SharePoint is an excellent information and document repository, but it cannot effectively apply business rules, supply adequate governance capabilities and, most importantly, it requires the work of a team of software developers and administrators to manage all but the most basic functionality effectively.
Consequently, many organisations are reviewing the market for a SharePoint alternative.
Process Director is the perfect SharePoint alternative.
Whether you are considering SharePoint or planning to replace it, we recommend you consider SharePoint alternatives due to a number of common challenges.
Whilst it is possible to very quickly achieve some useful results, the starter templates and user interfaces are crippled by their ease of use. As soon as you get into the detail, you quickly realise another level of effort is required...
If you have complex requirements or just need to meet your specific methods of operation, it is likely to be beyond SharePoint’s basic capabilities. This will force you in to needing specialist skills and custom coding, which is time-consuming and expensive to maintain.
With hosted SharePoint imposing throttling to allow fair resource usage as well as limits on data storage, performance can be poor.
SharePoint users may experience delays and/or sluggish perfromance when performing tasks, accessing files, or collaborating with other users.
With so many tools and features, Microsoft SharePoint can take a long time to learn properly, especially if you are starting from scratch.
With SharePoint sitting alongside Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, Azure, Microsoft 365, Office, and Exchange as one part of the overall Microsoft offering, it can be overwhelmingly complex to work out what products you need, let alone understanding what it will cost you.
Microsoft have attempted to simplify pricing by bundling services together. For example, if you want Power BI Pro, that comes with no less than 24 other services you may or may not want!
With such a broad portfolio, the threat of Microsoft withdrawing support for your product is an ever-present danger.
Process Director is a low-code process automation solution and a great alternative to SharePoint workflows. It offers:
Process Director enables process owners and developers alike to create user-friendly, responsive online forms to gather and display information.
Process Director is the only low-code workflow automation platform to offer two powerful models for building and executing your business workflows: a traditional flowchart model for simple linear workflows, with few parallel tasks and the patented BPMN alternative; Process Timeline.
Process Director is web-based and accessed through intuitive, user friendly interfaces for managing forms/processes and task management.
Task lists, tabular data and chart/graph widgets can be configured and combined to display data for real-time analytics and KPI monitoring.
Process Director is a low-code platform and includes graphical and menu-driven builders for every part of your application: forms, rules, workflows, data connections, etc.
Process Director supports direct integration, web services and REST\SOAP calls, giving you access to a huge variety of in-house and third-party services.
Its .NET Software Development Kit (SDK) enables near limitless capabilities to create re-usable, bespoke custom tasks and integrations.
Reduce risks and improve traceability with 24/7 audit tracking, user access permissions, and more.
System access is authenticated with user actions fully logged and auditable.
Many business processes do not fit neatly into sequential workflows. They are unstructured and complex involving multiple stages, approvals, and interactions. They require dynamic routing and human input to resolve.
Thanks to the patented Process Timeline™, Process Director is the perfect fit for case management work, orchestrating and adapting workflows in response to real-world changes.
Maintain control with an on-premise installation or host in the cloud (Public/Private cloud).
Our cloud-hosted option (with a 99.9% uptime guarantee) includes ongoing technical support and maintenance with system updates/enhancements automatically rolled out to users.
Our professional services team are here to make your implementation as smooth as possible.
While the platform is incredibly intuitive, we know that many clients do not always have the time or resources to build the solution themselves.
At ePC, we have a team of experts available to support you with requirements gathering, demonstration/proof-of-concept, statement of work (SOW), system development, externally accessible prototypes, testing/user acceptance testing (UAT), and training/support.
Process Director is a leading low-code process automation platform and one of many alternatives to SharePoint. Learn how it compares to Process Director below:
| Capability | Process Director | SharePoint |
|---|---|---|
| Complex workflow nesting and chaining | Fully supports complex nesting and chaining of workflows | Limited support; custom coding required, making it difficult and expensive |
| Process centricity | Multi-centric (human, document, event, automated) processes | Primarily document-centric; not well-suited for process management |
| Available process patterns | Offers extensive process patterns and configurations | Limited to two process patterns: sequence and machine state |
| Governance and compliance | Comprehensive governance and compliance capabilities, including audit tracking | No governance or audit tracking capabilities |
| Case management | Out-of-box case management functionality | No native support; requires custom development |
| User implementability | Business users can implement processes without IT assistance | Requires IT specialists for implementation |
| Integrate with legacy/enterprise platforms | Seamlessly integrate with existing systems | Limited integration options |
| Business rules engine | ||
| Predictive notifications | ||
| Predictive automated actions | ||
| Data virtualisation | ||
| Time-based process action triggers | ||
| ML/AI for automated decision making | ||
| Partner/supplier/customer applications |
As an IT support group, we offer our business colleagues choices. The decision to select Process Director/Cloud Edition was made by the Divisional CFO, as the prototype of the CapEx process worked to his satisfaction. From an IT perspective, we were also genuinely pleased with the pilot.
Chris Broe, Group Chief Information Officer, Rentokil Initial
We love the simplicity of the system. The actual form has not changed much. You now complete it online. It still captures all the same information. Crucially, the quality of submitted requests has improved as certain fields are auto-filled, calculated automatically or contain rules such as a mandatory field or display a warning if certain conditions are not met. We’ve made the process tighter and more consistent.
Nick Taylor, Finance Director, Millennium and Copthorne Hotels Plc
We were mindful of the CapEx – and product creation – systems ePC had implemented and aware they worked well. In the end, the system had a lot of ticks against it and we did not see the value of going to another supplier when ePC had a box of tricks that worked well for us.
Robert Woods, Finance Manager, Initial
ePC offers a strong technical knowledge of BP Logix Process Director, and the ability to understand complex business processes. We consider the company a premier resource for BPM implementations using Process Director.
Jay O’Brien, Chief Executive Officer, BP Logix
SharePoint’s limited number of process patterns restricts the flexibility and options available for modelling and managing business processes.
| Process pattern | Process Director | SharePoint |
|---|---|---|
| Sequential process | ||
| State machine | ||
| Parallel | ||
| Conditional | ||
| Looping | ||
| Sub process | ||
| Escalation | ||
| Human-centric | ||
| Event-driven | ||
| Timer-based | ||
| Case management | ||
| Dynamic routing |
Process Director
4.7 / 5 | 16 reviews
Process Director
4.7 / 5 | 27 reviews
Process Director
4.6 / 5 | 40 reviews
Microsoft encourages SharePoint users to migrate to Power Automate, which is part of the Microsoft Power Platform alongside MS Power Apps.
In the table below, we compare Process Director to MS Power Apps.
| Capability | Process Director | MS Power Apps | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Complex process modelling and execution Workflow nesting and chaining, dynamic routing |
Power Apps lacks the advanced features required to execute processes that involve multiple steps, stages, and conditional routing. | ||
| Predictive notifications and automation Proactive decision-making with automated alerts and actions |
Limited | Users can set up simple event-based alerts and notifications in Power Apps, but it does not offer predictive analytics that automatically identifies issues and help organizations optimize processes. | |
| Data virtualisation Integration with diverse systems for real-time data access |
Limited | Power Apps integrates with systems like SharePoint, SQL, or Oracle, but lacks seamless integration for real-time data access across diverse sources. | |
| Time-based process triggers
Optimised scheduling/execution for time-sensitive processes |
Limited | Power Apps offers basic time-triggered actions but lacks support for complex multi-step workflows and event-driven actions. | |
| Governance and compliance
Dedicated GRC emphasis suitable for regulated industries |
Limited | Power Apps lacks the GRC features essential for highly regulated industries, including robust audit tracking, compliance reporting, and data security measures. | |
| Business rules engine Support for complex business logic and enforcement |
Limited | Power Apps offers basic rule-setting options, but it struggles to support more intricate business rules, conditional routing, or case-specific decision-making. | |
| Dynamic routing Automated task assignment based on rules |
Power Apps lacks automated task assignments based on complex rules or conditions, necessitating manual handling or basic rule sets. | ||
| Event-driven automation Automated actions based on events |
Limited | Power Apps supports basic event-triggered actions but lacks advanced event-driven automation capabilities required to respond to a wide range of events/ conditions. | |
| Case management Support for end-to-end case handling |
Limited | Power Apps lacks native support for end-to-end case management, hindering the management of cases involving multiple stages, approvals, and interactions. | |
| Microsoft system integration Integrates seamlessly with Microsoft systems |
Both Process Director and Power Apps integrate perfectly within a Microsoft environment. | ||
| Legacy system integration Old ERP software, on-premises databases, custom-built apps |
Limited | Power Apps' lack of compatibility with certain legacy systems means that integrations may require additional effort and development work. |
While Microsoft offer users incredibly powerful products and tools, Power Apps is not robust enough to fully meet the requirements of automating complex and highly regulated business processes.
Process Director offers advanced process modelling capabilities, robust compliance features, and the ability to seamlessly integrate with Microsoft environments —making it the superior choice for businesses seeking a tailored solution for their complex automation needs.
Process Director offers Rentokil Initial centralised control, standardised processes, financial transparency and compliance over their CapEx approval processes in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the USA.
Process Director offers local procurement teams at Initial increased visibility of the direct and indirect cost saving opportunities available to them through central procurement.
