I have been using the Appian Enterprise 5.1 and 5.5 Suite now for about 6 months. We have deployed it at a client and have several implementations ongoing. It has been very easy to learn and use.
Without being a developer or a hard-core technologist, I find it easy to build models, create automation, implement rules, create document management repositories, customize the portals, and create dashboards. Since one of the big values that I see in BPM is the ability to push some of this "application management" out to the business, this is critical.
In general, I expect an integration specialist that can write custom code or understands existing ERP or legacy applications will need to be involved, but if a business "power user" can do 75-80% of the application development, that is great.
Although I have used the Lombardi Blueprint tool, I have not gone as far in TeamWorks, their BPM suite. I hope to get there in the next month and share some similar thoughts around their tool. In Appian, it is mostly drop-and-drag with the need to subsequently configure the node (e.g., who is the e-mail sent to, what data is collected). The one area I would have complained about in 5.1 was the forms editor, but 5.5 added an AJAX form editor which makes that even easier.
Both companies offer rapid implementations. I know we did one implementation in about 10-12 weeks from process mapping and requirements to production. In another case, the implementation team is one consultant with some adhoc support. The ability to create process oriented applications in a RAD (Rapid Application Development) approach is great.
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