AWS Step Functions vs IBM Case Foundation comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the Business Process Management (BPM) category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.2, while IBM is ranked #31 with an average rating of 8.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 2.1% mindshare in BPM, compared to IBM’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 84% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of IBM users who would recommend it.

AWS Step Functions

Read 14 AWS Step Functions reviews

2,440 Views
1,928 Comparison Views

84% willing to recommend

IBM Case Foundation

Read 14 IBM Case Foundation reviews

405 Views
401 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

AWS Step Functions

IBM Case Foundation

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

IBM Case Foundation and AWS Step Functions compete in business process management and workflow automation. AWS Step Functions is favored for its advanced features, making it a compelling choice for robust workflow automation.

Features: IBM Case Foundation provides comprehensive document management, task tracking, and case processing, appealing to enterprises needing detailed case handling. AWS Step Functions is recognized for building scalable applications using a serverless architecture, offering flexibility and strong integration with AWS services. Its visual interface simplifies complex workflow orchestration.

Room for Improvement: IBM Case Foundation could improve user interface modernity and integration with non-IBM systems. Streamlining deployment complexity and enhancing out-of-the-box reporting features would be beneficial. AWS Step Functions could expand integration beyond AWS ecosystem, improve error resolution efficiency in complex workflows, and refine pricing transparency for large-scale deployments.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Case Foundation supports both on-premise and cloud deployments, with extensive integration into existing IT infrastructures and dedicated customer support. AWS Step Functions is cloud-native, leveraging AWS's ecosystem for enhanced resilience and scalability, with strong support from AWS customer service resources.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Case Foundation incurs higher initial costs due to its comprehensive system and customization options, promising higher ROI for complex environments. AWS Step Functions offers a pay-as-you-go model, minimizing startup costs and ensuring rapid ROI through scalable, cost-effective deployment.

To learn more, read our detailed AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Case Foundation Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Case Foundation

September 2025

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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

AWS Step Functions

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

10th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Workload Automation (9th)

IBM Case Foundation

Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)

31st

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of AWS Step Functions is 2.1%, down from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Case Foundation is 0.5%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Business Process Management (BPM) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
AWS Step Functions	2.1%
IBM Case Foundation	0.5%
Other	97.4%

Business Process Management (BPM)

Featured Reviews

Carlos Alberto Marangon

Senior AWS Tech Lead at Nextios

Automate complex workflows with seamless AWS integration

Step Functions provide seamless integration with AWS services, which enhances the speed of application development. The JSON app launched recently allows us to define data execution more easily. The Standard Workflows feature includes error replay capabilities, which are crucial for efficient error management. The Amazon State Language (ASL) in JSON format facilitates workflow automation and accelerates the deployment of Step Functions.

Read full review

Nouman Nawaz

Deputy Director - IT(Plans) at DHA Lahore

Mature product in terms of security and stable product

The architecture is a bit difficult, but in BAW, they introduced the Business Automation Workflow. It's a bit easier compared to Case Manager. Currently, we use Case Manager, so it's a bit difficult to upgrade and handle, but BAW is comparatively much better and easier to handle. The limitation is only for customization because IBM doesn't support it. In some scenarios, if you want some business processes to be customized, we have already spoken two or three times with IBM representatives that we have to customize some of the features in this business process. They would say that if you want to do this automation at your own end, then okay, fine, go ahead, but we are not supporting all this customization. The only thing is the customization because it's a complete standard application.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The number of historical events is great."

"The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky."

"AWS Step Functions offers advanced workflows that save time and enhance efficiency by reducing delays and ensuring consistent orchestration among various services."

"AWS Step Functions acts as a high-level layer, allowing us to seamlessly integrate with microservices."

"It's Amazon, it's scalable."

"It's a general solution that you can adapt to your own needs and is simple to use. We like that it can be integrated with everything in the AWS suite, and that the creation of the pipeline can be done using the graphical user interface."

"One can rate all the calls and that is a good feature."

"The JSON app launched recently allows us to define data execution more easily."

More AWS Step Functions pros

"The most valuable feature is its stability, which is why we are using it."

"It provides us the capability of producing business processes for documents that are launched immediately when a document comes into the repository."

"Case Foundation provides a strong security boost."

"The solution is scalable."

"A valuable feature includes seamless integration with the document management system, along with robust capabilities in analytics and reporting."

"The only thing is that we can easily track where the application is in the process, from manual to automation."

"The client and the IBM content navigation are the solution's most valuable features."

"The most valuable features are those involving decision making, analysis, and anything related to event documents because those processes are related to content as well."

More IBM Case Foundation pros

Cons

"The solution's pricing could be cheaper. It is cheaper than Airflow."

"It is difficult to suggest improvements at the moment."

"One area for improvement is the payload size. Currently, I sometimes have to save data as a file since I cannot pass it within Step Functions, necessitating caching in processes."

"The price and support are areas with shortcomings where the solution needs to improve."

"I would like to see more data transformation features in Amazon Step Functions like additional operators and logic."

"There is room for improvement in terms of integration with other products. It would benefit from more integration with different applications or services."

"If AWS Step Functions keeps adding more integrations, it would be even better."

"The solution's data size limit can be improved."

More AWS Step Functions cons

"The solution can be quite expensive."

"90% of the feedback we receive states that the UI is not very user-friendly."

"The limitation is only for customization because IBM doesn't support it."

"There are some features that could be enhanced like the document viewer"

"The place of improvement is merging or combining all of the workflow functionality into one seamless tool. Now, there are multiple installations that are different. Case Foundation, before you can put Case Manager and you've got IBM BPM, and the roadmap is there to merge them altogether. But that's the struggle at the moment, it's having multiple installations and disparate workflow applications."

"The interface needs to be more user-friendly."

"There is a need for more open and flexible integration capabilities, allowing seamless collaboration with a broader spectrum of business process management solutions, beyond the confines of IBM's document management offerings."

"Comparing the solution with other interfaces, IBM BPM is much better than Case Foundation. They need to make this solution's interface more user-friendly."

More IBM Case Foundation cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is reasonable."

"The solution is expensive."

"IBM Case Foundation is a little expensive."

"The price falls in the middle range—not overly expensive but not extremely affordable either."

"This is not an expensive solution and we are using the standard license."

"Pricing is in the mid-range, it is not cheap, but it's not expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

29%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Computer Software Company

Insurance Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	7
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	5
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon Step Functions?

The integration capability is easy, whereas building state machines is tricky.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Amazon Step Functions?

My customer's usual use cases for AWS Step Functions that I've been working with include orchestration, flows, diagram creation, and creating a flow for multiple Glue jobs to run a single pipeline.

See all answers

What advice do you have for others considering Amazon Step Functions?

I use the Visual Workflow Editor feature of AWS Step Functions. I mainly work through code and then improve it through the visual aspect. There are two ways to do orchestration: through code and th...

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Case Foundation?

A valuable feature includes seamless integration with the document management system, along with robust capabilities in analytics and reporting.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Case Foundation?

The tool is expensive for my customers; it is very expensive, more than other solutions. Some customers say it is more expensive. The license cost for Cloud Pak is per user and increases with the n...

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Case Foundation?

We face some challenges with IBM Case Foundation from our customers, particularly with administration and configuration. We face many issues and open tickets with IBM regarding that, especially som...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 12% of the time

AutoSys Workload Automation vs AWS Step Functions

Compared 8% of the time

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Compared 7% of the time

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IBM Business Automation Workflow vs IBM Case Foundation

Compared 41% of the time

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Compared 31% of the time

OpenText MBPM vs IBM Case Foundation

Compared 28% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions

September 2025

Download AWS Step Functions product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Case Foundation

September 2025

Download IBM Case Foundation product report

Also Known As

Amazon Step Functions, Step Functions

Case Foundation, FileNet Business Process Manager

Overview

AWS Step Functions integrate seamlessly with other AWS services to offer efficient pipeline and workflow management. Its intuitive design allows for streamlined orchestration, easily handling complex tasks.

AWS Step Functions provide robust orchestration and automation capabilities, simplifying the creation of workflows with graphical and JSON-based designs. It excels in managing tasks through advanced parallelization and error handling features. Automatic scaling further enhances performance, ensuring reliability in varied environments. However, improvements are needed in IDE integration, larger data handling, and fault tolerance. Users find value in its capacity for microservice orchestration and data integration, although dependency on the Amazon ecosystem and limited third-party integrations pose challenges.

What are the key features of AWS Step Functions?

Integration with AWS Services: Facilitates seamless coordination with AWS offerings like Lambda and Glue.
Graphical and JSON-Based Design: User-friendly interfaces simplify workflow design and management.
Advanced Orchestration: Efficiently manages task execution with parallelization and error handling.
Automatic Scaling: Ensures optimal performance by adjusting resources as needed.
Microservice Integration: Supports smooth microservice communication and operation.

What benefits should organizations assess when considering AWS Step Functions?

Enhanced Efficiency: Automates and streamlines task execution across platforms.
Scalability: Adapts to workloads, providing flexibility in resource management.
Improved Workflow Management: Facilitates reliable and error-free operations.
Visualization and Automation: Simplifies complex processes with visual tools.
Data Validation and Script Execution: Integrates data operations smoothly within data lakes.

In industries managing data pipelines, AWS Step Functions orchestrate workflows, execute parallel ETL jobs, and integrate various AWS services, enabling smoother operations and efficient data migration. Companies benefit from streamlined processes and robust handling of interdependent tasks.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM Case Foundation is for organizations that need to harness unstructured information and integrate it with business processes to drive critical business decisions. It enables organizations to create, manage and optimize case-based processes and is designed to decrease development costs while significantly improving process performance. Case Foundation links specific pieces of content with a structured workflow. It's an on ramp for organizations that choose to move from document-centric workflow solutions to the advanced capabilities of IBM Case Manager.

IBM

Sample Customers

Alpha Apps, The Guardian, SGK, Bigfinite

Suncorp Group Limited

Buyer's Guide

AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Case Foundation

September 2025

Free Report: AWS Step Functions vs. IBM Case Foundation

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