Appian Reviews

We use Appian for client on-boarding, anything onboard related, really: loading institutional clients, tracking that information in a single reporter, doing the follow-up, creating the plan parables for them, and developing for them.

In my organization, there are about 150 users who are currently using Appian on a daily basis. We use Appian very extensively. Every day, there are more than 100 unique logins to the system.

Appian also has very flexible local integration and we have used that extensively to integrate with our Legacy system.

The user interface is good, but it's not perfect. They should provide more flexibility so designers can create a more picture-perfect device. There should be more features on mobile UX development as well. 

Currently, it's easy to use and It gets the job done, but it's not flexible in regards to creating the mobile application from scratch. You have to play within the framework and the rules of the UX; however, that's something that not many customers like. Customers want a flexible mobile application development platform. I think Appian should make a lot of improvements with respect to their mobile application development by providing more flexibility for designers in order to allow them to create their own UX components and control the display of the data onscreen. 

I would like to see more flexibility in terms of the UI. I know that it's not designed to be a big application that allows you to do multiple things, like creating the second year stream of the pie, for example. I feel like Appian has been so instrumental in making their entire product local, and have really improved the user interface design, but the user interface design is limited to authenticated users only — although there are some limited pieces available on the login page. I would like Appian to extend their local capabilities to the login page as well so that we could create an available application that can be targeted to any customer. For example, if you flipped it, you would see information about various products and other information, something that could be very realistic if only Appian would allow these capabilities to be extended to the login page.

I have been using Appian for more than 10 years.

The stability is good. We have been using Appian for our strategy and tactical solutions and it has held up very well for us. The team was able to adapt to the changes of the new version  very quickly and were able to implement the application without any complexities or jumping hurdles relating to development. There were no issues for us. Appian has been meeting just as many of the requirements in my department as the stakeholders have. The stakeholders are happy with the UI and ease of the application. The overall usability has improved and everyone is happy with Appian. 

We believe that the scalability of Appian depends on the expertise of the Appian designers. It completely depends on the skill of the designers — how they design the applications determines the scalability of processes and data. In other words, the platform is very scalable. It stores the data as memory so the data allows us to retrieve the information rapidly; but again, we had already done the data management so the team was focused on data retention and data management. They set up their architecture in such a way that the system and the application can be scaled very quickly, so we are not seeing any problems with the scaling of Appian. 

My team mainly interacts with Appian cloud support who regularly provides them with solutions and advises them about any existing platform issues.

We previously looked at the Pega system; actually, one of our departments is currently using Pega system, but we wanted to diversify our technology base to provide a better experience for our stakeholders. My CIO recommended we make an investment because these two platforms are leading BPM tools offering similar functionalities, including BPM, EI, and case management. So we were calculating the pricing, trying to figure out what the return on the investment would be if we went with one platform or the other and what it would cost us in terms of losses between Pega and Appian.

The initial setup was straightforward. The team was able to set it up quickly, build up the applications and deploy it within six to ten weeks.

We have an in-house team that is comprised of Appian architects, designers, consultants and professionals who are trained on the Appian platform.

I would definitely recommend Appian. It has come a long way and it's a good product. It's entering into the area of a local application development platform. Appian is continuously making product updates every quarter. 

I would give Appian a rating of nine out of ten.

We use this solution for the integration of systems and data in our organization.

Development time is much faster than traditional coding solutions, and it is more robust.

The Cloud offering is a nice feature.

The process models provide self-documenting systems.

They are continuously improving the platform. Three months ago I would have suggested they make smart service creation easier (using their API to create components), but they have done that.

My only request is that they decrease the license costs.

This is a great product.

Our primary use for this solution is Business Process Automation.  Appian is good for enterprise process automation as well as general purpose low code development.

Since implementing, we have had a faster time to solution, with fewer resources needed per project compared to other tools.

The most valuable features of Appian are the Low Code, robust Process Design, Run-time Management, Deployment, Interfaces, and Mobility.  The business rules capability are advanced and the integration capabilities are second to none.  We also find security to be more robust than pretty much all other application platforms we've worked with in the past.

We've used a good number of Business Process Automation tools in the past and none of them have given the value for money we are seeing with Appian.  Appian enables us spend the least time designing beautiful and robust interfaces that automatically render in Web browsers and native mobile apps securely without any additional effort.  With very little learning curve, an Appian designer will start designing very complex and dynamic interfaces that consume data from everywhere.

We would however like to have more granular control for interface styling in future releases.  Appian releases updates to the platform every quarter.

We use this solution because End-to-End Process Automation in Appian is robust and scalable. Thousands of process instances can run concurrently. Apart from that, development is fast for process and workflow automation when the developers are experienced, and the code can be reusable.

This solution has helped in creating a process platform for the bank because it can handle cross-department processes. Process culture is making noise inside the organization because now, everybody knows that their time is being monitored. 

This solution provides for fast development with Quick Apps and simple CRUD user interfaces. 

Some of the other features are:

• Fast development with SAIL
• Beautiful user interfaces that are limited in customization but have the benefit of fewer problems with usability
• Having data in memory using KDB technology is also a good idea
  

I would like to see better monitoring for business events in synchronization with business rules.

There should be a better development for Cases, because it is not really a capability of the product. You have to develop the behavior.

The documentation needs to be improved.

This is a scalable solution that can run thousands of processes concurrently and fault tolerant

I used IBM BPM 8.5.7 prior to adopting this solution.

The cost depends on the number of users, although I recommend taking an unlimited license.

We evaluated both Pega and Activiti before choosing this solution.

In general, Appian is a great competitor in process automation. However, in my opinion, compared with IBM they lack documentation, development methodology guides (scrum is not enough for BPM adoption) organizational change management is a prerequisite for any BPM journey, real examples like IBM Redbooks, the academy is great I think that more real business cases would be better, webinars etc

In my opinion, it is not good to let developers design their own business database. Normally, they are not experienced at this. Perhaps for mid-size business, there is no problem, but when you have a big business it gets complicated and a database designer is required.

Appian is basically for workflows and workflow approval.

In a banking scenario, suppose as a customer, I apply for a loan. That loan needs approval from a manager. In addition, I will need to provide documents like my Social Security, personal details, company details. There are levels of information that can be maintained in the back-end. If you are the manager you can check that I provided all this information and, based on the criteria, you can approve a loan of 300 or a loan of 400, all within the back-end.

An advantage of this tool is the area of workflows, mainly for back-end users. It is not for end-users.

Another advantage of this tool is its reports and records. You can maintain dashboards, layouts. If you with a Java solution, it takes six months time. If you use this tool, you can finish in one or one and a half months' time. It took us six and a half months time to develop a small application in Java, but within this tool, we developed it in one and a half months, including the records and reports.

Also, there is a version coming out every six months with performance improvements.

You can develop a back-end UI and back-end reports using this tool.

It needs a better UI. There has been a lot of development in version 18.1 but we still need more for it to compete with other BPM tools.

Stability depends on the development. If you do proper development the stability is okay. Whenever you are getting data from the database, you have to write more code rules, more views. It will take a long time. Going forward, you can have performance issues. Initially, it works fine, but going forward, you are hitting performance issues whenever you create the views to get the data from the database. That's what I found in my previous project.

I used Oracle BPM. I switched because, as a developer, the market was becoming completely saturated and I was not getting any jobs.

The setup is straightforward. No complaints, no issues.

I hear the price was hiked a little recently. Initially, it was low. But it's okay compared to Pega.

IBM has Business Process Manager, Oracle has its BPM as well.

If you are looking for back-end solutions, this tool is 100 percent a fit. So Appian BPM for the back-end and, if you want a front-end, I don't suggest using Appian BPM. The Appian back-end is only for internal users, not for end-users. For end-users, you can use Java.

• Process Designer - If properly used, the executable flow itself helps you understand the business flow.
• Call Web Service Smart Service - Web service integrations with other systems are super simple and fast to create, supported by low code menus.
• Write to Data Store Entity - Saving data in SQL databases is done easily using entities. Entities (CDTs in Appian terminology) define relationships and target schema tables via XSD files.
• SAIL interfaces - Writing code that creates forms requires coding skills in Appian SAIL, a proprietary language. The forms are mobile-ready and components can be reused in forms and reports.

Even though the company has made great improvements in online documentation, featuring rich material which includes case studies of real-life use cases, the material could definitely be better in quality and coverage of use cases.

Another point of improvement would be the SAIL forms. The built-in tool used to generate forms does not have debugging support (to view local variables as they change on live preview, and step-by-step valuation) which is a big drawback for form development. Moreover, the script language used to build SAIL forms does not support inheritance or lambda expressions (functions as arguments of other functions), which makes the code base more verbose.

Last but not least, I am missing a team collaboration solution. Only one person at a time can work on objects. This is not a big issue really, because, if you follow the Appian best practices, all objects are pieces that fit single-person workloads.

The platform is super stable in BPMS and rules execution. 

Issues can appear in the following ways, related to development and design choices:

1. The underlying database is facing locking or performance issues. The instability of the database is very quickly propagated in the flows and forms executions (Appian engines/application server) and the platform can become non-responsive, experience deteriorating performance, or create numerous exceptions in running processes.
2. If the platform is used for data-intensive tasks, especially in deep nesting of data manipulation rules, the performance can quickly be affected and may also lead to exceptions.
3. If you don't follow the Appian best practices, and your application is scaling up, then on pick times the performance will be bad or exceptions may occur. This situation can be avoided by identifying potential issues by running the health check diagnostic tool.

Scalability is very good, but there are limits imposed by the underlying hardware and the JVM's heap size. Notably, even with a configuration having multiple application servers, the Appian engines installation is always one. However, the capacity of the topologies is very high and will not be an issue for companies with up to 10 applications per installation and up to 4000 active users per day. Appian provides a sizing document and Professional Services to help with decisions on the subject.

Technical support is considered good, and various levels of support can be selected.

Prior to Appian, there was a Java-based BPMS solution, but Appian was valued for its low-code characteristics that lead to the fastest development cycles in the industry. It was also valued for the scalability, the flexibility on development, the level of support, and the increasing developer base.

Appian has two offerings for its customers, on-premise and Appian Cloud (PaaS). In the case of PaaS, setup is very minimal and straightforward. For the on-premise product, the initial setup is pretty straightforward in most cases but requires a level of systems expertise, especially if you are setting up a high-performance production machine.

After some initial use, tuning the database is advisable. For mission-critical applications, an initial round of stress testing may be a good idea for identifying potential bottlenecks in your applications. Setup can also be tricky if you try to migrate from very old installations which used a different topology. If this is your situation, you may need support from Appian Professional Services.

The alternative we evaluated was Pega BPM.

If licensing cost is not a problem, then Appian is definitely a go, either as a stand-alone platform or with the PaaS offering in the Appian Cloud. When it comes to speed of development, system integrations, BMPS workflows, and digitization of manual processes, Appian is possibly the best choice there is.

We use for this solution for organizing and distribution for supermarkets, for coordinating the disposition of expired goods in the supermarket.

It is also used internally, to structure the budget; also for task scheduling and tracking.

It has improved the organization by defining activity ownership. When we give ownership to the right user, processes go very fast. Before it wasn't very good. It was slow. Now, with this application, you can see the bottlenecks, where the business processes is slow. There is a lot of information from it. 

• I think the interface is a good feature because it's simple to use and you can quickly develop the users' interface. 
• The Application Designer is also very user friendly. 
• There are a lot of plug-ins that you can use and, for the most part, they are free.

Something they need to improve is, it is difficult to catch errors. When there's an administration error you can't catch the error, and it is there until the administrator addresses it. This is a problem because if you are the developer, you try to catch the error but you can't. The process will stop. There is a workaround but it would be pretty cool of you could catch the error before. 

Another limit is the reporting. The reporting is not as good as in similar products. They need to improve on that side.

They could also improve the dashboards.

No issues with stability.

We haven't encountered any issues because we use small processes. We have not had any problem with the amount of work or data it can handle.

Their technical support is good. There is a community which will, for the most part, answer problems. But if you have a big problem and you need support from Appian, they are a little slow, but they are good; they provide good answers.

We didn't have previous solution.

No it was not complicated. It was simple.

It's good value for the price.

I only saw demos of Pegasystems and IBM. We selected between Pega, IBM, and Appian. Appian was cheaper than the others when we saw these three solutions. As of now, I don't know about the pricing.

Be sure to use the product in the correct way and don't ask the product to make up for experience in BPM.

We use Appian for HR onboarding and a couple other places in the company.

In particular we use it for workflows in HR onboarding. Any time that we're hiring new people, we have an application that assigns different tasks for computers, for making sure they're set up on insurance, their emails; all of that stuff is assigned to them prior to starting to work.

Accountability is probably the most affected. Knowing that a task has been assigned, that you're following a specific process, and that the task has been completed, gives you that accountability throughout the organization. It enables us to know that, when we bring new people on, they're ready to start right away.

It's being able to manage the workflow, to assign tasks, to have notification that a task has been completed. It's basically what any BPM solution is going to provide.

What stands out are the 

• speed of the product
• quick, easy development 
• visual diagramming. 

Those are the features that really stand out.

I don't know that I would have any specific areas for improvement.

It's very stable. We have not experienced any problems with it.

Considering that organizations like the US Army use it, worldwide, globally, it's able to scale up from supporting an organization of 50 to an organization of thousands. There is no issue with scalability.

I have not had any reason to call tech support, but my peers that I've talked with, who have interfaced with tech support, say it's fast, it's responsive. They get the issues resolved immediately.

Again, we haven't had any problems with tech support whatsoever.

We had used a homegrown solution. We do custom development, software development work, or that was our legacy. Maintaining that homegrown solution over time just proved to be ineffective. Appian provided a much better solution at a lower overall cost.

It's very straightforward. If you've got somebody who comes from a workflow background they're going to understand it, and find it very simple. It's very intuitive. We didn't have any issues in setting it up or getting started with it.

I think that most companies do not do a good job of really looking at the return on investment. They typically do not have a good feel for what their costs are, going in, of manual processes or of a homegrown solution they've developed.

Being able to calculate an ROI, I've seen that to be very difficult for most clients that I've dealt with. I think that's an element that's missing a lot in technology today. Make sure you evaluate your total cost before you're ready to make a decision.

I think that if somebody is really serious at looking at business value, then by all means, the product is well worth the value. You get representative business value for the price that you pay for the product, and for the implementation of the product.

We evaluated several different options. Pegasystems is one. I'm not sure about K2, but there were multiple options available. If you look at the industry reports there are numerous solutions listed. We felt that Appian, for the value and for the ease of use, and for the mobile capability, was the best solution.

I would give it a nine out 10. I don't think any product is ever perfect, but I think that Appian is one of them that comes closest to that mark. When you consider the capability, what it can do, consider the price, consider the different advantages that it has, I think it's a superior product. It's one that we use. We're very pleased with it. Most customers that I've talked to have been very, very pleased with their selection.

I understand that you can go with an off-the-shelf product that's going to get you 70%, maybe 75% of the capability you want. You're going to have to tweak it and do some elements of custom work that are most likely going to drive the cost up. You need to consider that, versus a product like Appian that allows you to really tailor the solution to fit your particular environment. I think that's the best advice I would give somebody, is to make sure that you're looking at it honestly before you go down that road.