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IBM Blueworks Live pros and cons

Vendor: IBM

4.0 out of 5

22 reviews
91% willing to recommend

Pros & Cons summary

IBM Blueworks Live offers real-time modeling, cloud-based access, and BPMN compliance, supporting process automation with IBM BPM and ODM. It features reporting capabilities but has limited Excel and Visio integration. The software lacks built-in simulation and Six Sigma compatibility, and its setup requires specific knowledge. Automatic placement restricts custom layout adjustments. Despite these limitations, it serves as a centralized repository for storing critical business processes efficiently.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

IBM Blueworks Live enhances collaboration by allowing real-time interaction, workshops, and communication among users.

The cloud-based nature of IBM Blueworks Live guarantees accessibility and connectivity without the need for installation, supporting mobile and desktop usage.

Centralized storage within IBM Blueworks Live ensures all critical processes are easily accessible, aiding in process clarity and automation.

IBM Blueworks Live provides a stable environment with no downtime and includes features like autosave to prevent data loss.

Reporting capabilities in IBM Blueworks Live are robust, offering features like KPIs and templates, which facilitate comprehensive analysis.

CONS

Import and export functionality is restrictive, particularly with Excel and Microsoft Visio.

IBM Blueworks Live lacks built-in simulations and ad hoc reporting features.

Business users struggle with using APIs for reporting, requiring assistance from IT personnel.

There is no integration with ERP systems, hindering process simulation capabilities.

Users cannot insert images into process maps or manipulate some automated elements.

IBM Blueworks Live Pros review quotes

Director at a retailer with 1-10 employees

Mar 20, 2018

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.

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Risk at Citibank N.A. - ISP Peering

Mar 22, 2018

For me the most valuable feature is that it's one depository for our bank. So it's not like everybody has their critical processes on SharePoint or on their desktops. Everything is centrally located. It's very intuitive, easy to use. The support that I get from IBM is always great.

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AJ

Head of Process Innovation and Robotic Automation at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 9, 2018

You can use if from your mobile device or you can be on the desktop. It doesn't matter. You are always connected. It is cloud-based, so you don't have to install anything.

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IBM Blueworks Live

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JM

VP Client Services at Salient process

Jun 19, 2019

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.

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Business Process Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jun 19, 2019

It enables decisions based upon processes that we do model, and ultimately move forward with.

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reviewer1232862

Process Architecture and Business Improvement at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Nov 18, 2019

The solution is stable. All the refreshes run very well.

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Katriina Sievanen

Communication Specialist at UPM-Kymmene Oyj

Nov 27, 2019

The business process discovery is excellent. The diagram or blueprinting functionality of the solution are very good. It's quite easy. You can link the sub-processes and get a big overview of the whole process then.

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Principal Business Process Architect at Met Office

Dec 20, 2019

It has a built-in capability to capture process owners and managers against processes along with other process governance roles.

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Global Innovation Director at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Jan 9, 2020

For me, what I find to be the most valuable is its simplicity and the association with Microsoft Office.

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BM

Director of Professional Services at a aerospace/defense firm with 51-200 employees

Jun 21, 2021

This solution is good at utilizing standards rules for connectivity.

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IBM Blueworks Live Cons review quotes

Director at a retailer with 1-10 employees

Mar 20, 2018

Some of the import functionality was a bit restrictive, in terms of loading data in from other data sources. Something as simple as Excel, loading data tables from Excel, wasn't great. And vice-versa. Some of the export and import functionality with something like Visio - which, I know it's a slightly different tool - but being able to work seamlessly with those other tool sets would've been quite useful. I know it was something that was in the pipeline to be looked at. So that would be useful.

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Risk at Citibank N.A. - ISP Peering

Mar 22, 2018

I wish Blueworks Live had simulations built in, but it doesn't. It also lacks a feature of reporting; ad hoc, drag and drop reporting. A lot of senior people are always asking for reports, and there's no reporting feature within IBM Blueworks.

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AJ

Head of Process Innovation and Robotic Automation at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Oct 9, 2018

The ability to create a very structured rule. With the capability that we have right now, Blueworks Live is more process focused. We should be able to enhance it to include a lot more of decisions as well.

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IBM Blueworks Live

Free Report: IBM Blueworks Live Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about IBM Blueworks Live. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.

879,259 professionals have used our research since 2012.

JM

VP Client Services at Salient process

Jun 19, 2019

We would like the ability to add additional custom colors. We would like to color additional items to add notes to the blueprint.

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Business Process Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Jun 19, 2019

We haven't yet been able to dabble in case management with Blueworks Live, as it is not yet offered with the product.

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reviewer1232862

Process Architecture and Business Improvement at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Nov 18, 2019

The solution is a very basic discovery product so it doesn't have that much modeling capability. This can be improved.

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Katriina Sievanen

Communication Specialist at UPM-Kymmene Oyj

Nov 27, 2019

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.

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Principal Business Process Architect at Met Office

Dec 20, 2019

The user interface is quite easy at first but process analysts soon run into roadblocks of limited functionality, which is disappointing.

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Global Innovation Director at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees

Jan 9, 2020

It is BPMN-compliant but the tool needs to be more involved to get into a completely 2.0 oriented tool. It has a few things but it's not the complete BPMN model.

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BM

Director of Professional Services at a aerospace/defense firm with 51-200 employees

Jun 21, 2021

Spaces are not well organized; space controls are lacking.

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