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Monday, May 11, 2009

2 Minute Video: OOTB Workflow vs Third Party WF Solutions

Toni Frankola, from SharePoint Use Cases, and I had a discussion over lunch last week about third party tools for creating workflows. Going into the conversation, I was opposed, but I found Toni’s argument persuasive. No products are mentioned, but the general idea is that if you can buy something for a couple thousand dollars, is it worth the value if you would have to build the solution from scratch.

This goes along with the ‘Enough with the “Bad Economy” crap already!‘ rant I had this morning. Would your company be willing to implement a third party solution for a few thousand dollars and have access to a fully functioning workflow platform, or would they rather have you hack away at it for a couple weeks because, in terms of dollars, they are already paying for your time?

I’m pretty moved by Toni’s argument here. How about you?

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10 Responses to “2 Minute Video: OOTB Workflow vs Third Party WF Solutions”
  1. Les Flue says:

    This is a common “Buy vs Build” discussion. We struggle with this all the time. While we are a custom SharePoint development center, and we concentrate on custom solutions, we have to remain ever-vigalant that there are other solutions on the market place. To ignore these and only use our own solution does a great disservice to our clients. We owe them the respect of building their solutions effectively and efficiently – not just “our way”.

  2. I’ve used Skelta BPM and currently looking into K2. Both of these are $5k+. What product is Toni Frankola using which is only $2k?

  3. Toni’s in Croatia, so I’m sure when he wakes up, he’ll fill you in. — Mark

  4. @Mark: I forgot to mention but mine best practice for any SharePoint customization is:

    1) Consider if “better” version has the feature you need. Calculate the costs and upgrade if possible

    2) Consider 3rd party solution

    3) Develop custom code

    Custom code is the last option. It might seem to be cost-effective. But if you calculate the costs of IT engineers there is no way you can justify developing a custom code over Microsoft or ISV solution. I will write an article for you about this. Stay tuned.

    Toni

  5. Laura Rogers says:

    Yes, I totally agree with him.

  6. amitoni says:

    I must’ve missed it Tony, but what was the name of the WF solution for about 2K, I would be very interested in looking in to it

    Aaron

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