What is our primary use case?
For an upcoming project, my manager told us to look at all the different capabilities between the Pega, Appian, and the Camunda. We don't know the use case yet. We need to know the use case, however, at this point, we are just exploring different tools, BPM tools.
What is most valuable?
The integration is good. It can be capable of different integrations.
There is a Pega Decision Hub, which is just a text-based analytical site. Based upon the text-based analytics and it can decide and trigger a case.
There are a lot of new features in Pega that are great.
I like case management in Pega. For the case management applications, so it's really fast to develop and it can scale and be extended based upon the business requirements.
The initial setup is pretty straightforward.
The documentation and training available are great.
Pega is coming out with Pega Express, which is kind of a low-code development platform. The business rules can be built in a Pega Express Portal, which is more specifically built for business users and not technical users. That way, even non-technical people are able to build their own business processes easily.
What needs improvement?
The local development approach is good in Pega, however, cost-wise, it's getting expensive. That needs to be addressed.
With Camunda, containerization is the most helpful feature. It can containerize and it can have its own deployment process. Pega may be adding that feature in a future release, however, right now, that's lacking and needs to be addressed.
I'd like to see Pega support microservices architecture, which it doesn't do right now.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the solution for more than six years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is excellent. It can scale as much as you need it to. It's one of the great aspects of the product.
How are customer service and support?
I've never directly contacted technical support. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are. We have our own internal team that can troubleshoot.
That said, we used to connect with Pega on issues and it's my understanding that support tickets can be addressed very quickly. Support-wise it's very extensive.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I also trained in Appian.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. There is no complexity. There is documentation around the installation process and upgrade process as well. Pega will also provide you with good training materials in the Pega Express Portal, which is helpful for teams who are planning for new developments. That way, they can learn easily and understand everything.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's a great product, Pega, however, cost-wise, it is a little expensive compared to other BPM tools. That's where I feel that they can improve.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Now, we are exploring other software, like Camunda. We just want to see the different designs or decide which tool is better for our application.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and an end-user.
We have been using Pega for more than six years, and at this point, we also want to just explore the other BPM tools. It's kind of for considering cost efficiency also. We are looking at the cost of the development effort or the scalability of the tool. While I like Pega, I'm just exploring the other BPM tools with respect to Pega.
While it depends on the application you are using, if you're planning for an enterprise application that can interact with different applications, Pega would be a good option.
Sometimes if you have a smaller workflow, for example, if you're just introducing a smaller workflow in an existing application and you just want to leverage only that workflow-related feature, you don't need Pega. You can just have any workflow tool, like Camunda or Appian. Cost-wise, Pega may cost you more.
If you're planning to leverage all the features in Pega, like case management and low-code, no-code and RPA, robotic process automation, and other high level or case management, if you are planning to leverage all these different kinds of features that are available in Pega, just go with Pega. And if you're just planning to leverage only a kind of workflow, you don't need to go with Pega. You can just go with other BP flows or BPM process models like Camunda.
There are a lot of features that you can explore in fault tolerance and error handling, exception handling, et cetera. There are other items as well if you're in the development stage, and something like Page will likely be helpful. I don't know of other tools that will support anything to that extent.
There are still some limitations in the solution. I'd rate it at an eight out of ten, as there are still some improvements that can be made.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.