Pros and Cons of Oracle BPM and Process Cloud — with a Process Cloud Alternative

Oracle BPM and Process Cloud

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

Oracle BPM Suite is a platform with a single design time and unified engine for processes, cases, rules, human tasks, forms, analytics and integration. It is integrated with Oracle WebCenter Content and Oracle WebCenter Portal (which are both included as part of the Unified Business Process Management Suite package). Oracle Process Cloud Service is a bpmPaaS that is integrated with other Oracle Cloud Services. The following analysis refers to Oracle Unified Business Process Management Suite 12c, Oracle SOA Suite 12c, Oracle Process Cloud Service release 1, Oracle Documents Cloud Service, Oracle Social Network and Oracle Sites Cloud Service.

Strengths of Oracle BPM and Process Cloud

  • Oracle’s BPM Suite features strong analytic capabilities that increase visibility into process performance and orchestrate processes more intelligently through real-time analytics (Oracle R for predictive analytics and Oracle Stream Explorer for streaming analytics) and event handling (through Oracle Event Processing). Dashboards and other on-demand operational intelligence reports are built using Oracle BAM, which can leverage data from a variety of different source systems, including both Oracle and third-party applications. Oracle Process Cloud Service features more tightly integrated BAM reports and forms design than Oracle BPM.
  • The Oracle BPM Suite offers prebuilt integrations to other Oracle products, including Oracle SOA Suite and Oracle’s ERP products, as well as a handful of adaptors for third-party applications (such as Salesforce and SAP). Oracle Process Cloud Service makes it easier for citizen developers to build intelligent process applications that leverage a variety of Oracle and third-party services, with Oracle Integration Cloud being leveraged for more complex service integrations.
  • The cloud-native Oracle Process Cloud Service features high availability and scalability with less dependence on IT developers and operations and maintenance (O&M) staff. Applications built on the cloud service can be migrated to the on-premises version of the product.

Weaknesses of Oracle BPM and Process Cloud

  • Although the Oracle BPM Suite offers a rich set of capabilities, there is room for improvement around the ease of use; the product is targeted more toward IT-centric developers and data scientists. Customer references surveyed by Gartner indicated Oracle BPM Suite required much greater dependence on IT developers than other vendors evaluated in this research. Oracle Process Cloud is more targeted at non-IT application authors by reducing the complexity of the configuration and decreasing the time to implement a solution, but it does so at the sacrifice of some capabilities (such as case management, complex/heavy integrations and advanced analytics).
  • Customer references surveyed by Gartner indicated a lukewarm level of satisfaction with the cost/value of the platform, the performance and reliability of the platform, and the ability of the vendor to resolve issues related to the use of the platform.
  • Applications built on the Oracle BPM Suite are not portable to the Oracle Process Cloud Service. While Oracle Process Cloud Service can be deployed on-premises, as well as in the public cloud, Oracle BPM suite is only available on-premises.

Alternative to Oracle Process Cloud — Tallyfy

Problem — BPMN makes modelling far too complicated

A great alternative to Oracle Process Cloud 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 Oracle Process Cloud BPM 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 Oracle BPM Cloud — Tallyfy

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

Create a template of your first workflow in 5 minutes

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


Create a template of your first workflow in 5 minutes


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 we truly believe in continuos 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

Related Posts

Workflow Mess?
Start Tallyfying

Turn chaotic, manual processes into simple, digitized workflows that anyone can track in real-time

  • Eliminate Busywork – Save 2 hours per person per day
  • Delegate Automatically – To people or AI
  • Track Workflows – Gain visibility and control with real-time status
  • Grow Fast – Scale operations without friction or pain
  • Standardize – Ensure consistently high quality outcomes every time
  • No More Admin – Automate handoffs & reminders to people
  • Organizations in get a discount for life!

Track all your workflows beautifully - on Tallyfy