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AuditBoard vs IBM Blueworks Live comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

AuditBoard
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
GRC (6th), IT Vendor Risk Management (5th)
IBM Blueworks Live
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (12th)
 

Mindshare comparison

AuditBoard and IBM Blueworks Live aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. AuditBoard is designed for GRC and holds a mindshare of 7.4%, up 5.6% compared to last year.
IBM Blueworks Live, on the other hand, focuses on Business Process Design, holds 3.6% mindshare, up 3.3% since last year.
GRC
Business Process Design
 

Featured Reviews

Gopichand Rajbhar - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly, simple to implement, and has lots of features
There are lots of features. We like the reviewer and auditor, where they support you if you want to upload evidence. At the same time the reviewer or auditor can also put their remark. The solution is user-friendly. It's easy to set up. You can easily find out how to proceed for reassessment, how to upload that evidence, and how you can put in a remark. Everything is a single console where you can easily track what you need. It's stable. The product is scalable. They provide a demo to customers to allow them to explore the tools.
AjarMathur - PeerSpot reviewer
An easily scalable and affordable solution that enables users to document and digitize processes with ease
IBM Blueworks is BPMN 2.0 compliant, but it does not adapt to the overarching BPMN 2.0 concepts. There is only one kind of BPMN 2.0 diagram. It is a process diagram. It doesn't have the concept of separate tools, which other products offer. If I had to do a hardcore BPMN 2.0 modeling, the product would have its own reservations. There were features we could not explore from a BPMN 2.0 perspective. Most of the time, people who are shifting from Microsoft Office tools to a digitized way of working still want the reporting capabilities to be strong. Some tools, like ARIS or Signavio, offer customized solutions from the reporting perspective. If I have documented my whole finance process and want to fetch out a complete SOP report in a very customized manner, IBM Blueworks cannot provide it. We have to rely on some other services. So that's one area in which we always struggled, how to really customize the reporting aspects. I understand that we need to keep the tool a little more asset-light. It's very difficult to keep adding many options, but at least a few BPMN 2.0 options were needed. We have been suggesting to IBM that we should have some way of customizing the reporting. At least we should get a custom way of reporting it into different formats like Excel or putting up a logo for one of the clients so that their SAP can be printed that way.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most significant feature of AuditBoard is its community tools. It provides an internal communication platform that enables users to communicate within the system rather than relying on external tools such as Outlook or Microsoft products. By communicating within the system, all interactions are centralized and accessible, promoting a streamlined workflow."
"Considering the solution's return on investment, it has been extremely helpful since we were doing a lot of documentation. Previously, in our company, we were using an Excel sheet which made things quite messy."
"There are lots of features."
"The most valuable feature is the well-documented instruction."
"I find the most significant elements of this solution are the out-of-the-box reporting, the ease of workflow, workflow management, and the ease of managing our audit process."
"AuditBoard has several solutions for governance, internal audit, and other categories."
"In AuditBoard, there are all the audit steps, including documentation, archiving, and tracking the progress of audits."
"AuditBoard is very user-friendly compared to other audit management software I have used in the past."
"It has the ability to document in different formats. It is not tied to a specific model. You can look at it from different angles and see the intuitive nature of it. It always generates a valid diagram. You cannot create something that is not BPMN compliant."
"In terms of the collaboration features, from the point of discovery, it was useful to go to load up the policies and the rule sets that the client had. And in terms of exploring options and being able to model a variety of different processes, that was incredibly useful as well."
"The licenses are transferrable between different users."
"It has a built-in capability to capture process owners and managers against processes along with other process governance roles."
"We are you using the product as a process mapping tool and as part of a larger process improvement project. We use it with IBM BPM and IBM ODM. We get an automated workflow solution for our customers, an improved workflow automation."
"I like the two-tiered approach, that is, discover and then drill down to the main steps. You can right click and attach risk, policies, and much more. It is a user-friendly solution."
"IBM Blueworks Live is cloud-based and provides easy access to all your processes in one place."
"For me, what I find to be the most valuable is its simplicity and the association with Microsoft Office."
 

Cons

"Everything is there, and I have no disadvantage to note as of now."
"After sending out a request to my network for documents, it would be great to have a receipt that shows who received the request and who did not."
"They should improve the solution's test sheets feature for ease of use."
"AuditBoard could benefit from the addition of video capabilities, although it is not a necessity. Small companies that cannot afford licenses for Microsoft Teams or Zoom would benefit greatly from this feature, as it would enhance the communication process."
"The layout for the end user could be improved."
"The initial setup is somewhat difficult because it has multiple pieces that need to be stitched together. You have to integrate it with the business unit you want to test if you want to go down from the corporate level to the operational level."
"Some of that flexibility could be enhanced. When comparing Archer and TeamMate+, there is a little more open-ended in terms of certain of our audit processes and procedures. And there is significantly greater freedom in creating ad hoc audit processes and procedures, whereas AuditBoard is a little more limiting in this regard."
"It is not easy to analyze the results of a survey as a whole."
"The solution is a very basic discovery product so it doesn't have that much modeling capability. This can be improved."
"There should be an option to import from and export to Microsoft Visio. Being able to move files back and forth between Blueworks Live and Visio would be good."
"Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively."
"Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking."
"The font size is really, really small and it's really not useful to print out process models because you cannot read what's written in different boxes. This makes it necessary for people to have access to the tool. We view licenses to see how the printing or output is. It's not very good."
"The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing."
"I would like to see integration with ERP systems. This would help us to simulate the process and see where the problems are. Though IBM Blueworks Live is a good tool for documenting, it is not good for simulating."
"In the Blue Works Live software boxes and lines are automatically placed by the programme and can't be easily manipulated."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I highly recommend this tool as the price is reasonable. However, consistent pricing is important, and having a loyalty program that rewards long-term customers with lower prices would be a great addition."
"Pricing is variable, like with any technology, and is determined by how hard you wish to negotiate. You can get to a price you're willing to pay if you're willing to negotiate aggressively."
"We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time."
"Price wise, IBM Blueworks Live is in the middle range, and I would give it a five out of ten."
"There are editor licenses that are around 50 euros per month, and contributor licenses that are around 30 euros per month."
"Based on the licenses purchased, from a footprint perspective, you can have as many people as you want. You have multiple different categories of licenses to keep the cost low."
"The solution is very, very cost-effective."
"Making it less expensive would be good."
"They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users."
"The solution is not very expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about AuditBoard?
It consolidates the E2E process in one single solution, and in a very user friendly environment.
What needs improvement with AuditBoard?
AuditBoard is overly simple in some instances and there needs to be flexibility to make it more robust. For IBM OpenPages, the reporting can be more robust as the summary report on each of the modu...
What is your primary use case for AuditBoard?
I used AuditBoard primarily for risk assessment questionnaires in a very premature risk environment. I also have experience with IBM OpenPages, mostly for operational risk to track issues, to look ...
What do you like most about IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution is easy to operate. Also, there is an automatic mode to make the business flow. You don't have to put any lines or arrows in a decision point in IBM Blueworks Live; it's very automatic.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Blueworks Live?
The solution costs around 600-700 dollars/year, which is quite affordable.
What needs improvement with IBM Blueworks Live?
Sometimes, the tool is automatic, which can complicate it, but once you're accustomed to manipulating it, you can use it very effectively.
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Lombardi Blueprint
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
Cloudsoft Corp. Ltd., Bayer, S¾SS, Essex County Council
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