Combination of Colosa’s ProcessMaker open source BPM – workflow with KnowledgeTree’s document management software delivers powerful integrated tool to small businesses
Cambridge, MA and Cape Town, South Africa – March 24, 2008 – Open source application developers Colosa and KnowledgeTree have announced a ‘mashup’ of their web-based applications (ProcessMaker and KnowledgeTree document management software) to help small to mid-sized businesses handle, manage and retrieve vital company documents such as contracts, approval letters, or applications.
The combination of the ProcessMaker business process management (BPM) software, which simplifies workflow through the automation of paper-based processes, with KnowledgeTree’s powerful open source document management software has delivered a tool that will allow businesses to bring together workflow and document management capabilities to design and manage business processes, and to seamlessly file, store and retrieve mission-critical documents.
The mashup, completed with ProcessMaker Open Source v1.0 and KnowledgeTree Version: 3.5.2 (Community Edition), is installable for both Linux and Windows through a plug-in that comes bundled with ProcessMaker Open Source. The 100kb file is executed in the Setup menu’s Plug-in option. The plug-in will automatically be installed, and the user will fill in the setup with credentials and URL paths for the KnowledgeTree server. It is available at https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=215099
Both applications are web-based, AJAX-enabled applications based on PHP, which made the integration seamless. Colosa’s ProcessMaker is an open source, robust BPM tool built with SMEs in mind, to automate document-intensive, approval-based processes across systems including finance, HR and operations. Functionalities include creating and sharing workflows, customizing forms, managing processes and enhancing reporting. With document management capabilities added in through the mashup with KnowledgeTree, users can now not only design and manage business processes, but they can then file, store and retrieve their mission critical documents.
KnowledgeTree is an open source document management provider that provides feature-rich, easy to use enterprise document management software for use by corporations, government institutions and small to medium-sized businesses. KnowledgeTree’s open source architecture lowers the total cost of ownership through providing the flexibility to integrate the software with existing infrastructure. KnowledgeTree has built a large dedicated community around its product, with over 450,000 downloads to date, 30,000 registered community members and 67 community-run projects.
Brian Reale, CEO of Colosa said, “This mashup shows the vitality and flexibility of web-based applications and how integration can deliver new and innovative services that are demanded by the market.”
He continued, “It made sense to integrate KnowledgeTree’s document management application with ProcessMaker for several reasons. First, the two applications share a similar architecture, which makes it simple to integrate and manage. Second, KnowledgeTree serves the same target market: small to medium businesses that are looking for a way to simplify and yet speed up core business processes. Finally, users that need document management functionality within the ProcessMaker application can now meet their infrastructure needs and users who need to manage their business processes in KnowledgeTree can do so as well.”
Daniel Chalef, COO of KnowledgeTree added, “Colosa’s ProcessMaker is perfectly-designed for SME customers that want a better way to handle business processes and workflow. The features with the application represent an opportunity to add additional value to our customers. ProcessMaker has unique functionality in the open source BPM space, in that it is entirely web-based, and includes two modules to design and manage business processes.
He concluded, “ProcessMaker’s open source heritage fits in with our philosophy of empowering enterprises with low costs and high functionality and enables us to deliver a feature-rich and compelling integration.”
About Colosa
Colosa is a developer of software solutions that enable companies to simplify workflow through the capture and automation of business processes.
The company’s flagship product, ProcessMaker (www.processmaker.com) is available in two versions, a free open source application called ProcessMaker OSS and an Enterprise version called ProcessMaker Enterprise. Both enable SMEs to automate document intensive, approval-based processes across systems including finance, HR and operations. ProcessMaker is an AJAX enabled, SOA, web-based application that allows users across single and multiple sites to create and share workflows, customize forms, manage processes, and enhance reporting. ProcessMaker OSS is available for download at http://sourceforge.net/projects/processmaker/ and both versions are available at www.processmaker.com.
Colosa was founded in 2000 and has customers in local and central government, retail and finance. Colosa is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts with offices in Coral Gables, FL; La Paz, Bolivia; and Lima, Peru. For more information visit www.colosa.com
About KnowledgeTree
KnowledgeTree’s vision is to make document management simple. With no vendor lock-in and with source code readily available, KnowledgeTree provides a more flexible, easy to use, and cost-effective alternative to proprietary document management applications.
The application’s focus on ease of use and strong Microsoft Windows and Office integration toolset has made it a compelling, high-value document management solution for all organizations. The web-based and AJAX-enabled application is built on the popular open source LAMP (Apache/MySQL/PHP) stack and a community edition is released under the GPLv3. Commercial editions are available as single-click installers for Microsoft Windows and Linux, a software appliance and a novel Software-as-a-Service application running on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.
Commercial customers include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, DHL Global Mail, Société Générale Group, the State of Georgia Department of Audits, the European Space Agency, Cable & Wireless, Mazda Motor Europe and Decathlon Stores.
To download a trial of KnowledgeTree Premium, visit http://www.knowledgetree.com/try-now
To learn more about KnowledgeTree Community Edition, and to participate in community activities, visit http://www.knowledgetree.com/community
Source: http://www.knowledgetree.com/press/processmaker-knowledgetree-bpm-workflow-document-management