The difference at a glance
- Office automation: incoming and outgoing correspondence, referrals, inbox, archive. Its center is the "document".
- BPMS: defining and running a business process, for example "quotation → warehouse issue → invoice" or "purchase request → approval → order". Its center is the "stage and the rule for moving on".
Three signs you need BPMS
- The approval path of a document exists only "in a few people's heads" and is chased by phone every time.
- Every process change becomes a request to the software team and takes months.
- You retype a document's data at the next stage.
What to check in a no-code BPMS
- Process designer: can you define stages and the paths between them without a programmer?
- Form builder: text, number, amount, Persian and Gregorian dates, a customer or item picker and a calculated field.
- Access per user and stage: what each user may do at each stage, enforced on the server.
- Visual view: a Kanban board to see all documents across stages.
- Change history: before and after values, who changed it and when.
- Connection to the rest of the system: the process must connect to inventory, sales and finance, not be a separate island.
Example: the process engine (Chain) in Afrandeh
In Afrandeh every process is built from four layers: main group → process category → stages → transition rules. Each stage represents a real document type in the system.
- The "Convert" button: you define which stage can convert to which; the next stage's document is pre-filled from the previous one and the user only reviews and saves.
- Kanban board: each stage is a column and each document a card; dragging a card runs the same "Convert". Each column shows the document count and the total payable amount.
- Access: what each user may do at each stage (approve, reject, edit, close) is stored separately and enforced on the server.
- Form builder: field types, grouping and a calculated field; a form attaches to a stage.
- History and stock control: each document keeps a history with before/after values, and saving at a stage can be made conditional on real warehouse stock.
Limitations today
- Multi-stage electronic signing is currently wired to the contract module only (pilot phase); connecting other document types needs separate development.
- Afrandeh BPMS is part of the ERP platform and not a separate standalone product; keep that in mind if all you want is a stand-alone BPMS.