surveyed by Gartner provided lukewarm feedback on overall satisfaction relative to some other iBPMS vendors.
  • Customers report that IBM Business Process Manager requires a relatively high level of skills, an issue particularly in small projects using the on-premises IBM products. However, people with skills in the product appear to be more available than in past years.

Alternative to IBM Blueworks BPM — Tallyfy

Problem — BPMN makes modelling far too complicated

A great alternative to IBM Blueworks would be the ability to model processes simply. Just because you have some big BPMN model doesn’t make it clever or useful. In the end, people can/will still have to actually do the process, which comes down to email/spreadsheets (unless you want a 6-month IT project). It’s ridiculous to use BPMN in today’s age — where people collaborate and don’t follow flowcharts anyway.

Problem — only IT and business analysts can map processes

Tallyfy is the only tool that enables anyone to map out a process — since most people understand the simplicity of the tool in 60 seconds. The alternative to Blueworks is not really an alternative at all — it’s an inevitable switch that business users crave.

Problem — nobody looks at process maps while they work

Tallyfy provides self-service simplicity to workflows, along with the power you need.

Consider a beautiful alternative to IBM Blueworks — Tallyfy

It integrates to everything, and it works for everyone. Take a look at Tallyfy – as a viable, user-friendly alternative to Blueworks.

Can you tolerate the pain and cost of each person in your company wasting ~2 hours a day on busywork?

Is legacy BPM actually going to work for business users?

Tallyfy is the only process tool that anyone can understand in 60 seconds. Legacy BPM systems can take 6 months to deploy - if they work at all.

In the last 10 years - amazing changes happened to business software. "Old BPM" software is tired and broken. It never worked for business users. Here's why.

  • Users are now deciding to buy software themselves. Old BPM was bought by your IT department, who didn't generally care about user experience - as long as it was made by a large/boring company.
  • Cloud tools are now free to try by anyone, anytime. With Old BPM you had to call sales and wait for 50 questions just to look at it and finally decide it sucks.
  • People want to share workflows with clients. With Old BPM you were stuck with trying to automate internal processes only. Your clients would be very scared and run a mile from it.
  • People expect to integrate cloud tools without IT. With Old BPM you had get engineers to write code to make a simple integration. That's now become a drag-and-drop service.
  • People expect to work on phones. This means giant, clunky flowcharts in Old BPM are dead - because they don't fit on your phone's screen - and only define "the perfect process".
  • People are tired of flowcharts. Old BPM was all about the high priest telling you how a process can/will be done, and you would obey. Now - modern workers and teams are paid to collaborate.
  • People expect all the benefits of the cloud. Old BPM was never cloud-born and was never designed for the cloud. And that creates a massive bunch of missed opportunities.
  • Companies of all sizes need process management - and never had it. Since Old BPM was so expensive and complicated, only large companies could afford it. The rest of us were left out.
  • People are excited about AI - but confused about where to begin. With Old BPM you have zero chance of using AI without an army of engineers. With cloud-born systems like Tallyfy - it's childs' play to use any AI you like to run amazing automations for photos, voice, video and more.
  • The most important part is this - what does Tallyfy offer that BPMN (used by legacy BPM systems) does not? It's true - Tallyfy actually has things you need - that no BPM can offer. Read more about it here

See how to map BPMN to Tallyfy

Here's the life you don't want if you're an operations or IT leader!
This is legacy Business Process Management
Tallyfy vs. Complex, Legacy Business Process Management Suites

Legacy BPM

1Learn how to use it in 60 seconds.

Legacy BPM

2Integrates natively into existing apps.

Legacy BPM

3Anyone can capture any kind of know-how.

Legacy BPM

4Built cloud-native and mobile-first.

Legacy BPM

5Captures non-process knowledge (snippets).

Legacy BPM

6Share processes with clients.

Legacy BPM

Can you tolerate the pain and cost of each person in your company wasting ~2 hours a day on busywork?

Is this post written for a search engine or for you?

Many B2B cloud software companies invest in blog posts in the hope of ranking high on search engines like Google. What they’re doing is writing articles around keywords, which are terms customers are likely to search for on Google. The posts don’t offer valuable information or make any sense.

But then if you’re reading something that doesn’t make sense, how are you supposed to make informed buying decisions?

We have a lot to say about workflow and business processes. We truly believe in continuous improvement. But it’s not really about us. We publish these articles to help you find Tallyfy, and to provide you with information that will help you make informed buying decisions.

Ready to automate your workflows? Check out Tallyfy.

How exactly do we conduct research?

We research topics down to the bone. We nitpick, we argue about what to keep and what to throw out. It’s a lot of work. We consult academic sources for scholarly citations to support our points. We gather data to summarize particular points. At Tallyfy – 3 independent experts validate and edit every article from the draft stage. That includes verifying facts and their sources.

Why did we write this article?

Tallyfy believes in helpful and authoritative content that helps people. Our customers requested us to write about this topic so we attempted to put together the highest quality article available anywhere – that’s our goal. Work like this takes a lot of effort. If you liked this article please share the link with your coworkers via email, or on LinkedIn.

About the author - Amit Kothari

Amit Kothari
Amit is the CEO of Tallyfy. He's a workflow expert and specializes in process automation and the next generation of business process management in the post-flowchart age.

He has decades of consulting experience in task and workflow automation, continuous improvement (all the flavors) and AI-driven workflows for small and large companies. Amit did a Computer Science degree at the University of Bath and moved from the UK to St. Louis, MO in 2014. He loves watching American robins and their nesting behaviors!

Follow Amit on LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, X (Twitter) or YouTube

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