ARIS Express

ARIS Express is a program for creating graphic business models, positioned by the developer as a free tool for occasional users and beginners in Business Process Management. BPM (Business Process Management) is a management concept in which business processes are considered as special resources of an enterprise. It implies the comprehensibility and visibility of these very processes, which is achieved, among other things, by building visual models of organizational structures, objectives and development strategies. Typically, these graphics models are used in presentations, meetings and brainstorming sessions. However, in addition to corporate use, ARIS Express is widely used in educational institutions and for personal purposes.

The program allows you to create graphical models of the following types: organizational chart, process landscape, business process (EPC), system landscape, IT infrastructure, data model, BPMN diagram, whiteboard and general diagram. Each model type has its own set of symbols and context-sensitive toolbars, and model fragments can be reused. When creating a model from scratch, it is recommended that you use the Smart Design tool, which builds a graphical model using the table. That is, the user simply enters the necessary text into the hierarchical list, and Smart Design automatically creates a design with a clear structure and symmetrical arrangement of elements. The finished model can be exported to PDF, JPEG, PNG and EMF formats, saved in the native ADF format or copied to office applications through the clipboard.

Among the drawbacks of ARIS Express, it is necessary to note a strongly reduced (in comparison with the professional products) ARIS library of elements. The free version also lacks analytical tools. Models created in ARIS Express can be reused and extended in the professional ARIS products. The program is written in Java and runs on Windows; the latest version, 2.4d, dates from 2017. ARIS Express was originally developed by IDS Scheer, which Software AG acquired in 2010, and it is offered through the ARIS Community website.

ARIS Express provides a user-friendly interface for creating clear, professional, graphical business models, benefiting corporate settings, education, and personal use.