SAP Signavio Process Manager Reviews

I am a lecturer at a university. We are using it as a lecturing tool for business process modeling.

We use it in a case each month on a yearly basis. We have a condensed course which runs approximately one month. During this month, we would use Signavio with some assignments for students to model their processes within Signavio Process Manager when having tutorials or computer labs tutorials on the topic of business process modeling.

There is a curriculum provided by Signavio. I enroll students into the portal, then students can go into the portal, open their folder, and design their processes there. I can oversee, discuss, and correct them. The typical case is where the students use the modeler to create processes, then we would discuss them online.

We are using the academic Signavio.com. This is an offering for academic initiatives.

This is one of the tools available for us which has a lifecycle for business process management, e.g., discovery, modeling, and optimization. This is really valuable for our students because they do not have separate tools. Everything is integrated into one tool.

Processes will always affect the outcome facing customers, so Process Manager helps optimize customer-facing processes. If you are having transparent accountable processes, then you can repair or optimize them. That way, you can clearly see what's going on within the processes, and they are more manageable. Then, you can improve and optimize them. Therefore, you improve the customer-facing outcomes.

The number one, most valuable feature is the process repository so we can gather all our processes in one place. Then, students can also see each other's work, having all the comments in one place and attached to the processes.

The process repository is proof of, or an example of, what students can achieve during one course as well as how they have improved their understanding and learning of process management. 

Process Manager supports end-to-end transformation. Students can better understand end-to-end activity and processes as well as how they are run. For teaching, it's process discovery, then modeling, and finally optimization and simulation, partly. Typically, we showcase some simulation of the processes, and this is where we finish. That is why we validate that it's properly designed, but also what are the outcomes of modeled processes. There are also options for discussion on process optimization.

Typically, a business process management suite would cover the whole lifecycle, from discovery to optimization and operations. This is running on the process server and providing some kind of low-code environment for developing business solutions. I think the latter part is missing, where SAP Connector comes in. Specifically, the execution of processes is missing, where you would design forms to take orders. This is typically part of some development environment for the process server to run processes from out of the models.

I think I have been using this solution since 2017. It has been awhile. 

It is stable. I didn't have any issues, bugs, etc. So, there have been no major issues.

I haven't had any problems in regards to scalability.

15 to 30 users are utilizing at any given time, depending on the size of the class. Typically, there are 20 users.

From time to time every year, my account expires, then it has an automated service for renewing access. This is working perfectly because I haven't had any issues with it. There are some broken links within the help section, but the solution is well worth it otherwise.

Positive

We previously used Visio for diagramming, then students would upload their processes to the discussion forum and so on. However, this did not really make things work when you would be repairing, building up processes, or collaborating on processes with teammates. There were some missing features in regards to business processes. The repository was not able to perform with Visio as well as the business process simulation. These are features that we only get with Signavio.

We also previously used the ADONIS:Community Edition. 

We switched to Signavio because we wanted students to cover the whole business process management lifecycle, from discovery to modeling to optimization as well as simulation and theoretical execution. We were looking for enterprise-grade features, like repository and simulation. We could only get this with Signavio, which is the reason why we switched.

The initial setup was straightforward.

The deployment took a month. I registered for the initiative, then they provided me access. After that, I explored the environment a bit. I needed to register my separate accounts so I could have one screen from a teaching/lecturer perspective and another screen from a student perspective. This is so I can test the environment in a manner where I can then provide some guidance for students to complete their tutorials.

I watched a couple of webinars on its deployment as well as some tutorials published within the help section of Signavio Process Modeler. These were very helpful.

We are only able to use the free academic licenses because we have a financial constraint. We are not able to pay for commercial licenses to use this kind of tool.

We did evaluate other options: Bizagi, Microsoft Visio, and ADONIS. We used these three tools prior to Signavio.

As a teacher, I need to follow developments in the field for business process management. We also reviewed IT Central Station.

The process repository is really valuable. This is something I cannot get with other tools. 

When you are selecting the business process management suite, you need to make sure that you have end-to-end coverage of the business process management lifecycle, not just to model the business processes, but also to run and optimize it. This is hard to achieve. An option is that you can check whether your selected solution supports a complete lifecycle. Another part is that you can export process models and run them on different process servers, not being locked into a certain vendor.

Students will contact the businesses, but this will be over the phone for a single session to learn about their problems, then they would design a process. However, they would not validate outcomes of the process with customers or their business contact. We can benchmark it towards some kind of business best practices, e.g., what are the typical sales processes or order to cash, but we cannot really judge the overall improvement in real life.

There is potential for students to build up a business process repository for a company that they are investigating. Typically, they would now design just one process for a certain case, but for their seminar work, they are examining a real-life business company that are typically smaller companies. They would talk to managers there, then design not one, but many complete end-to-end processes. There is also support for business process level. Therefore, we have a top-level process, then you can break that down. This is meaningful for students to have a better overview of the process landscape within certain companies.

I haven't really tried to export the processes into a process server, but this is a valuable point. What do you do with the models that you design? Obviously, the best outcome is to run it, then analyze it for potential operational outcomes. However, we are not able to do that because we don't have a platform for this.

I was not aware of SAP Journey Modeler until recently. 

I would rate it as eight out of 10.

We use it regarding Business Process Management (BPM). Presently, we're actively engaged in streamlining reporting efforts using this solution. Similar efforts have been applied to the plan-to-make process.

When comparing my experience with Celonis and Signavio, I can discern the distinctions between these two platforms. However, I'm unable to differentiate between ARAs and add-ons, as that falls outside my scope of familiarity.

Regarding Celonis, it comes with its set of advantages and disadvantages. Notably, it boasts robust features like action flows, task mining, and seamless integration with AML programming. Conversely, Signavio lacks action flows and instead relies on action segments and tasks for interaction. This discrepancy is a significant factor setting Selenium and SecureView apart. In the context of Signavio, it offers a combination of BPMN and process discovery, a feature absent in Celonis. This tandem of BPMN and process insight contributes to Signavio’S potency. Meanwhile, Celonis primarily features the process miner tool, setting it apart from Signavio. These variations collectively outline the numerous differences existing between Celonis and Signavio.

The price can be made cheaper. 

I have used SAP Signavio Process Manager. 

It is a very well stable.

It is a scalable solution.

Given its cloud-based nature, the level of support varies depending on the vendor.

Integrating with SAP source systems is notably straightforward due to the readily available connectors designed for seamless compatibility. However, establishing connections with external systems presents more challenges, especially when considering tools of other vendor invoice management solutions While Signavio incorporates a Copa in its arsenal, integrating these types of external tools proves to be more complex. In contrast, Celonis excels in ease of integration. This divergence in connection capabilities stands as a key differentiation between Signavio and Celonis.

Regarding the support aspect of the solution, yes, it is straightforward. Handling signatures is also a straightforward process. Maintenance, specifically in terms of coding, becomes a consideration. Changes in product development can be difficult. Once an alteration is made within Signavio, it has the potential to impact the front end as well. This observation holds true for Signavio.

After the system connection is established, the timeline for deployment is dependent on the specific process. Integrating the tables into Signavio is achievable within a relatively short span, typically ranging from three to four hours, and seldom exceeding that duration. Almost four people are required for the deployment.

It is expensive. The license is monthly. 

This tool proves exceptionally valuable for organizations, especially those currently undergoing the transformation from ECC to HANA. Given the widespread global trend of such transformations, customers in the midst of transitioning from ECC to HANA find this tool incredibly advantageous. It stands as the optimal solution for identifying and streamlining processes. However, it is crucial to integrate various other tools into the system to thoroughly analyze the processes before deeming them suitable.

I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

We use the solution for data modulation and validation.

The solution is user-friendly and has efficient process manager, collaboration, and intelligence features.

The solution's reporting feature could have customization options. Also, it only supports a few modeling tools like BPMN and VAC. Additionally, it is challenging to establish connections while carrying out processes like events and active task objects. Its process intelligence features should provide complete data as well.

For license renewal, they take a day to reactivate the services. It affects the functionality we have developed with the external application regarding fetching the relevant data.

We have been using the solution for two years.

I rate the solution's stability seven and a half.

It is a scalable solution. We have five users in our company.

The solution's technical support team is good. It replies to us within a few hours whenever we raise any issue.

Positive

In comparison, ARIS has multiple sets of models. Also, the visualization of models can be done using the BPMN and EPC processes. In addition, it has a data monitoring model, which is not included in SAP Signavio.

We start with implementing the solution once we get access to its licenses. Further, we use the agile process for deploying it.

The solution is user-friendly. Although, it doesn't provide a custom view for reports, and we have to use third-party tools. They can have a better structure for database folders and repositories. 

SAP Signavio Process Manager is used for business process management and enterprise architecture.

SAP Signavio Process Manager has helped create a centralized repository using an industry-standard business modeling paradigm.

The most valuable feature of SAP Signavio Process Manager is the ability to do business process models.

The ease of use for creating business process models could be improved because the modelling interface is crude and primitive. SAP Signavio Process Manager needs better automatic rendering of data.

I have been using SAP Signavio Process Manager for almost a year.

SAP Signavio Process Manager has good stability. I rate SAP Signavio Process Manager a nine out of ten for stability.

I am using the latest version of SAP Signavio Process Manager. Before choosing SAP Signavio Process Manager, check for its ability to integrate with other applications in your landscape.

Overall, I rate SAP Signavio Process Manager a seven out of ten.

In our company right now, we focus on process documentation in order to build a base for future process improvement and potential automation. We use the Signavio Process Manager to design the processes and publish them on the Collaboration Hub.

This adds to the transparency of the business since all employees have access to the Collaboration Hub and see the documented processes as visualized models. This transparency is fostering the collaboration between business units by reducing silo thinking and thus enabling continuous process improvement.

Signavio enabled us to identify a lot of new processes that could be improved. We removed a bottleneck by mapping the process and using the intelligence module, in order to identify where it was redundant. We then removed parts of the process to make it leaner.

Another example is on the compliance side, where Signavio helped us identify that we did not check all checkpoints in the process so we could be leaner and even more compliant. 

Also, we have improved the HR processes a lot.

There are many valuable features, of course.

I would say the main value of Signavio is to have your current process map in a way that is easy to read and derive optimization actions to make it leaner, faster, more user-friendly, etc.

In my opinion, the most valuable feature is the editor and its ease of use, and when people are looking at it, they can make comments about changes that need to be made. This is really valuable because when a process is not documented, people can be talking about two different things and arguing about them without knowing what the other one means.

More Machine Learning and data algorithms for predictions could be involved in order to get a better understanding of the whole structure and tool.

It could be more flexible from a customization point of view, where the user is able to display only whatever he needs. More flexibility in the visualization, especially on the main page of the Collaboration Hub, would make it easier.

I would like it to show cycles and other things, rather than just boxes and arrows, in a more creative way.

We primarily use Signavio for global process documentation, process discussions, and process management (process owners).

We are running Signavio on IaaS (our own cloud) and Signavio Names is on-premises.

We also use the Signavio Dictionary function as a glossary of our business terms, and to manage the process roles. As we have more than 25 offices around the world and selling in more than 55 countries, we can not map functional roles on the Swim lanes chart. This would not work.

The process roles feature is crucial for us, as this is the way the people know what they do.

If you talk about what BPM has done to your organisation, then I would more see this as the refined question to ask.

The most important thing is to understand is that it is not about Signavio. Rather, it is about managing your processes and having process managers (process owners), with the goal of improving your processes.

It is crucial to use a BPMN capable software like Signavio, but you need a process automation engine to improve your processes, and this is what Signavio is missing! The effective workflow can not even reuse the BPMN diagram.

But to answer the question, Signavio has helped our organisation in the following ways:

We started with having 250 processes documented when we used Signavio, whereas now we have about 1,600 processes (global standards in production) and more than 8,000 processes in the system (this is like a knowledge base).

The easy-to-use Signavio has significantly helped us to climb to maturity, but we are using other tools to automate our processes. We are importing the Signavio processes and automate them using the automation tools.

This is what we use and find most valuable:

• Quick modeler; as the process interview can be done by everyone. The Gateway is missing, which is a shame because others have this feature.
• Signavio modeler; this is our bread and butter functionality, although it is missing process variants, localisations, and no "To Be" process management.
• Dictionary; this is an extremely powerful function that helps us to understand who does what, system and data usage, capability, and Business Term Management.
• Collaboration Hub; we name it the Zespri process Portal. It is the one place to go, and a single source of information of truth.
• Process management/Process governance is what we think Signavio is very good at.

It is missing workflow functions. The actor's email is stored in maps, which makes it unusable.

The reporting is too slow and there is a limit of 250 processes. There are not many reports available.

The governance report is only available on the dashboard.

There is no metadata and everything is on a map level. Process owners have to be entered into a single map!

There is no functionality for variants of processes.

There is no "To Be" process functionality. We have established a time-consuming workaround.

The copy function is only a one to one process if you like to keep your revisions/versions. Folders cannot be copied.

The number of bugs has increased a lot and it is still rising.

I have been using Signavio for more than five years.

Daily stability is ok. Mass uploads of processes and dictionary items will break the system, and process uploads are not managed properly. Some imports will complete only halfway or not at all.

We have 280 modelers and more than 8,000 Process Maps (As Is and To Be).

I guess we are a very heavy user because, for the past six months, we have reached our limit.

Customer service/support was great in the beginning but is now extremely poor.

You can feel that Signavio does not like on-premises any longer, as they try to push everyone onto the cloud-based SaaS.

If you are experienced then it is really straightforward.

Everything in-house for the application level and we used our service provider for implementing the IaaS component.

SaaS has no setup cost, just licensing fees.

We have looked at more than 100 other solutions, and Signavio was selected because of its ease of use and the portal. We had an enterprise workflow solution, but the workflow was not that important.

For data mining and process intelligence, there is a lot of software out there that is better and cheaper.

We prefer to have an on-premises solution, as we can choose what version we are using. With more and more bugs showing up, that is a big benefit.

Overall, this is a good solution, but process automation is missing. This is what drives real improvement. Be careful about their sales promises and create a SLA if there are lots of people using it. We have some bugs that have been hanging for more than nine months.

Also, we believe that there are lots of process mining companies out there.

My advice is to check out what the product offers, see what fits your needs, and see what the prices are.

I compare Signavio with an amazing car that has very comfy seats but no motor under the hood. That seems harsh, but think about it: the power is the automation, as this delivers value by minimizing risk, saving costs, executing faster, and improving precision.

In summary, Signavio has helped us a lot in terms of becoming process-centric, but it is not enough and you need other tools. Most importantly, have a BPM methodology in place. We use BPTrends with help from Roger Tregear.

• Document processes as a baseline for further improvements 
• Design to be processed for ERP transformation (MS Dynamics)
• Training material for new employees
• The connection between several other pieces of information (templates, work instructions, learning videos etc.) which is very helpful for employees
  5 process managers designing processes
• 2000 employees with collaboration hub licences to have access to all processes
• Training videos based on processes in Signavio
  
• Introduction of a new ERP system based on designs to be processed

Employees love the intuitive nature of the collaboration hub and use it as their knowledge center. Access is very easy and the processes are intuitive. 

Even people that were reserved in the beginning love this tool now. Thanks to Signavio we have taken a big step from "Why can't we continue with the processes in Word documents" to "Wow, that's amazing".

We could increase the transparency and speed for the new ERP introduction. The status and changes by the new system are now clear to everybody and it is a great tool to train the people.

• High acceptance of the Signavio Collaboration Hub by our employees (what is the highest value for us)
• Easy to use for process modeling users by drag and drop
• Modeling convention check automated based on the defined setup
• Easy access for collaboration hub users by single sign-on
• Linking different processes to each other
• Collaboration, everybody can contribute to process improvements
  
• Excellent deployment program
• Fast response to questions/issues
• IT feedback "fastest and easiest Single Sign On (SSO) we have done so far"

• There are some small graphical bugs, but they are addressed immediately by Signavio to their product development team.
• The Stanard process model based on best practices would be helpful. Especially if there are no processes in place already to have an outside view on best practice models.
• Document management system to mange templates, checklists, work instructions. upload is possible but no version control etc. Signavio is not a document management tool yet.
• Focus also on other big ERP solutions (not just SAP).

I have been using Signavio since the beginning of 2020.

No issues with stability (SaaS).

High acceptance of the Signavio Collaboration Hub by our employees (what is the highest value for us). So we use it in all legal entitites.
Also there are interfaces to other IT solutions that are helpful, e.g. EAM

Support has a fast response to questions/issues.

We used MS Word.

Implement a professional BPM tool to make processes available to everybody

Straightforward initial setup, that was well prepared and all our questions could be answered.

We used the SIgnavio team (Premium Deployment Program)

We saw ROI in 12 months.

Due to COVID the deployment program took place remote via GoToMeeting. But it worked very well and the whole program was well prepared and very helpful for us. We chose the premium deployment program, which allowed us to continue with monthly Q&A sessions with Signavio. This was very helpful for us and together with the Signavio consultant, it was more like a real team-work. We really appreciate that.

Signavio is not the cheapest provider but also high value.

We evaluated several solutions.

Signavio is a great BPM tool with high acceptance among our employees

We use Signavio for group-wide digital transformation and standardization. As the largest private hospital group in Switzerland, we are dependent on keeping pace with digitalization and new business models. Signavio helps us to absorb the complexity and to create effective solutions. the planning and deployment of RPA is also supported and simplified. A deeper understanding of the correlations can be achieved with the consistent use of Signavio and process modeling. This is necessary to continuously offer customer-centered services and products in the existing VUCA world.

Signavio has helped us to understand the complex processes and procedures and to make problems transparent. the consequent approach of process modeling and conception helps the company to increase the digital transformation and operational excellence. The conceptual work in the field of digitization and IT-alignment has improved extremely and the quality has increased, which in turn leads to cost savings and time reduction. This in turn leads to a process-oriented approach to thinking about the whole company.

As a business transformation suite, Signavio offers a number of integrated helpful tools. The Process Modeler helps with the conceptual work, but is directly integrated with the components of the Workflow Accelerator (Automation) and the Process Intelligence (Mining). This makes Signavio an indispensable service package. The Workflow Accelerator helps to quickly and easily improve efficiency and automation without the need to customize expensive ERP systems. Process Intelligence helps to get deeper insights of process behaviour.

Signavio already offers a wonderful range of functions. If variant management and customer journeys are optimized, Signavio can definitely bask in the glory of BPM tools.
We also see optimization potential in the management of licenses, e.g. no named users but rather floating licenses and integration into the company's active directory. Especially in the area of workflow accelerators, where processes are automated and users are only involved on a monthly basis, named user licenses to become extremely expensive.

I've known Signavio for over five years.

It's always running. I've never major problems regarding availability or stability.

Scalability was one of our main criteria in the evaluation. Signavio best met this criterion.

The technical support is excellent!

We had another one in use but it didn't provide the same functionality and couldn't offer the simple scaling as Signavio does.

The initial setup was very quick and it was an easy introduction to start with the first work!

We have set everything up with our internal know-how but can confirm that there is a strong support team at Signavio.

Please check your scope of application and choose and negotiate the right pricing model 

Adonis, ARIS, Bizagi, Visual Paradigm, iGraphics.

Just have fun with a great tool!