Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 2, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
5th
Ranking in Process Automation
5th
Average Rating
7.8
Number of Reviews
106
Ranking in other categories
Application Infrastructure (9th)
Pega BPM
Ranking in Business Process Management (BPM)
3rd
Ranking in Process Automation
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
60
Ranking in other categories
Rapid Application Development Software (7th), Low-Code Development Platforms (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Business Process Management (BPM) category, the mindshare of IBM BPM is 8.8%, up from 7.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Pega BPM is 4.9%, down from 7.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Business Process Management (BPM)
Unique Categories:
Application Infrastructure
3.9%
Process Automation
11.6%
Rapid Application Development Software
4.6%
 

Featured Reviews

Devashish Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Jul 23, 2021
Good support, easy to set up, and scalable, but tedious to customize and has closed infrastructure
From the testing perspective and minor enhancements perspective, customization is something that is a little tedious as compared to new tools. In addition, various open-source tools that are available are not working with IBM BPM. Some of the flows that are developed are end-to-end flows rather than modular flows. With a complex system, such as Customer Due Diligence, there are a lot of reviewers and profiles, and people need to log in and use the same flow again and again, which makes the maintenance of the tool difficult. The security and testing side of things can be improved. If something can be done to make the latest tools and technologies available for doing the testing from the performance side and security side, it would add a lot of value. Currently, it is very difficult to put all of those tools on top of the closed infrastructure of IBM. Some of the new tools, such as Camunda, have solved this a little bit with the security scan that needs to be done in the DevSecOps pipeline that we are using nowadays.
FS
Jan 23, 2023
Advanced with good case management and the ability to configure as necessary
The solution offers business process modeling when it comes to processing your models or maybe your workflows.  Every company will have a process where it goes from case initiation to different stages based on the business need or business requirement. Pega helps get processes routed to different…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"For me, the most important feature is the easy-to-use business process dashboard. It's simple to orchestrate business processes, and the interface is clean and intuitive. Once your workflow is designed on paper, it's easy for the business process manager to implement and follow it. Another IBM product that was good in the past is the IBM Case Manager. I haven't used it for three or four years, so I'm unsure if it's still available, but it was quite effective."
"The case management and its integration with process design are good features."
"This product does the job in terms of executing the workflow."
"It is being able to see the process, and understanding what the process is versus having to bury it in code somewhere."
"We can scale by increasing the infrastructure which is currently running."
"We use it for automating certain processes which previously took a lot of time for agents to set up different products for customers. They would have to enter a lot of different systems. This has now mostly been automated."
"With the tester coach wherein you can interact with the interface while you're designing the process."
"The performance is fine."
"It cuts down the time taken for coding. Earlier it used take for us four hours to do a particular code. Now this can be done in less than 30 minutes. That's the kind of productivity gains you can get."
"The workflows are the most valuable features, particularly for us, because we were attempting to automate processes by utilizing workflows to provide a hands-off comparison between the bot and the human."
"It is quite configurable, which is the most exciting feature. We can easily configure it as per our needs."
"The solution offers excellent workflows."
"Case Management, as well as Workflow Automation, are Pega's most powerful capabilities."
"The solution is able to support the size and scale required."
"While Pega technical support is okay, it also depends on the issues you need help with and who your contact is with Pega."
"The most important features of Pega BPM are case management and claims management, and soon they'll also be offering claims processing. I also love Pega BPM in terms of performance. It's also one of the very few user-friendly solutions in the market. It may take some time to learn Pega BPM, but once you get a proper handle on it, tracking and managing processes become very easy anytime, anywhere. Pega BPM also has very good documentation you can use to learn the solution. Pega has a community portal that has complete information and explanations, and if you're facing a challenge, you can post your challenge on the community portal and get a resolution at the same time."
 

Cons

"We thought there might have been a little more discussion early on about, "Hey, if you're doing this, set it up this way," or some best practices or some guidance that we didn't get."
"I would say the scalability is very good but it's not perfect. It is much more scalable than it has been in the past but... it does require some work to keep it stable. So that is an area that should be improved."
"If you want to use IBM BPM, you will have to invest a lot of money for licenses and you need to learn that there are limitations in developing applications. You cannot create anything you want."
"IBM BPM lacks openness, that is, the ability to become open for new options in terms of APIs, front-end development, and ecosystem. IBM BPM has been quite closed. One of the main improvements would be to somehow embed the rules engine into IBM BPM. Merging IBM BRMS and the rules engine with IBM BPM would be helpful. If there was some simpler way to define rules without having to put IBM BRMS on top of it, it would be good. It's something that we can get out of Camunda but not out of IBM BPM."
"IBM BPM integrated with Spark UI and the UI is now much better, but they still need to improve the UI because competitors have predefined templates and other additional features. In these competitor's solutions, you are able to use the templates, map your data, and the form is ready to use. With this solution, you need to write a lot of code to have the same quality as the competitor's templates. It would be a benefit to make this platform more towards low-code or no-code."
"I hope IBM uses something from IBM Content Navigator to make the interface easier to navigate."
"The stability varies because it involves a lot of other components like databases, so sometimes if something goes wrong there, it can't recover from the fatal errors."
"It might not be suitable for entry level clients because it comes with a huge number of modules for processing that at times might not be necessary for upcoming clients."
"The biggest thing I have seen is when going from one version to another and upgrading to the latest version, it takes a pretty long time for an organization to go through an upgrade process. I think that's an area where they can make it a little smoother."
"It is not fully compatible with all versions of Internet Explorer, so sometimes, it does not work."
"The solution's pricing model or licensing model could be a little better."
"They need to support the solution better, at this time the company does not have enough support."
"Pega is claiming they're into low code but as per Gartner Magic Quadrant, Pega is not there now."
"The solution could be more scalable."
"I believe they simplify the application development. It is still complex. The learning is not easy, it takes time compared to other products on the market."
"The way the IDE works with the chatbox and the taxonomy imports could be a little smoother."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It should provide more flexibility to connect with external systems, and there should be in-built services that can be used to integrate with other systems quickly."
"I already compared some solutions related to business process management, and I saw that the cost of IBM BPM is more expensive compared with that of Camunda, for example."
"IBM BPM cannot be considered a cheaply priced product. IBM BPM is a really expensive product compared to other companies. One needs to opt for the perpetual licensing model offered by IBM."
"The product is expensive considering the hardware and software costs."
"The pricing is very high."
"It gives us a good return on investment."
"It's expensive. All software is always extremely high. The manufacturing cost that we have compared to the selling cost, it's not like you're building a house or building a car. But putting that aside, considering that it's expensive, it's a lot of money. If you compare it with some of the other alternatives in the market, it's a similar price. For instance, if you compare it with Pegasystems, it's a similar price."
"Our customers do see ROI. They'll identify some particularly painful or uncoordinated processes to start with, then build out from there, picking off low hanging fruit."
"The licensing is on a yearly basis. Because of our special relationship, all the training certifications are free of cost. All our employees can do Pega certifications at zero cost. It is all on Pega."
"We mostly have a yearly license."
"Licensing is expensive. You need to wisely select between per user and per case."
"I am not aware of the cost. But, considering the licenses, user licenses, and infrastructure, I'd guess around a million USD."
"It's a user-based license where, as you scale the numbers of users, the price increases."
"Licensing varies across geographical regions for us."
"I rate Pega BPM a seven out of ten."
"We do not have to purchase any licenses for the product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
Financial Services Firm
26%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better, IBM BPM or IBM Business Automation Workflow?
We researched both IBM solutions and in the end, we chose Business Automation Workflow. IBM BPM has a good user interface and the BPM coach is a helpful tool. The API is very useful in providing en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM BPM?
The solution might be expensive, but I can't give you a precise number. In the market here, I've seen two main products for BPM: IBM BPM and Camunda. Camunda is very popular and open-source, so the...
Is Pega BPM easy to work with and can beginners utilize this software?
You do need some preparation to be able to use all functions of Pega BPM. However, all users of this platform are in luck as it comes with good documentation and you can learn pretty much everythin...
Have you encountered any issues while using Pega BPM and were you assisted by the company?
My company has been using this tool for years and the only issue we have had, if you can call it that, was while setting it up. When we were setting it up initially, we had some drawbacks and could...
When you consider the features and benefits of Pega BPM, would you say this product is fairly priced?
Pega BPM can be considered overpriced for some; it all depends on the size of your company and the requirements of your customers. Sure, there are products out there that do the things that Pega B...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

WebSphere Lombardi Edition, IBM Business Process Manager, IBM WebSphere Process Server
Pegasystems, SmartBPM
 

Learn More

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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Barclays, EmeriCon, Banca Popolare di Milano, CST Consulting, KeyBank, KPMG, Prolifics, Sandhata Technologies Ltd., State of Alaska, Humana S.A., Saperion, esciris, Banco Espirito Santo
The State of Maine, ANZ, Coca-Cola, Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), ME, New South Wales, OptumRx, Texas Department of Transportation, UnitedHealthcare Medicare & Retirement
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM BPM vs. Pega BPM and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.