Workflow and Collaboration Applications Product Roundup

Article ID: 21019

Posted September 1st, 2007

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Because information is so vital to any enterprise, particularly in today's business climate, it follows that controlling that information flow can also be important. In particular, it can be critical to direct documents and other data to the right people in a timely way in order to meet organizational goals and to help teams of employees or business partners cooperate successfully on important projects or documents.

In the System i world, concepts such as collaboration and workflow are often lumped together with the concepts of document and content management. They are often closely allied but not synonymous. Muddying the picture still further is the reality that if, for example, someone writes a memo in MS Word and sends it to a colleague who modifies it and sends it to a third party, in the broadest sense that's a workflow. So for example, although there are many products that handle distribution of documents and information across one or many enterprises and call it workflow, in many cases this is simply a one-way distribution of data or documents for informational purposes.

This product roundup sets out to sharpen the focus for System i workflow applications and includes only those products one could purchase to provide workflow services for end users in any type of business. This roundup centers on products that are designed from the ground up to be groupware and that provide workflow in the sense of automating passage of documents, for example, to a specific group of people in a specific order to match an approval chain.

Despite other applications' overlap with document-management solutions, this roundup doesn't include applications that provide only document distribution, imaging, output control, or sharing unless there is an inherent workflow capability. It also doesn't include primarily vertical applications such as enterprise resource planning or medical solutions, for example, because although those might include workflow features, one wouldn't buy them just to access workflow capabilities. It also doesn't include portal products because, while those help end users share information and collaborate on projects in some senses, they don't provide a specific workflow process.

This article also doesn't include tools that generate workflow processes for existing applications, such as IBM Lotus Workflow, because those are more properly application development tools.

The applications that pass these filters are divided into two categories, although both types run on the System i. The first are applications that are i5/OS native. The second are those that run on IBM's Lotus Domino server, and therefore are dependent to varying extents on the features of Notes and Domino to provide their workflow features. This roundup doesn't include solutions that might run on a System i partition under other operating systems such as Linux, Unix, or Windows.

As usual, the product descriptions simply provide an overview of major functions and features. For more complete information, please consult the URLs included with each product summary.

John Ghrist is senior products editor for System iNEWS. Erin Bradford is assistant editor for System iNEWS.

i5/OS-based Workflow Solutions

Core BPM Business Process Management
Core Imaging
Core BPM is a standards-based document workflow engine designed to streamline handling of documents stored in the company's CoreDoc system, which runs under i5/OS, Linux, Mac OS, Unix, Windows, and other operating systems. CoreBPM features a graphical process designer, lets developers edit workflow screens as HTML pages, and lets users route documents based on business rules and dynamic events.
coreimaging.com

DataThread
Innovatum, Inc.
DataThread focuses on database activity and automates notifications to various personnel when anyone makes changes to critical database information covered by Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley, HIPAA, and other federal laws and regulations. It is also useful, for example, for handling approvals needed to change a customer's credit rating when the customer places an order. DataThread features electronic signatures for approvals, the ability to handle multiple-signature authorizations for the same step, the ability to identify changes at file and field levels, and a reminder system for approvals not yet completed.
innovatum.com

DB2 Content Manager for iSeries
IBM Corporation
DB2 Content Manager for iSeries is a content- and document-management application that includes workflow features. The Advanced Workflow component provides a graphical tool that lets users define and optimize a work process via diagrams and without programming. Process definitions can include where work is to be routed, whether work must wait for certain events to occur, the choices users have at each step of the process, which authority levels are available to individuals or groups, and how work should be prioritized, presented, and selected. Routing options include sequential (one user at a time), conditional (dependent on other events), parallel (routed for multiple approvals concurrently), or ad hoc (manual routing choices).
www-306.ibm.com/software/data/cm/cmgr/workflow.html

Enterprise Workflow
RJS Software Systems
Enterprise Workflow helps users design, automate, and manage electronic workflows for documents. Web-based, it automates processes and tracking, automatically routes documents to users within a workflow once a task is complete, and integrates with existing business applications. Enterprise Workflow includes security tools that let users control access, features work logs and audit trails to help users demonstrate compliance, offers a design tool for designating workflows, and provides a browser-based GUI. A timeout feature encourages automatic advancement of projects rather than letting them languish in an unattended workbasket. The product is available in a Professional Edition for SMBs and a Premier Edition for large enterprises.
rjssoft.com

GeneXus BPM Suite
GeneXus
GeneXus BPM Suite is an application that lets users design, optimize, and document business processes and workflows. It helps model, automate, manage, and optimize business processes, as well as integrate other software applications into business procedures.
genexus.com

IntelliChief
Quadrant Software
IntelliChief is a paperless process-management application that lets users create, capture, retrieve, distribute, and archive business-related documents. Its Workflow Chief feature controls movement of documents and processes throughout an enterprise, lets managers track processes and audit trails, and lets end users set deadlines and view and process documents, alerts, and notifications.
intellichief.quadrantsoftware.com

MetaViewer
Metafile
MetaViewer is a web-enabled, WebSphere-compatible suite of document-management products that includes workflow capabilities. Users can route documents needing approvals or sign-offs to any number of other people inside or outside an enterprise via the Internet. In addition, MetaViewer provides report management, full-text search, modules tailored to financial functions (e.g., A/P, A/R), document indexing, and application-integration features. MetaViewer is available either as licensed software or as an Internet service from Metafile.
mv.metafile.com

RVI Complete Imaging System
Real Vision Software, Inc.
The RVI Complete Imaging System is a full-featured imaging and document-management application that lets users scan, create, control, track, process, and output documents of all kinds. Incorporated within the product are several workflow-related features. The product provides a graphical workflow designer as a means of designating document flows and approval chains and tracks versions for all documents. It lets users define rules for image routing, online approvals, aging notifications, and automatic distributions via e-mail, fax, and print.
realvisionsoftware.com

TaskAide Workflow System for LaserVault Imaging
Electronic Storage Corporation
TaskAide Workflow System is a workflow application for Electronic Storage Corporation's LaserVault Imaging, an imaging and document-management solution for the System i. TaskAide provides a browser-based GUI with which users can set up workflow processes and establish audit-trail tracking across an enterprise or across organizations via the Internet. Managers can route tasks to specific employees and access histories of how long it took to complete those tasks, set task-level security for individual users, customize and change workflows via a wizard, and set due dates.
laservault.com

Domino-based Workflow Solutions

Apollo WCM
SilverBlaze Solutions, Inc.
Apollo WCM is a web-content manager for documents. A nontechnical interface lets authors create and edit content through a common browser interface with familiar editing features. The solution includes automatic workflow features to route document approvals.
apollowcm.com

Captaris Workflow
Captaris, Inc.
Captaris Workflow offers a generic workflow solution that's adaptable to nearly any type of business. It streamlines business processes by automating communications and information flows, both internally between enterprise teams and externally with customers and suppliers. Captaris Workflow includes best-practice templates, business-activity monitoring tools, and workflow wizards specialized for end users, application designers, and administrators.
captaris.com

enTouch.workflow
PSC Group, LLC
PSC's enTouch.workflow is part of an integrated suite of solutions that manage a wide range of business production and administrative tasks, ranging from expense reports and performance reporting to contact management and engineering change notices for products. The workflow solution features integrated components that users can add one at a time, customizing tools for searching and information views, an embedded infrastructure with support for all Notes/Domino office-automation features, integration with Microsoft Exchange and Office, and integrated communications with a wide range of wireless devices.
pscgroup.com

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