IBM Blueworks Live Reviews

We use the tool to document and re-engineer business processes.

It helps us to map core business processes that are in need of review. We utilize the IBM Blueworks Live tool to conduct analysis regarding the redundancies and other related issues within processes. After which we undertake benchmarking and create a new design using this amazing software.

The solution allows us to automate processes but also be able to seamlessly create a process with little effort compared to Visio, which we used years prior.

When using Visio, it takes a lot of time to design a process flow whereas the IBM Blueworks Live tool makes it easier to quickly design a flow.

The IBM Blueworks Live tool allows you to add key details to every step within your process design. For example, we were mapping a process that utilizes a number of forms. We were able to attach those forms and even legislation associated with particular steps within the process. This enabled the team to review these inputs in relation to streamlining the process.

There are challenges in ensuring that when a detailed process flow is designed using the IBM Blueworks Live software, the steps are easy to follow.  At times the system places boxes and lines in a manner that is very complicated and convoluted as the lines begin to crisscross. Sometimes you can't follow the steps in the map and it is difficult to structure them in a way that is not cluttered. 

In the Visio software, you can move boxes and lines to any area within the chart easily. In the Blueworks Live software boxes and lines are automatically placed by the programme and can't be easily manipulated.

I have been using IBM Blueworks Live for seven years.

I have not experienced any instability with the solution.

I rate the scalability an eight out of ten.

The online support is good.

Positive

We used VISIO, we switched because the IBM Blueworks Live software is more robust and offers greater functionality.

The initial setup was straightforward. We created our accounts and immediately began to utilize the tool.

We implemented the solution through an in-house team.

I rate the level of expertise of the vendor team from IBM a nine out of ten.

It's value for money. Our team has been able to create and re-engineer core business process more efficiently than ever before. 

Setup, costing, and licensing are reasonable considering the functionality of the tool as compared to other solutions.

I urge those planning to use the solution to join the online tutorials and the courses offered by IBM to understand the software and its functionality better. I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.

We have procured several licenses to perform any process transformation engagements that aid in the normal business processes.

The most typical use cases are the automation of the uplink and process documentation is one of the activities. The focus is more on process architecture and internal architecture.

Those are the areas and engagements that are preferred.

We provide our licenses to our clients to document their processes and create certain analyses. It is done in their environment and then we transfer the workspace into their environment.

For me, what I find to be the most valuable is its simplicity and the association with Microsoft Office. Typically when we talk of process designing, visual comes to our mindset.

It's quick to learn. The learning curve is very condensed.

The cloud version is very handy, but a specific feature that I like the most is the visual import. 72% more can happen through visuals. 

The quick transition from visual and the ability to show that onto a tool. We need a great import mechanism and with all of the tools that I have worked with, Blueworks is one of the best for importing the visual.

One of the other elements would be a quick design. We can create quickly and convert from one model into another model, such as from a discovery model into a process model, with just one click. It helps people like me when we are doing a ground paper approach and we are training the client and they are trying to document it. Now we can document it and show them the process benefits.

Currently, there is no other tool that is more cost-effective on the market.

The movement is similar to Aris, and Praga, it's very difficult for the users. 

Because it is cloud there has to be a satellite, but when it comes to the process of implementing the world is leaning towards more complex documentation. With the building model, they want to see with the integrated workflow, and automation systems that can be managed and controlled. They have the automation machines but they need more attributes, controls, encryption, and more information because right now it's limited and needs to be improved.

Better integration with specific systems.

There is no BPMN documentation. Currently, they only have a tool offering of processing the BPMN Model. There are no choreographic models or they don't have models where multiple lanes or tools can be created.

You can't specify a notation that is not BPMN and I would like to be able to use multiple lanes.

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. Adding more BPMN modules to it is an important next step.

While it is scalable, I don't see it being equal with other enterprise solutions.

In the next release, what I would like to see added is more speed from an architecture perspective, adding more press information, such as controls, and adding KPIs for performance indicators. I would also like the ability to set that because the functionality is more important. A process is not seen in just the transformation of input, output, and scalability.

There is a model that changes the way the client use processes.

I have been using this solution for approximately two to four years.

This is more a question regarding your connectivity because it is on the cloud.

It's very stable. We have never experienced any issues. 

If the connection is running slow, it depends on what the latency is. If it is hooked up into a high-speed network then it's very stable.

It is scalable within a scope. 

It goes hand in hand with stability and keeping the tool light and you can keep adding elements. As you add more elements, it becomes a heavy toolset that takes up more on the cloud which will take longer to connect, experiencing latency.

We have contacted technical support and they are pretty good.

There are three levels required:

1. The response time.
2. The ability to resolve the issue in a reasonable time.
3. Guiding us to the right type of finish.

At all levels, they meet the requirements and are pretty good.

The initial setup was straightforward.

It's on the cloud, so as soon as we pay, it's setup. It's as simple as putting in the user ID and you have access.

We had help with the implementation. I was not satisfied; they had no certification and there was no formal training. There is no certification in the market, but we have an alliance with IBM that provides us with technical assistance.

The cost-effectiveness is very high.

They have a free subscription model that gives a lot of power to the users.

It's on the cloud so it automatically gets upgraded to the latest version.

My advice to others always ask questions, which is what I always tell my clients. You should be very observant, especially of why you are looking for processing. If your requirements are completely different from what the tool has to offer, then it will not be a good match and you will be setting up a recipe for a disaster.

Look into IBM Blueworks. It is an active light tool and is it a proper architecture tool, which can do a lot of analysis. If you are looking for such a tool then this product is for you. It is cost-effective compared to any tool on the market.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case of this solution is for business process mapping for clients that come on board with us. We use it for engineering work, mapping their processes, evaluating their concerns with a process mapping exercise, and then providing recommendations for the engineering. I'm the director of professional services and we are customers of IBM Blueworks. 

Blueworks has provided us with a steady set of templates to utilize for mapping. We were previously using different platforms for some of the geos, but Blueworks has given us a consistent standardization across the organization to do all our process mapping on one platform.

I like the way this solution utilizes standards rules for connectivity. We develop a map which can't be done arbitrarily, it requires following a series of rules for adding decision boxes or connecting activities with one another, that kind of thing. I love the control factor.

I think the spaces could be improved, it's not well organized so it's really convoluted. Instead of having spaces represented by any sub-sections of a process, the space controls are lacking. If there were better user controls for user grouping, it would be simpler to develop groups and reduce visibility across the entire organization. Currently, people have access to processes they may not need for editing, but they'd like to view them, and those controls could be expanded. It's really about improving user management and space controls. It's really hard to litigate and control who has access to what.

For additional features, I'd like to see better tools for creating documentation associated with the processes, so that if you're looking for specific information regarding a process of the space, you could do a search and find it without having to go through a process. 

I've been using this solution for six years. 

I've been pleased with the stability. 

Scalability is good. It's gotten more complex recently, but adding users is very easy to do. It's not a problem once you get to the tech support people. We have seven users and they're business and technical analysts or project coordinators. 

The initial setup was pretty straightforward, it took less than two hours. The solution was implemented in-house. 

Mostly because of the usability, user management and space controls, I rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

We primarily use the solution for business process modeling.

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.

In relation to sub-process links, the design is poor. On one process you can link back, but the system doesn't link it to the activity directly. It's not that obvious to people, and because of this, they have to read the different notes to find out more. 

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.

Process diagrams can sometimes be confusing. The starting point is at the bottom of the page and not on the top of the page where it actually should be.

It would be good if the control points were visible right away on your progress map.

I've been using the solution for about six months.

I've found the solution to be quite stable. It's never crashed or anything when I've been using it.

The solution can be used quite widely within different departments. This requires a bit of work for the administrator as they'd need to design different folders and access to them, but it is a scalable solution. Right now, in our company, we have about 50 users on it. Most are editors or contributors. I'm unsure as to if we plan to increase usage.

This solution is currently replacing Microsoft Vizio or other office tools such as PowerPoint, Word, or Excel within our organization.

The initial setup is easy. The solution is easy to use and doesn't require that much training. For deployment, we have a two-hour training session for users. We didn't deploy in an organized way because we weren't in a hurry to start using the tools. It could have been done better on our side, but even so, it was pretty straightforward. In total, it may have taken us two days to set it up.

The initial training was handled by a consultant.

We use the cloud deployment model with IBM as the provider.

If you are planning to use the tool wisely, it's a good idea to name conventions, terminology, and structures around doing so right at the beginning. Considering how you will use the tool will help ensure it won't get too messy. During the discovery phase, it's a good idea to create discovery tables. It will help keep you organized.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

We use Blueworks Live to put all our critical processes in one depository, within the bank.

We've been using Blueworks since IBM acquired it from Lombardi, so quite a while, and we're still using it, but there are quirks with it. That's why I'm here, at the Think 2018 conference, to actually talk with people, try to get some things fixed.

We use it as a process mapping tool.

We upload all our policies into Blueworks Live. It's used throughout the business for audit purposes, for backup purposes for employees.

In terms of it helping with process version control issues, I administrate our licenses. I don't actually build the processes themselves. So I don't know all the different processes within all the different departments, how they work and how they run everything.

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. My sales guy, Steve, he always picks up the phone when I call him. It's good to have somebody like him onboard.

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.

The APIs are great, except the normal business user doesn't know how to create APIs. So it's hard because IBM comes to us as the business users and tell us to create reporting with APIs, except we don't know that, so we have to turn around and flip it to our IT people.

We'd like to be able to bring it on to our server. Because it's in the cloud I don't think that's going to happen.

We'd also like to see it be Six Sigma or Lean compatible, a lot of people have asked about that.

Right now, our challenge is - I work for Citibank. Citibank wants all its information on our side of the wall. This solution is on the cloud. So I'm hoping... I just heard something about the private cloud, but the issue is that we want to bring this on to our server. That's what we're working towards right now because I guess Citibank feels a little iffy that all our information is mixed with everybody else's, and it's vulnerable.

So far, though, the solution has been stable.

It's pretty big. We want to make this our go-to process diagram application. There are other vendors that we looked at. So far, IBM is the one that we're mostly interested in, but like I said before, there are flaws. There are groups, especially in compliance - even in our engineering - they want to see where we can improve in a process, where we can cut things down. They want to see where we're doubling employees doing the same work. So we're trying to save dollars by using this.

We were looking at cost effectiveness, if it's intuitive or not to the employee. We went with IBM because it's intuitive and because of the cost.

Originally we were with Lombardi, and IBM honored the contract that we had with Lombardi. That was great for us.

Straightforward, but I had to get our IT people involved. Before, what happened was, you would log in to blueworkslive.com. That meant that any employee from our bank could go home, log in, and all our process flows were there. So what we did was we worked with IBM and we worked with our IT people, and now we've integrated so that we have to be actually logged in to our Citi mainframe in order to get into Blueworks Live. So that's one good thing about it.

TIBCO, they were at the bottom of the list. Sparx, they were at the bottom of the list too. The top two were IBM Blueworks and an application called AG ARIS.

Use it. Test it, use it. It's great.

It also has a lot to do with my guy at IBM. If we had this, and I had to call in to a number all the time, and it was just support out in India... It's great, but it's a pain sometimes. The guy that I deal with, I call him - he's a sales guy, and I call him with my problems - and he puts me in touch with exactly who I'm supposed to speak with.

It's a good tool. I like it.

This is the best process analysis tool on the market.

Blueworks Live gives insight into where processes can be more productive. It gives that, "Ah ha!" moment from a visual perspective. Since a lot of people are visual, having this is helpful as it provides the ability to tweak, update, and refine processes so easily in Blueworks Live, that feeds improvement.

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

The solution has improved our business processes.

The usability is easy peasy. Most of the users from the business who do use Blueworks Live have found the tool through me. I end up training them on it, and they have been using it ever since. They don't usually come back to me for needs after the fact. 

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

The stability is rock solid. I don't have any issues with stability.

I don't have any issue with scalability.

I haven't had to use the technical support, so that is saying something.

The initial setup was easy.

We are seeing ROI from this solution. The solution has saved us time.

This is the only product that I have used in this space.

I would recommend starting small when using this product.

We are using IBM BAW. We are also using Automation Anywhere throughout the organization, so the sky is the limit. We are planning to expand automation in our organization. We have several onboarding processes and still have a plethora of manual processes that we have yet to automate. Therefore, the platform is only growing.

From the IBM DBA portfolio, we are using: BAW, ODM, RPA, FileNet, and Datacap.

The solution helps us indirectly with compliance or governance issues.

I attended the business track and client success track at the IBM event, tackling one of each. The biggest take away for me was the focus on journey maps and design thinking.

We are using Blueworks Live mostly for process innovation and transformation. With most of our clients, we are using to it to capture the process as is, analyze it, and spatially, the analysis phase helps us. We then come up with a model. The other great feature from the tool is since it is integrated with IBM BPM it helps me import the process, making sure the business is always connected.

We have been using it mostly as an end-to-end enterprise transformation tool. We start with our discovery workshop and Blueworks Live plays a key role. We use this tool to discover processes, analyze those processes, and define them from a tool set perspective: Whether the process should got into BPM, ODM, cognitive, IAB, etc. 

This helps during the UAT phase because it becomes easier to clean the business process model in Blueworks Live, then fitting it on a process which is in IBM BPM or a rule which is in IBM ODM.

With the current account, or engagement, we have been doing a large process transformation where we have Blueworks Live with IBM BMP, BPN, ODM, and Watson (for its cognitive features). There is also Robotic Process Automation from Automation Anywhere, IAB, and third-party integrations with SAP.

The product is business-friendly. That's the key thing that resonates with most of our customers. By giving the demo of the tool in the first 15 to 20 minutes, businesses start to get a feel of how they can use the tool. 

It's intuitive, and it connects really well with business teams.

Collaboration is key. Therefore, you don't have a document sitting on a shelf for multiple years with nobody looking at it. It is a live document. Whatever you have, it is live and accessible to everyone. 

Multichannel: 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. People don't have hassle of installing, then updating, etc. It's always on the fly available for you on demand.

This becomes key, and it is a big differentiator.

We utilize the collaboration features of this solution, such as editing pathways and uploading documentation, especially the documentation which is a key part inside the solution. There are a lot of accounts with whom we work and they have all standard operating procedures. We are converting them into Blueworks Live models, uploading their documentation and screenshots along with having people to chat with on the fly. When the process is published, there are multiple people using the same process. This has become a key goal from the tool's perspective.

There are a couple of things which are not there right now:

1. 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. Right now, we can create a simple decision, not a complex decision, in tools like the business console, modeler, etc. 
2. In the file management feature, we get 50MB of space. Maybe that needs to be given out as an option to customers who want to purchase the extra space.
3. While using the tool, it is a lot like creating a structure in BPM and Compliant, though not like 100 percent the same. The rule part as well becomes much easier when you are not using IBM BPM as a run-time engine, but Blueworks Live only for process discovery. If you want JBoss as a run time engine, it becomes a more compliant tool set and will help to increase your footprint.

The stability is pretty good. It is highly available, which is key. You don't lose your work and can autosave. People do not keeping focused and save their information. Therefore, the information automatically getting saved, so it helps from a stability perspective.

We have the ability to use the tool from our iPad or on the fly. Also, when we are at the airport, we can still login and use it, which helps a lot.

It's a cloud-based solution.

We have used technical support, especially for Blueworks Live. There is an option to create a process app, which can be either a check list or a workflow. 

We were facing some technical issues with the execution of our workflow. We wanted to assign the task to a group of users, not to a single user. This is where we reached out to IBM support to help us out and improve the next release of Blueworks Live.

It's two minutes from a setup perspective. We get the I.D. created for our clients, give them the URL, and they are all set to go.

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. 

My hierarchy works only with IBM, but we do work with other products as well.

My first process model had 142 activities. This is humongous from a single process perspective. To model, it took us three days to complete. It helped with our process version control issues.

When we are working with one of our financial clients every quarter to do their financial reporting, the process changes. They had a lot of material weaknesses, so there are process changes. We keep on creating snapshots, so it helps us to to move them from a BPM implementation tool and put a governance structure around it. Creating snapshots helps us form a governance perspective.

We use a document repository. There are multiple places for how we upload documents, either by going to dashboard interface or by taking pictures/screenshots that can be put in the documentation tab. It goes into the file management of Blueworks Live. You can review them later, clean them out later. You have one single source where you have lot of documents which are used across multiple processes. Everything's stored there. It helps in that way, making it lean and having your documentation updated.

We are resellers. Our use case varies from client to client, but the most common are for initial demonstration, cut mapping, and workshops with the clients.

We are always looking for opportunities to expand. We work with clients, but we also look at our processes internally and where we could streamline some of those.

We are using the following tools from the IBM DBA portfolio: Blueworks Live, BPM, ODM, and RPA.

We have implemented the IBM Automation Platform for Digital Business with our customers, but not internally.

We use automation in a few different areas. We have a number of internal (as well as external) processes, like expense reporting, sales handoff, and time tracking, which are all done in the IBM automation suite.

In terms of direction, one of the things that we value of a tool is not just that we are getting benefit from it, but can we apply that benefit to other client situations. One of the things that we look at when assessing if something is a candidate for automation: "Is it repeatable, or is it something that we could bring about to our customers?" This is definitely something that we consider when we are thinking about automation.

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.

It is very usable. That is probably one of its biggest selling features: Its ability to have someone sit down and spend a couple minutes on it, then they are off and running. 

In the past, we have seen some projects not start on time. This is because we had some process gaps in our automation. By removing those and getting the right people involved at the right time, we were able to send notifications and make sure the information was in the right place. This has really helped to eliminate that risk.

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

We would like to see more robust API access. We want it to be able to interact not just through the front-end, and have the ability to integrate with other systems more easily.

The reporting and analytics features have room for improvement, as well as some of the management and governance. These should be done out-of-the-box, as opposed to being built manually.

The system is very stable, if it is setup the right way.

The cloud versions that we use for custumer-facing things are usually more resilient, as opposed to us standing something up internally. Sometimes, we miss something, or something is not setup exactly right, but these are not product issues.

It's very scalable, either horizontally, adding more servers to the cluster, or vertically, where we are increasing the server size. It is pretty easy to keep up with demand and being able to spin things up and down.

We don't have a lot of interaction with the technical support. In most cases, we are the technical support, since we have the background. For Blueworks, they are very responsive. 

Often, we will either log tickets ourselves or log tickets on behalf of our customers. Then, the Blueworks support team is very responsive and will get back to us right away.

We try it ourselves before putting in front of our customers.

The initial setup is straightforward. For Blueworks, because it is cloud-based, they stand it up for you and provision it usually within 24 hours.

The solution has increased productivity and reduced operating costs (in soft costs). 

It saves time, probably a couple days a month, but this is dependent on the process. E.g., it reduces our onboarding from about five days to three days. Therefore, it saves us about 30 days over the course of a year. This is how it helps us from a business process management use case.

For automation projects, the ROI varies depending on the tools. The RPA capability definitely has the fasted ROI and lowest investment. However, we see a more significant ROI with some of the deeper automation tools, like BPM and ODM.

Our licensing costs are very minimal, because we get a lot of the solutions for free (as a partner).

We only work with IBM.

Try it out. It is clear once you start using the solution that it is a different type of application. There is no direct competition to the tool.

I don't think that there is another product out there quite like it. There are some competitors certainly, but they are either more complex, costly, or too simplistic and not geared towards process documentation.

The integration process is pretty open-ended. You need to be fairly technical to make it work, but we have seen success in integrating it with QuickBooks and Salesforce. Now, we are looking at other systems to integrate it with, as well.

I learned the best approach to adopting process improvement across an organization from using this solution.