WIXLIB

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017Author: Jim LundySWOT: NINTEX WORKFLOW CLOUDTopics:Summary: Nintex is well positioned to take advantage of the shiftto more automated content solutions and platforms. Automatingdocument processes is a critical step on the path to becoming afully digital enterprise. Aragon provides an analysis of theStrengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats facing Nintex.Content AnalyticsWorkflow and Content AutomationIssues: How will the Workflow and ContentAutomation market evolve?How will Content Analytics help enterprisesmanage their critical content more efficiently?IntroductionNintex helped to pioneer Workflows that are content-centric.The company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, andwas originally founded in Australia. Nintex is well known in theMicrosoft SharePoint Ecosystem, which is its heritage, but isquickly increasing its footprint within the Salesforce and BoxEcosystems.Nintex has leveraged its Microsoft Ecosystem strengths and avast reseller network to become a large provider with run raterevenue over U.S. 100M. The company has been on agrowth trajectory since it took private investment and hired anew CEO, John Burton, whose VC firm is one of the primaryinvestors.In the last year, Nintex has expanded its offerings with its newNintex Workflow Cloud, and its integrations with Microsoft,both SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365, Salesforce, Box,and others.Workflow and Content AutomationNintex is a major player in what Aragon Research refers to asWorkflow and Content Automation (WCA).Today, many companies rely on unwieldy enterprise softwareapplications that are difficult to configure, maintain, and update asbusiness processes evolve. This results in organizations lackingthe ability to quickly execute and react in real-time. Operating anCopyright 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Aragon Research and the Aragon Research Globe are trademarksof Aragon Research Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. This publication may not be distributed in any formwithout Aragon Research’s prior written permission. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to bereliable. Nevertheless, Aragon Research provides this publication and the information contained in it "AS IS," without warranty of any kind. To themaximum extent allowed by law, Aragon Research expressly disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of suchinformation and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information.This publication consists of the opinions of Aragon Research and Advisory Services organization and should not be construed as statements offact. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Although Aragon Research may include a discussion of related legalissues, Aragon Research does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Aragon Researchis a private company and its clients may include firms or financial institutions that have financial interests in entities covered by Aragon Research.Further information about the objectivity of Aragon Research can be found at aragonresearch.com

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017agile business in our competitive era of Digital Transformationrequires a different approach.WCA combines sophisticated workflow capabilities withautomated document generation and involves a number of keydepartures from a traditional Business Process Management(BPM) discipline: It is combined with document generation and imageparsing features to create a new, must-have set of toolsthat allow for the creation of, and harvesting data from,intelligent documents that seamlessly move between theenterprise and their customers.It spans the boundaries of any one software or storageasset; processes typically involve multiple sources ofstructured and unstructured content.It expects solutions to continually evolve over multipleiterations, and the tools are designed to embrace thisreality.It strives to reduce the amount of work on the part of boththe designer/developer and the participants.It strives to reach work participants using the apps,devices, and communication channels they already know,hooking into email, instant messaging, texting, socialmedia channels, Internet of Things devices, and existingwebsites. A new app for every new solution is notpractical.It calls on features like digital signatures, faxes, electronicforms, mobile apps, API gateways, etc., as needed. Unlikepure integration platforms, WCA is capable of significantlymore elaborate process logic, effectively assigning tasksto software.By combining these capabilities, WCA opens up the possibilitiesfor automating content-centric processes that require humaninteraction to conduct business. WCA also enables dynamicengagement between internal and external constituents, a keytenet of Digital Transformation.The Genesis of WCAWCA is a realization of the multitude of ways that documentsare generated and then moved inside and outside of anenterprise to conduct business. It is important to understandthat to automate documents today, you really need people, 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Page 2

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017document editors, and document generation software (alsocalled CCM and Workflow Software).WCA is about consolidating all of the above into a singlecategory. As such, Aragon believes that WCA is poised to bea key catalyst for document automation, which in terms ofDigital Transaction Management and Digital Business,represents a key component of a Digital Continuum. The bestway to look at WCA is that it will consolidate the following: Forms SoftwareWorkflow SoftwareDocument Generation or Customer CommunicationManagement (CCM)Figure 1: WCA combines traditional categories of BPM and CustomerCommunications Management (CCM) into one modern platform.Nintex has been able to leverage its 2015 acquisition ofDrawloop, a top document generation app in the SalesforceAppExchange, to extend its offerings to include CCMfunctionality, which is now part of its overall Nintex WorkflowCloud offering.The rise of new modern platforms that consolidate older ITstacks is a trend in and of itself. The bigger opportunity iscreating processes that are partially or fully automated. 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Page 3

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017Core WCAThe most basic form of WCA is the document creationprocess. Often times, a human needs to provide inputs into adocument, but in some cases, it can be generated by asoftware application (see Figure 2). Historically, this wascalled forms. WCA, via built-in interview capabilities, can helpa person or buyer fill out a document by interviewing themand getting answers to a series of questions.There is often a review and approval process after thedocument is created. In many cases, these Core WCAdocument flows are repeatable and can happen many times aday.Figure 2: Core WCA Process Map.Semi-To Fully Automated WCAWhen shifting beyond document creation, WCA goes furtherinto semi-automated creation. In this stage, documents canbe auto-generated based on rules tied to a specific client orprocess.The input from people is often after the document isgenerated to review and make any other tweaks needed.Once validated, the document can then be routed through therest of the approval process to complete the businesstransaction.Figure 3: Semi- to Fully Automated WCA. 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Page 4

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017The Benefits of WCAThere are a number of reasons to look at Workflow andContent Automation. The biggest is that it eliminates manualprocessing of documents.Consolidating Traditional Software SilosWCA combines the traditional silos of Workflow andDocument Generation, which from a software perspective,were two distinct technology categories. By consolidating,entire document processes can be automated often withfewer technology stacks, which can also speed up theprocess.For enterprises, the need to buy fewer applications that oftendo not work together is a big benefit. If the first goal is toautomate Content, the next goal should then be to select anew platform that does more of the automation of documentprocesses and does it in less time to develop and deploy thenew digital application.Content Automation: Eliminating Manual ProcessesThe content automation part of WCA cannot beunderestimated. What we are looking at is eventually makingdocument processes entirely automated, so that theproductivity of people overseeing these documentsskyrockets. The ability to generate more contracts andbusiness documents means that the business is moving fasterand generating more revenue.Faster Digital TransactionsAragon estimates that on the creation process, it is oftenhours that are saved when comparing WCA to traditional,manual creation. For example, creating a proposal for a client,when automated, can be done in fifteen minutes, as opposedto the two hours it took during the manual process, thussaving significant time.In a Sales organization, the reduction of time it takes to createclient-facing documents can have a substantial impact onresults, as the time spent creating proposals and contracts 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Page 5

Digital Workplace ServiceRESEARCH NOTENumber: 2017-44November 7, 2017can be reallocated to time spent with customers andprospects.Prediction: By YE 2018, Smart Documents will be able toauto create and route themselves. Workflow and ContentAutomation (WCA) will power this revolution.Nintex Workflow Cloud AnalysisNintex Workflow Cloud is what we would refer to as anemerging Content Platform. It combines Workflow, ContentAutomation, Integrations, and a growing set of ContentAnalytics to make it a full Digital Business Platform totransform legacy content processes to full Digital ones.A major benefit for Nintex is that while its Workflow CloudPlatform continues to support the Microsoft ecosystem, it hasalso become more vendor neutral.Nintex’s October 2017 announcement of a major Partnershipwith Box supports the company’s plans to bring workflowautomation natively to Box customers, while its relationshipwith Salesforce and new Workflow Cloud integration meansthat Nintex has the connectivity needed to automate manycontent-centric processes by leveraging data and connectingprocesses from multiple applications.The no code nature of Nintex Workflow Cloud is also one ofthe key aspects that will make it attractive to both IT andbusiness users who build workflows and forms. The point andclick interface means that designing new digital processes isfast and easy enough for a Salesforce Admin to do.IT Teams will be able to assist their business units with rapidprototyping and with integrations that can be turned on inminutes. Nintex Workflow Cloud is also backed by a solidextensibility framework and can be extended through robustAPIs.This all makes Nintex Workflow Cloud more than justWorkflow and Content Automation. 2017 Aragon Research Inc. and or its affiliates. All rights reserved.Page 6