I have bashed K2 on occasion on my blog, but that doesn’t mean I think it is a bad product, in fact, I think it is great and just needs some tweaks here and there.

SharePoint

SharePoint is a great system to have in any business, the collaboration that it enables can only benefit a company, not to mention the amount of emails it can stop as your documents are all in one place. Automated processes can be done in SharePoint with tools such as SharePoint Workflows, InfoPath, SharePoint forms, but the SharePoint workflows are difficult and messy to work with, and can be very limiting. Yes, you can code custom activities for SharePoint workflow, but what if you are business user and not a developer?

K2 is definitely the answer, there are others out there but i just haven’t used them. K2 provides an extremely easy to use studio to develop processes, great reporting on processes in the process portal, and from the Viewflow for a process instance. The only current drawback with K2 is that it can be a bit fiddly to setup at times, if you get just one permission wrong, all hell can and will break loose, but this post is not about the why not reasons.

K2 Blackpearl

Pearl is K2’s flagship package, and below are some of the highlights. for more information, here is the direct link to Blackpearl.

SharePoint Integration

Pearl integrates completely with SharePoint 2010, and supports actions such as creating sites, lists, and libraries. You can create a process that will start on a multitude of conditions such as adding of a new item, editing of items etc. A designer has also been created that runs within SharePoint, allowing business users to create processes without having K2Studio or Visual Studio 2010 installed.

Active Directory and Exchange

Pearl allows you to work with AD and exchange, this can enable you to do things such as automatically creating an account for an new employee without IT having to do it.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Pearl allows you to build processes that are based on your data in CRM, build a Support process where the ticket is logged on your website and a case is opened in CRM for your client.

Anywhere support

I am still yet to find a place where I can’t kick off a K2 process, pearl comes with an extensive API that allows developers to plug in to Pearl and start processes, get reports etc.

K2 Blackpoint

Point is the baby in the family, and is meant for those that just want K2 automation within their SharePoint environment. This doesn’t mean that it is not as powerful as Pearl, it just means it is focused to SharePoint customers. For more information, here is the direct link to Blackpoint.

Visual Designers

K2 has provided two designers for users to develop processes with, K2Studio and K2 Designer for SharePoint. K2Studio is a no code designer that has a similar look and feel to Microsoft Office. The designer for SharePoint is the same one that comes with Pearl.

Business Logic

Point enables business logic to be implemented in the processes by using the provided Inline functions, Web Service access, Working hours, and escalations. By using working hours and time zones in Point, Point will know when the employee it is about to assign a task to is working, and takes into account their hours so a two hour task doesn’t get assigned to them in the middle of the night and then escalated to their manager when they don’t complete it by 2AM. With escalation, you can redirect a task when it is not completed in the required timeframe. Is the employee not available, just setup an out of office for them in Point, and Point will automatically reroute any tasks for that employee to someone else.

What else is offered

Both Point and Pearl do share some features, like the designer for SharePoint. Some of the combined features across both versions are:

I have done numerous K2 deployments and feel that automating processes such as Leave, new staff requisition and vacancies are just the tip of the iceberg. Even more complex processes such as QESH (Quality, Environment, Safety, Heath) processes can easily be automated with K2, it is just such a powerful product and will speed up business for sure.

For those that are worried about good governance, there is no need to worry. K2 provides extensive reporting, and auditing on the data used and generated by the processes as well as on the instances as well.

Show and tell

Below are some screen shots from Point, just so you get an idea of what to expect.

K2 Process Portal

Viewflow

K2Studio

Where to next?

If you are interested about K2, I suggest you go to the website to read up about the full offering of Pearl and Point. If you want to do a POC or want to jump right in, why not contact me, or you can contact the company I work for Immix, and we can start talking about how K2 can benefit you.