K2 Launches New Process Automation Platform Including New Cloud Service

September 20, 2017 thetechtribune

K2’s process automation platform allows businesses of all types around the globe to rapidly build and deploy automation across the business.

BELLEVUE, Wash. – September 20, 2017 – K2 today announced the availability of its new low-code process automation platform – furthering innovation in the way organizations drive digital efficiencies. With a new managed cloud service, K2 Cloud, new on-premises version, K2 Five, and completely redesigned user interfaces and experiences, the platform helps businesses of all types around the globe rapidly deliver powerful process automation and realize business productivity gains.

Automating business processes across an enterprise is crucial to the success of companies in the era of digital transformation. However, many initiatives are impacted by a lack of sufficient resources and the use of inefficient systems to manage processes. K2’s low-code process automation platform solves these problems by enabling organizations to automate in every area of the business without needing to hire highly skilled developers or spend inordinate amounts of time on repetitive coding. With intuitive and powerful tools, organizations can rapidly deliver mission-critical applications as well as fast-changing, lightweight departmental processes, all with a single platform.

“From the inception, K2 has always been focused on making process automation easier as we recognized over 15 years ago that building these solutions and solving these problems was too hard and complex for many organizations. This left many organizations ignoring this initiative and subsequently putting their businesses at risk of becoming obsolete,” said Adriaan van Wyk, CEO of K2. “The same is still generally true, ordinarily solving these problems is still hard for many businesses, but the pressure to transform has multiplied. That’s what makes K2 even more necessary today than it already was years ago, so that every organization can automate every business process on our platform and digitally transform their business.”

Process automation platforms have several interconnected components and features that define its usability and feasibility, hence why K2 built a comprehensive, end-to-end platform around eight core tenets that when all combined make it possible for any organization to automate their processes with K2:

Workflows: Customers can use visual, intuitive process and rules designers on top of an engine that is built to deliver scalable workflows.
Forms: Visually design powerful user experiences using forms that connect to workflows and line-of-business data. Components are reusable to drive speed and scale as well as consistency.
Integration: Point-and-click integration with virtually any line-of-business system.
Analytics: Rich reports and visual analytics deliver the information needed to identify issues and drive optimization.
Mobile: Responsive user experience that works on all major devices, whether on or offline.
Security and Governance: Comprehensive, role-based management tools that provide security and governance on all aspects of the platform.
Deployment: The platform is flexible and can be deployed in the cloud or on-premises.
Pre-built Apps: Customers can choose from many customizable pre-built processes or use the K2 App Wizard to quickly create a new process in a few steps.

Several existing K2 tools and features have been significantly updated with the release of the new platform, while completely new functionality has also been added. Some of these include:

New Workflow Designer: A re-envisioned approach to how workflow solutions are built with a designer that has been re-engineered from the ground up using modern HTML5 technologies. Designing workflows is accelerated rapidly with Smart Assist, which guides developers on logical steps in the workflow and surfaces relevant data throughout the design experience.
App Wizard: Empowers citizen developers to build and deploy process apps in just a few steps, without having to code or design anything. These apps can later be extended using more advanced tools.
Workspace: A completely redesigned K2 Workspace experience, which provides a single centralized location for all K2 tasks and process applications.

At launch, K2 Cloud and K2 Five will have feature parity. However, the company will rapidly iterate on K2 Cloud with feature and functionality shipments every six weeks in order to innovate rapidly for customers. New K2 Five versions will be released annually to bring already released cloud features to customers that are deployed on-premises or in hosted environments. The two products will be available for use in the coming weeks.

“To enable enterprise-level process automation that supports robust mission-critical applications as well as fast-changing, lightweight departmental processes, we developed a platform that provides businesses a unique ability to build simpler applications quickly and more complex applications and processes that scale an entire enterprise,” said Olaf Wagner, co-founder and senior vice president of engineering and product at K2. “Further, our new K2 Cloud platform, based on our more than two-years of cloud experience managing K2 Appit for SharePoint, will enable our customers to take advantage of innovative functionality that we have and will continue to bring to light along the lines of voice-enabled apps, artificial intelligence, machine learning, internet of things, bots, and much more.”

To learn more about the platform and specific information on K2 Cloud and K2 Five, as well as all of the new features and functionality, please visit K2.com. The company will also be showcasing this new technology at Microsoft Ignite, September 25-29, in Orlando; as well as in eight cities around the world during the recently announced K2 Velocity Global Tour.

ABOUT K2: With K2’s process automation platform, organizations can rapidly build and deploy enterprise-grade business process applications that are agile, scalable and reusable, and scale the platform across all processes that move work between people, systems and machines. K2 solutions are being used by more than 1.5 million users in more than 4,000 organizations, including 30 percent of Fortune 100 companies.

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K2 Media Contact:
Andy Tolton, Director of Corporate Communications – [email protected]; 425.214.4483