Content Formula

What is Nintex and how can I use it?

We often get asked by digital workplace teams about different tools and what they do. We try and cover the common answers through an article here on the Content Formula blog. This time its the turn of the Nintex Platform.

What is Nintex?

Nintex is a leading process improvement, workflow and automation software platform. In their own words, you can use the Nintex platform to Manage, automate, and optimise your processes… to quickly and intelligently transform your business.

The software is owned by Nintex Inc, a US-based organisation founded in 2006.The company claims to have over 8,000 customers located in over 90 countries. It is generally considered to be one of the world leading process workflow platforms, along with Microsofts Power Platform.

How it works

Nintex is a very mature and feature-rich platform that comes packed with a number of tools and features. Weve worked with Nintex for many years and know the successful impact it can have.

Essentially, it works by allowing organisations to:

  1. visualise and plan their approach to workflow using a mapping tool that can then be shared across groups for feedback
  2. build relevant workflows leveraging automation through forms, workflow, mobile apps, automation and integrations
  3. improve these processes through a reporting and analytics suite.

What features does it have?

The above capabilities are delivered through a number of specific features, including:

Nintex Promapp:

A process mapping tool with an easy-to-use interface that allows teams to visualise processes and then redesign and improve them, if necessary. The ability for teams to collaborate, add feedback and get notified of changes to the mapping process also means that you can also maintain an enterprise-wide library of process maps as your one source of truth for key organisational processes.

Nintex Forms:

The ability to build sophisticated and flexible forms with associated rules allows you to digitise and improve multiple processes.

Nintex Mobile:

Mobile capabilities allow digital workplace teams to bring forms, workflow, notifications and process improvement to mobile devices. Both iOS and Android are supported with mobile-ready interfaces. Some neat features allow you to leverage the power of Nintex for field and deskless workers, for example allowing offline data capture and enabling QR codes. An app studio capability also allows for some custom branding.

Workflow:

Nintex can help you to design workflows that are both simple and complex, allowing you to deliver both local and enterprise-wide workflows that produce real-world improvements. The workflow takes in task allocation, document auto-generation, document signing and integrations. The drag-and-drop design interface is also easy to use.

Nintex Robot Process Automation (RPA):

Nintexs RPA suite is a nice out-of-the-box bot capability that allows for the automation of simple, repetitive tasks. The automations can span across multiple applications and run at scale.

Document generation and e-signing:

Nintex also comes in with the ability to auto-generate documents as part of an process and also trigger e-signing, a capability that can really bring automation up to the next level and potentially deliver digital transformation to processes surrounding contracts, product registrations, service agreements and more.

Nintex Analytics:

An analytics and reporting suite help to monitor the efficiency of processes, identify any trend and opportunities for improvement and then measures the impact of any changes you make. The suite is flexible to allow you to define metrics and design data visualisations that suit your specific needs.

 

Platform strengths

We enjoy working with Nintex and delivering solutions that transform processes for our clients. It has some several obvious strengths including:

  • the ability to combine power and flexibility
  • it is easy-to-use, allowing some process improvement to be configured by non-IT professionals
  • its ability to connect to multiple systems and applications.

Power and flexibility

You get a lot of fire power with Nintex. You can improve almost any process and enable that at scale. However, you can also deliver smaller and simpler improvements too. Because the Nintex platform is so flexible it also means you dont have to compromise on what you automate or the process you want to follow.

Easy-to-use

One of the great things about Nintex it its ability to allow some configuration directly by non-IT citizen developers. The well-designed interfaces means you dont necessarily need to be an IT professional to configure it to deliver simpler process improvement, meaning that super-users and admins within particular lines of business or divisions can leverage it to deliver local automation and process improvement.

To deliver more sophisticated enterprise-wide automation realistically you will need expert involvement.

Multiple systems and applications

Another strength of Nintex is its ability to connect to different systems and applications involved in processes. Theres already a large library of connectors out of the box covering key systems such as Salesforce. This makes it an attractive alternative option for organisations who operate outside the Office 365 world and dont have the luxury of access to the Power Platform. However, Nintex also plays very well with Office 365 and its suite of tools too, with MS Teams and SharePoint both covered in the Connectors library. You can also build custom connectors for other applications.

What can I use Nintex for?

Overall level Nintex can be an engine for digital transformation, driving significant improvement for a whole raft of internal processes that will become more efficient, but also interactions with customers.

At a more granular level, here are some examples of processes you could improve with Nintex:

  • Using a form and workflow to drive more efficient HR processes such as requests for annual leave or training
  • Providing one central in-box for all things a manager needs to approve across different systems, driving far greater efficiencies than email
  • Allow site inspectors for an engineering or construction firm to input site inspection data on-site into a tablet or mobile device as well as use photos, whatever the level of connectivity
  • Allow for the auto-generation of a report in Word format based on the site inspection data, saving huge amounts of time over if this was done manually
  • Use marketing automation to deliver emails to customers who have signed up for your email newsletter, and update your CRM system accordingly
  • Automate the issuing of contract documents to new employees as well as the process for signing them, a value-added activity for businesses with high volume recruitment.

For example, when we used Nintex to improve business processes at sustainable technologies company Johnson Matthey we helped to streamline and partly automate a complex process for global supplier due diligence, using workflow and forms that took into account the tasks and decision steps associated with different criteria in the evaluation of a new supplier.

Need more information? Get in touch!

We hope this has given you a useful introduction to Nintex. We’ve also created an infographic Power Automate vs Nintex Workflow. If youd like to understand more, have a specific question or are looking for Nintex support, then do get in touch with us.

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