App Review: be Slick

Project Bliss

I'm writing this review days after Coolio's passing. As kids, we bought cassettes of his album solely for his hit song "Gangsta's Paradise". I don't remember listening to any other music on that record. At the time, buying an album for the lead single was commonplace. iTunes wasn't around.

When I first logged into Process Bliss (now called beSlick, a renaming I 100% approve), I had a "Gangsta's Paradise" moment: I felt it was the most awesome process automation app ever. It turns out beSlick was more like the Gangsta's Paradise album: one amazing hit and that's it.

Exploring the app

beSlick is a workflow app that streamlines your business processes. The initial login shows awesome promise, as users can pick from well-made templates from HR, IT, Finances, or Marketing. I picked a "Product Feasibility" study, invited my bot Shane (Rachel was on vacation), assigned tasks, and we hit it off! See images where I created the process, edited it on mobile, and the ensuing report and dashboard.

As somebody who has drawn upwards of a hundred such processes, I can understand the attractiveness of Process Bliss: you finally combine your generic BPMN modelling software with automation triggers and task management!

This felt very cool, right? Yes! And this is it for Process Bliss. I am not a sucker for features and I still felt underwhelmed at my options. A process automation tool should not delegate all its integration to Zapier!

Once the workflow is set up, it may be useful to onboard new employees. Someone with mastery of the process will not see the value of logging in for ticking a task.

Recommended Use Cases

beSlick makes compliance easier. Financial Services require process schemas. The app makes for great evidence to show to regulators!

The app will be useful for potentially litigious situations. Want to make sure you hit all the key points for an exit interview? What about the super complicated maternity leave process in your collective bargaining agreement? And I saved the best for last: how do you treat a formal complaint?

Limitations

The examples above work well when someone has to process (ha ha!) a high amount of information and when forgetting something could be harmful.

beSlick lacks the power to carry a whole team's success: limited collaboration and messaging, note taking, and absence of a kanban board all spring to mind.

On large workflows, starting at 20 tasks, you also begin to scroll a lot to figure out the path.

Pricing

Pro pricing at $10/user/month makes beSlick an interesting case. At such a relatively low price, a company can afford to bring beSlick as a tactical application, rather than a strategic, transformative one. It becomes your process tool like you have your whiteboarding tool or your note-taking tool.

Verdict

beSlick allows teams to implement standardized workflows in an appealing visual environment. With a great array of templates and easy reporting options, it enables process effectiveness. Its limited feature set prevents it from being able to support a whole team's collaboration needs.