Process automation and workflow management for enterprises
4.4/5 (25 reviews)K2 is a cloud-based process automation tool that helps large enterprises deploy applications and streamline workflows. Its key features include collaboration, modeling, form creation, third-party integrations, compliance tools, data management, and task assignment.
K2's workflow module comes with a visual drag-and-drop designer which lets users incorporate logic to manage escalations and due dates. Supervisors can generate real-time visibility reports on task status and audit information to identify bottlenecks. With form creator functionality, users can capture and modify data, and build forms with rules for hiding fields, auto-assigning information and more.
K2 includes a SmartObjects feature that enables integration with different line-of-business systems and allows users to create custom applications. Users can create an integration point and use it across multiple workflows, forms and reports. Companies can use this application to build solutions for employee onboarding, loan origination, complaint resolution, contract approval, customer data management, quality assurance, travel requests and IT system management across multiple data centers.
Pros
As a workflow tool, i cant ee anything else in the market that compares. The workflow functionality encompasses just about everything i have need in several years of usage.
Couple the workflow with the integrated forms (user screens) functionality and you have a great product set that can also integrate with just about any other product - out of the K2 box.
Add SQL Server and PowerBI - and you have a product set that you can satisfy nearly any business application requirement that is given to you.
You worry about scalability with alot of the drag and drop tools, but K2 perform excellently, running 1000s of workflows a day and hundreds of users on K2 'Smartforms'
You can create 'wizard' type applications with Next, Next Next clicks .. or you can build your application from scratch.
K2 Support is Excellent! very responsive, and they see the issue through to resolution.
I have used the K2 toolset for several years with many different customers it is a great toolkit for use throughout all areas of a business.
Cons
I would like to see a community version of the product launched, that allows anyone to use the product for free for educational and small businesses.
Bring more people into the K2 world, its good software, make it more available.
K2 is a robust and flexible platform but there is a bit of a learning curve associated with the product. Much work has been done to improve this initial experience, especially in recent releases. The latest version of the product is a major step forward in this regard. Also, I have worked with several members of the K2 support staff. Most of the individuals I've encountered are very helpful and excellent at quickly identifying problems and solutions. Occasionally, I have had some lackluster experiences with support, but that is often due to an entry level technician not escalating an issue as quickly as I would like.
Pros
In a word, flexibility. This software is a great tool for end users in the business as well as IT professionals. The web based designer is very capable and the rules engine is powerful enough to rarely require custom solutions. The system is excellent with regard to 3rd party system integration and puts the power to develop custom solutions in the hands of more people. There also has been more attention paid to simplifying the administration of security within the system in recent releases. This should make it more practical to administer the platform for users throughout the enterprise to design/develop solutions.
Cons
There is the occasional error when developing workflows/integrating them with Smartforms which do not show up until deployment. These errors are not always intuitive to resolve, but I have never run into an issue that didn't have a resolution.
We have a team of 5 people developing a Enterprise solution with K2. We are satisfied with the possibilities K2 gives us and are very content with the level of support whenever required. The customer service is personal, quick and helpfull.
Pros
The platform is set-up with a data driven philosophy. It has a powerfull integration layer and data is your starting point for everything. As long as you understand the way of thinking of a developer, you can work with this platform. It is easy to learn. We have used it for a complex Enterprise level solution which it supports just fine. I like the options that you have to make it more flexible, like custom service brokers. Also the workflow engine is very powerfull. Last but not least the designer has quite a large amount of controls that can be used when building your views and forms.
Cons
Troubleshooting / debugging your solution is a bit difficult. You need to place message boxes in your form to validate parameter / control values for example. Also finding where rules are called is difficult, although there is a 3rd party solution for this available which is very helpfull.
Pros
I'm an engineer, and having the right set of tools to do what I need to do is key for me, and K2 does just that.
It advertises itself as a BPM tool, but it is much more than that.
K2 offered me the tools I needed to easily connect to my data where ever it is using various out-of-the-box brokers, I was able to create forms quickly and easily and the new workflow canvas is just very simple to use.
Cons
The strength of K2 resides mainly in the connectivity option it offers, smartobjects and workflows.
The only thing the still needs a bit of improvements is SmartForms. Although it allows you to create forms quickly and easily, it doesn't give you a lot of flexibility in the look and feel, and you need to get a bit creative to manage to get the UI you want with minimal custom code.
I have used K2 blackpearl and K2 five for 5 years on medium to great projects.
It is one of the best values for money in the BPM market.
It still has a margin for improvement in customization and deployment tasks.
Its support team is simply awesome.
Pros
Easy to learn and use. You can develop professional-grade workflow-based applications in days.
Really extensible using its service brokers.
Cons
Not so easy to master, it is easy to do a lot of things but is also easy to do it terribly wrong impacting the overall performance.
Smartforms are not the most beautiful user interface except you want to invest a lot of time, although is really fast to add functionality to a solution is hard to customize it.
It does not support some great staff like multilanguage out of the box.
Starter: $12/user/month
Builder: $18/user/month
Premier: $24/user/month
• K2’s low code automation system allows developers and less technical users to create workflows using a drag-and-drop graphical editor.
• K2 has wide applicability as it comes with business integration technology that makes it easy to connect to any line-of-business system.
• Process administrators and end users can use the reporting tool to combine metrics and gain real-time insight into the status of each workflow.
• K2 allows users to create customized forms for reuse across multiple processes to maintain consistency.
• Managers can use the solution to assign role-based access to staff members and keep track of application usage.
Below are some frequently asked questions for K2.
K2 offers the following pricing plans:
Starting from: $12/month
Pricing model: Subscription
Free Trial: Available
Starter: $12/user/month
Builder: $18/user/month
Premier: $24/user/month
K2 offers the following features:
K2 has the following typical customers:
Large Enterprises, Mid Size Business, Public Administrations
K2 supports the following languages:
English
K2 has the following pricing plans:
Subscription
K2 supports the following devices:
Android, iPhone, iPad
K2 integrates with the following applications:
DocuSign, Interact, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Analytics Cloud, Salesforce App Cloud, Tableau
K2 offers the following support options:
FAQs, Forum, Knowledge Base, Online Support, Phone Support, Video Tutorials
I am not connected in any way to K2 .. I just use their toolset.
I have been a contractor for a number of years using the K2 toolset and have had to contact K2 on behalf of many customers, to resolve issues etc. The K2 technical and business support is excellent. Whether it is a business or a technical question that you have, K2 respond quickly and effectively.