Frequently Asked Questions

Ultimus is the developer of a low-code platform called the Ultimus Digital Process Automation Suite. The Ultimus DPA Suite is used to create enterprise applications, reports, and dashboards; orchestrate workflows; and accelerate digital transformation. The Ultimus platform automates, orchestrates, and governs end-to-end enterprise business processes, especially complex, mission-critical, and high-volume business processes.

Ultimus also offers expert implementation and implementation support services for organizations looking to augment their internal resources. Ultimus offers these services, as well as best in class platform and solution support, through its worldwide locations and through partners.

Enterprises around the world use Ultimus to automate key processes such as account opening, credit approval, purchase-to-pay and order-to-cash, vendor and employee onboarding and offboarding, case management and customer support, benefits provisioning, and quote configuration - or any request and approval use case.

Although business users (aka "citizen developers") can readily utilize Ultimus to automate departmental workflows, the true value of the platform is especially apparent in use cases where there are high volume, mission-critical, often complex enterprise processes (e.g., processes with dynamic, context dependent task assignments, integrations, AI agents, and sophisticated form logic) and their associated, reports, dashboards, and management applications.

An ideal Ultimus customer is a larger, multi-site organization that operates in several geographies and employs both distributed and centralized approvals, policies, rules, and languages.

Unlike many low-code platforms that focus on simple, departmental workflows, Ultimus is designed to automate sophisticated enterprise-scale business processes. Its composable architecture, reusable components, and rule-based process engine help organizations deliver scalable solutions faster.  

Ultimus has been developed using the principles of generative programming (also known as application generators or domain engineering) as explained in Generative Programming: Methods, Tools, and Applications by Krzysztof Czarnecki and Ulrich W. Eisenecker.  In this approach, Ultimus has used its experience to pre-develop a "domain model" containing commonly needed solution capabilities and requirements, so you never start from a blank sheet of paper. Specific solution, solution family, and global requirements are defined in a compact, intuitive text-based specification language.  Less experienced users can also create solutions with a user-friendly "drag-and-drop" paradigm, as well as a spoken or typed natural language approach (i.e., "vibe coding").  

Regardless of the approach used, solution definitions are saved in a common, text-based format that promotes reuse, speeds solution implementations and changes, and reduces complexity.  And, as all solution definitions are commonly defined in text, Ultimus is ideally positioned to leverage generative AI. 

Of course, it's not enough to just develop a solution, you have to take into account scalability, performance, and usability once the solutions are in production. Our platform includes a unique technology that ensures fast user response times, even with tens of thousands of users, as well as an intuitive, high productivity Portal that puts all your tools, tasks, and processes in one place according to your defined role.

Despite the rapid acceleration of AI and agentic AI capabilities and the claims of AI vendors, business process automation platforms are now more important than ever. In fact, the two technologies complement each other – opening new automation opportunities and adding capabilities that can take existing business processes to a new level of effectiveness and efficiency.

At the most basic level, AI is probabilistic, meaning its output is generated based on probabilities, for instance, the probability that a certain letter will follow another letter. Business process automation technology (sometimes called digital process automation technology), on the other hand, is deterministic, meaning its output is "determined" with certainty based on rules, logic, and programming.

According to Dr. Helge Hess, formerly of IDS Scheer and Software AG, “enterprises still need process models, policies, controls, deterministic orchestration, reliable data, evidence trails, and accountable operating designs… Agents can improve execution, but they do not eliminate the need for these underlying structures.”

Ultimus recommends that prospective customers being their buying journey with a real-life scenario, such as a proof-of-concept (POC).

These scenarios could be a new use case, such as replacing a manual or partially automated process; modernizing an existing process by leveraging complementary automation technologies like AI; replacing expensive, underutilized, or hard to customize dedicated SaaS software; as well as in situations where a vendor has been unable to implement a solution in an acceptable timeframe or cost.

In many cases, Ultimus can produce a fully functional, near production ready solution without charge in a matter of days - and provide prospective customers with solution access during their evaluation.

Ultimus has been widely and consistently recognized for its technology innovation, business value creation, and customer success by industry analyst firms such as Forrester Research, Gartner, 451 Group, Analysis.Tech, and Deep Analysis, as well as by customers in third-party review sites such as Gartner Peer Insights, where it is ranks among the highest vendors in the category. Leading expert Alan Pelz-Sharpe of Deep Analysis, Inc. called Ultimus “one of the most comprehensive and best thought-through digital process management systems on the market”.

As a result, Ultimus enjoys numerous long-term customer relationships and typical Ultimus customers use the software for over 5 years and frequently for longer than 10 years. Ultimus also received the German IT Innovation Award (Innovationspreis-IT) for its ability to quickly and easily blockchain-enable enterprise business applications.

We are pleased to share customer references with organizations evaluating Ultimus.

Ultimus is one of the few vendors that offers customers cloud, on-premises, and hybrid hosting options. We believe it is essential to offer these choices because our customers operate in geographies with varying data processing and residency regulations, especially in terms of AI, and/or because of security, policy, performance, and data sensitivity reasons.

As Ultimus is frequently used in core enterprise use cases, it has created a variety of integration capabilities, types, and options, making it one of the most flexible and powerful business automation platforms.

Most enterprise solutions that have been implemented with Ultimus require integrations to non-Ultimus systems such as large language models (LLMs), core banking systems, ERP systems (like SAP), CRM systems, document management systems, email and messaging platforms such as Outlook and What's App, etc. In some cases, customer solutions have required as many as 40 such integrations.

As you can imagine, it is essential that Ultimus can integrate with these third-party systems quickly, accurately, and securely. Pre-built integrations are available for the most used enterprise applications. In addition, the Ultimus platform allows customers to define their own reusable integration assets for "home-grown", legacy, or unique systems. Ultimus also has the flexibility to integrate before, during, or after process steps, which is important to achieve the required solution behavior. As Eric Richtie, managing director of Ultimus partner PROceed, LLC, said "Ultimus can integrate with anything".

Ultimus has designed a platform that combines the experience and expertise acquired through thousands of customer- and Ultimus-delivered solutions into a technical architecture that overcomes the limitations of other low-code and process automation platforms, thereby producing a significant and documented improvement in implementation time and management effort over those approaches.

Many low-code and process automation vendors claim dramatic improvements in time-to-live and time-to-change in comparison with traditional coding. Ultimus has taken this one step further by building into its platform commonly required solution elements, capabilities, and functionality and employing a solution specification architecture that promotes the creation of digital assets that can be reused in specific customer solutions, solution families, or globally.

In addition, whether using the Ultimus pro-code, drag-and-drop, or natural language vibe coding interfaces, all solutions specifications are saved in a common format, thereby eliminating implementation cost and effort, the use of custom programming languages, and technical debt.

While the implementation time and effort vary depending on the use case requirements and customer turnaround time, Ultimus has documented a number of instances where solutions were implemented in less than two weeks, as compared to competitors were unable to deliver the same solution in a year or more.

One of the benefits of a robust low-code platform is built-in security. The Ultimus platform and Ultimus-based solutions are continually and rigorously tested and evaluated for security risks, vulnerabilities, and privacy by third party and customer experts. But we never stand still.

As hackers and their techniques continually evolve, so too do Ultimus’ capabilities. We maintain our high standards with ongoing and timely improvements that strengthen Ultimus’ best-in-class security, reliability, and enterprise readiness.

In addition to standard security concerns, Ultimus has created several unique security and privacy approaches often overlooked by competitors:

• "Private Step Data" hides process field, form, step and/or user data from other process participants based on their role. Private Step Data is particularly useful when business processes extend outside the enterprise to applicants, suppliers, or partners.
• Ultimus’ production scaling technology, Ultimus Advanced Task Service, not only ensures fast response times at scale, it can also be used to isolate sensitive processes from other solutions.
• Ultimus "Workspaces" restrict development tool modules, digital assets, integrations, etc. based on role, user group, skill level, etc.