ARIS Express Released Today - Do We Care?

The full version of ARIS Express is released today. You can download it at: http://www.ariscommunity.com/aris-express

It's advertised as the "world's first BPM tool" - I'm sure it isn't but it's a catchy strapline right enough.

The question is - do we care? Who exactly are ARIS expecting to use this product? It's obviously designed to be a visio killer, but without swimlanes it's a toothless tiger. So Visio users won't switch to it, ARIS users won't use it as they already have the full blown version and it's arguably too complex for small business owners to get their head around.

I can somewhat understand the marketing strategy - get those using visio to switch to ARIS express as it saves them some money - they'll like the product and then eventually upgrade to big boy's ARIS...and pay lots of money...or will they?

Answers on a postcard, please.

- TPN

Comments

[Sebastian]

ARIS Express will get BPMN 2 support at the end of the year. BPMN has swimlanes, so your request will be fulfilled.

Most free BPM tools just focus on process modelling, but ARIS Express also provides models for other dimensions such as organisational charts, data models, IT infrastructure models, system landscapes, and flow diagrams. Therefore, we call it BPM - business process management - and not just business process modelling.

Regards,

Sebastian

[George]

It doesn't have any import capability, either, at least in the beta version. If its meant to be a starting point then the opportunity to import existing models has been lost.

[Sarah]

Well if you don't want to wait for BPMN support, you can always download BizAgi, the most widely used BPMN modeler in the world (and available for ree at www.bizagi.com ).
And if you want to turn those BPMN diagrams into running applications without programming (I thought this what BPM was all about, not just a drawing tool), you can always download the BizAgi Xpress version and execute them!

[The Process Ninja]

Hi Sarah, my point was regarding swimlanes - personally I'm not concerned with BPMN, although there may be some others out there that may be interested in your product.

BTW have you read Jan Reckers's research about the use of BPMN? Turns out that the pareto principle also applies to BPMN!