What is the cost of Process Mapping software? (Features and Pricing)

Is “What is the cost of Process Mapping software?” a question that you are wanting answered? Perhaps you are finding getting the answer harder than you would like? This is likely to be because there are a lot of potential answers.

In this article we will explore all of the things that you need to consider when choosing process mapping software and set out pricing for the software that Triaster offers.

There are a great many process mapping software tools available, and the price range is wide. It is perfectly possible to find free process mapping software to download from the internet as well as very low cost process mapping software. This may well suit your organisation’s needs, if they are fairly limited.

The key decision to make when choosing process mapping software is not in fact usually price driven, but by how well the software features offered meet your requirements. You also need to look at:

• The software licensing agreement
• Help desk support for the software
• Maintenance or upgrades for the process mapping software
• Training and services available for software
• Compatibility with other software tools
• Management of the process maps created

Let’s look at each of these in turn.

Process Mapping Software Features

As previously mentioned, the key thing here is that the process mapping software purchased includes the key features that meet your requirements. So if swim lanes are important to you, of course the software that you purchase needs to deliver them.

(The full list of the Triaster process mapping features can be found here, in the ‘Create Great Processes’ table.)

However, there are a couple of broader requirements that we would very much recommend that you look out for:

• Ease of use of the software
• Consistency of the process maps produced
• Return on investment for the process maps produced

Ease of Use of Process Mapping Software

Let’s face it, process mapping can be hard. Capturing what someone does is hard, even if that someone is yourself. We all know what we do all day, but process maps need to show the transformations – what we start with (inputs), what we produce (outputs) and the activities and decisions that go into changing one into the other. This is much harder to think through and document in an understandable format than “read and answer e-mails”.

We need the software tool we use to document our processes to be as easy to use as possible.When thinking what ‘easy to use’ means for your organisation, think about using the tool for long periods and creating many hundreds of process maps. Think about how tech savvy the process mappers will be; how used to process mapping they are.

One of Triaster’s customers once said, ‘If you can drag and drop, you can use Triaster’.

Also, think forward to how things might change in the future. A change of company name or branding for example might require every single process map to be updated in future. Are batch updates enabled?

Consistency of the Process Maps Produced

One of the key benefits that can be derived from process mapping is to have a consistent, organisation-wide model of your organisation. This enables everyone in the organisation to be able to be familiar with the approach and understand the process maps, even if they are for a different area of the business than the one they work is. This helps with consistent working, breaking down silos and reducing waste.

For more on this please read the following articles:

• Inconsistent working: How can I get people to work consistently? 
• How Business Process Management can break down the Silos in your Organisation 
• How to stop wasting money in your business: 10 actions to take 

However, in order to achieve this, the process mapping software needs to support consistency of process maps, both in the features delivered and any software training offered.

For more on Triaster’s approach please read:

• Common Process Mapping Shapes and their definitions 
• What is the Noun-Verb Methodology of Process Mapping 

Return on Investment for the Process Maps Produced

The main cost of process mapping is not in the cost of the software but in the time taken to create the process maps. Whether the process mapping is outsourced or completed in-house, there is a cost attached to the time taken.

So it is important to get as much value from the exercise as possible. This comes from use. The more a process map is used, the better the return on the investment in the cost to produce it. Therefore, it is very important to consider how easy it will be for the process maps to be widely accessed and widely used.

Triaster makes this very easy for our customers.

Now let’s look at the other factors that need to be considered.

Licensing Agreements

Software (not just process mapping software) is licenced on a ‘perpetual’ or ‘term’ basis. A perpetual licence lasts forever (in perpetuity), whilst a term licence lasts for the period of the licence purchased. The basis on which the software is licenced will affect the price.

Triaster software is licenced on a term basis.

Help Desk Support for the Software

Help desk support is for when you have a query with the software, either regarding how to use it or when it isn’t working. Some vendors separate e-mail from telephone help desk and charge different costs for each.

Triaster offer different levels of e-mail and telephone support depending on the system purchased.

Maintenance or Upgrades for Process Mapping Software

Maintenance is on-going software releases to keep your software current and compatible with other software. For example, the minimum system requirements for Triaster software include Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. These are updated frequently. Maintenance releases are therefore needed to keep Triaster software compatible. Maintenance releases also address any software issues.

Triaster offers full maintenance within the cost of our term licence as standard.

Training and Services Available

As well as choosing the process mapping software based on whether the functionality offered meets your requirements, you should also think about whether the training options offered for that software will suit your needs. Is training available? Is it just for use of the software, or does it cover how to process map?

To read about how Triaster approaches creating process maps, please click here: How to create a Process Map in 3 simple steps 

Compatibility with other Software Tools

The considerations here are twofold:

• Conversion of existing process maps
• Compatibility of the new process maps with other software products

Conversion of Existing Process Maps

If you have already created a lot of process maps using one software product, you may want to convert them to the format of the new software purchased. Of course, competing software products aren’t often compatible with one another. For example, process maps created using Microsoft Visio can be converted to Triaster process maps as standard.

Software vendors can also sometimes deliver the conversion as a one off development project. For example, Triaster has converted approx. 12,000 Nimbus maps to Triaster process maps for the AA. Conversion projects such as this are likely to be quite costly; however, this cost should be weighed against the cost of time spent redrawing process maps.

Compatibility of the New Process Maps with other Software Products

Most companies want to link their process maps to documents and often want compatibility with their document store, such as Microsoft SharePoint (which Triaster offer).

It is important to determine your medium to long-term requirements here and ensure that the software purchased meets your needs.

Management of the Process Maps Created

This is a side requirement to the actual process mapping, but it is crucial to think about. All being well, many hundreds, or even thousands, of process maps will be produced. How easily these can be managed and used is an important consideration when initially choosing your process mapping software.

Triaster now offers a Start-Up Business Process Management (BPM) system offering a low cost solution to organisations looking for process mapping software that offer all of the features and support as set out above, including the ability to manage, share, and use the process maps across the organisation in a web-based Process Library.

Triaster Start-Up BPM System: Cost

The cost of Triaster’s start-up BPM system is £500 per month.

This delivers:

• Extremely easy to use Process Mapping software (Process Navigator), licenced for 1 user
• A hosted (shared server) Process Library for sharing process maps across your organisation
• Unlimited Process Library and map viewer licences
• A choice of pre-designed Library skins
• Full Search, Print and Help capability
• Overnight publish
• E-mail support (1 incident per month)

There is an initial set up fee of £500 and an initial purchase term of 3 months. (All costs net of VAT.)

Additional licences for process mappers can be purchased as required, as can process mapping training.

Triaster also offers two feature-rich BPM Systems: Standard and Professional BPM Platforms. The cost of these can be found in the following article: How much does Business Process Management software cost? 

We hope that you have found this article useful. As stated, we are very clear that the best process mapping software is the software that meets your needs. If you think that Triaster’s Start-Up BPM system or perhaps our Standard or Professional systems may well suit your requirements, we would love to hear from you.