I believe in people. And I believe in empowering people to be developer heroes with the right technology to allow them to do exactly that. Developers build applications apps that run billion-dollar businesses, and that’s amazing. So we’ve built something for them.

Bonitasoft builds a BPM-based application platform— so it’s far easier to create great business applications without the cost and rigidity of long, unpredictable custom development cycles. With Bonita BPM 7, developers can build truly “living” business applications that adapt in real time to process changes, user interface updates, and even the underlying data model.

The Bonita software project was co-founded in 2001 by Miguel Valdés Faura, a computer science engineer at the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA). In 2009, Miguel joined up with colleagues Charles Souillard and Rodrigue Le Gall to found Bonitasoft.

BusinessInterviews.com:  What problem is Bonitasoft solving?

Miguel:  Business changes constantly and custom-developed applications can’t keep up. Developers need a solution to be able to create and continually update highly engaging, personalized business applications that run on their business processes and their data.

Developers need freedom though, so they shouldn’t be bound by rigid product features. They also need a solution that allows them to be creative, code freely, create extensions, and use state-of-the-art design tools to create attractive and engaging user interfaces quickly.

For our latest iteration of our product, BPM 7 we really wanted to put the developer at the forefront of innovation and provide features that allow for overall better productivity. We decoupled the business logic, data and user interface, giving developers the ability to not only create great applications but to adapt them over time to react to changing business needs.  This means that business users get what they want: applications that can change as their business changes, to give them a competitive advantage. And with the analytics and monitoring features of Bonita BPM, they can really stay on top of their processes,

BusinessInterviews.com:  Can you talk about your vision to democratize Business Process Management and how that influences the direction of the company?

Miguel: Most other BPM technologies prevent developers from having the freedom and flexibility they need to build highly personalized applications. They take a no-code approach, and tout that as a feature. They’re closed source, too, so there’s zero possibility for developers to write code or extend them in new ways to meet changing business needs.

At Bonitasoft, we believe a BPM implementation can’t be successful without empowering developers with the right tooling, plus the ability to extend that tooling and write code whenever and wherever they need it. Bonita BPM is entirely open source. Tooling, extensibility and freedom is part of who we are.

BusinessInterviews.com:  You’ve managed to build up an impressive Bonitasoft community.  What are some of the potential advantages that your clients can gain from this special resource?

Miguel:  Our open source community is a vital component of Bonitasoft and a value that we have always viewed as our first priority. It provides developers an open forum to connect with one another and solve problems together. The advantage is not only a feeling of support but also a base of other like-minded developers who may have certain skills that others are hoping to leverage.

BusinessInterviews.com:   Can you tell us a bit about the new Bonita BPM 7 platform and how it can help developers build truly “living” business applications?   What are some of the new functionalities in this release that you’re most excited about?

Miguel: I am especially excited for BPM 7 because we have highlighted flexibility and maintainability as the most important features of the product. We want developers to be able to build customized applications without the hefty fee and time constraint often associated with such processes. “Living Applications” are the result of what developers can create with Bonita BPM 7. They can be built in parallel by collaborating web interface and Java developer teams, and updating them can be done even while the application is running.

Business people will love them, because they’ll get applications faster, and updating and maintaining them will be easier. Living Applications are the business applications of the future – and they are here now!

BusinessInterviews.com:  What inspired your decision to expand Bonitasoft to the U.S.?    How did you know that the time was right to scale the business?

Miguel: Bonitasoft is the fastest-growing provider of business process management solutions and a large part of that sustained growth is a result of our U.S. expansion. Our strongest business gains took place in the United States, with a growth rate of 91 percent. The U.S. is by far the top-selling region, but aside from the hard numbers, a U.S. expansion was vital for us a company. As a leader I want to provide Bonitasoft employees with the most opportunity, and the United States is a hub for both technology and innovation.

BusinessInterviews.com:  What’s the biggest insight you gained or lesson that you learned during this expansion period?

Miguel:  The biggest lesson I learned was to stay true to the core values that I set for Bonitasoft since the company’s inception. I always made it a goal to bridge the gap between business needs and IT solutions, and Bonita BPM 7 is a true testament to this. We have always made sure to make community a top priority, and we remain true to these core values with growth and change.

BusinessInterviews.com:   When’s the last time that you experienced “customer delight?”

Miguel:  In order to run a successful business, it’s vital to put the customer first. Our Customer Success team was created specifically help our customers get the most from their BPM process-based applications, from design to deployment and beyond.

The Customer Success Team proactively, systematically contacts clients and opens two-way communication…and by asking questions and listening carefully to feedback, they have a panoramic view of issues and best practice. With this, they can anticipate potential issues and guide users towards appropriate solutions as early as possible, before problems may arise. Because they talk to a wide cross-section of customers, Customer Success has a truly global view of Bonita BPM users.

I am very proud of our team, whose dedication to delighting our customers earned them a Stevie Award in February of this year!