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Neil Ward-Dutton
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Technology & Suppliers
On the Radar: Q9 Elements
June 2016
Going back to their roots, the team behind early-stage Q9 Elements offers a growing set of SaaS-based tools
to help teams develop and share process knowledge.

2. On the Radar: Q9 Elements 2
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Who?
Q9 Elements, Inc (www.q9elements.com) is an early-stage specialist provider of SaaS-based collaborative
business process mapping and knowledge management tools. It’s headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
What does it do?
Q9 Elements’ core product, Process Knowledge, is a web-based, collaborative business process mapping and
knowledge management tool with a freemium pricing model. It supports Universal Process Notation (UPN),
which the team behind Q9 Elements developed when running a previous mapping technology vendor, Nimbus
Partners. With UPN, you create hierarchies of simple diagrams that users can drill into; for the most part these
diagrams consist simply of ‘boxes and lines’ (activities and connectors). Activities in maps (hierarchies of
diagrams) are numbered using a hierarchical reference system to make it easy to understand where you are.
You can extend the process diagrams with the following knowledge in each map:
n Details – free-form documentation that you can use to describe the purpose of the map, its scope, the
overall objectives of the process being mapped, and so on.
n Resources – people or systems required for the completion of an activity.
n Attachments – notes (instructions) for an activity, a URL (providing more information or linking to an
external system) or data tables. With data tables, users can add data to activities or reference data
provided by others. In this way, data tables are a simple way of extending the core Process Knowledge
metamodel. You might use them to have your teams capture and report on information about risks
associated with certain activities, system requirements, and so on.
Figure 1 The Process Knowledge design environment
Source: Q9 Elements

3. On the Radar: Q9 Elements 3
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Team members can edit and refine a map collaboratively, in real time, which makes remote mapping
workshops easier. There’s also a sophisticated content sharing model in Process Knowledge: a team working
on a project can elect to share the process content in that project with individuals from different organisations;
and what’s more, they can specify that those ‘new members’ can in turn share the content, but only with the
approval of the originators of the material. Individuals can also be members of multiple project teams.
Separately to the core Process Knowledge authoring and sharing environment, Q9 Elements also offers the
Salesforce Player. This is a display-only tool, designed for embedding process content in Salesforce
implementations, that Process Knowledge clients use to disseminate operating procedure documentation to
populations of Salesforce application users. With the Salesforce Player, Process Knowledge maps and diagrams
are shown in the context of Salesforce objects (such as customer records, opportunity records and cases, and
custom objects) – helping make users more productive and reduce application usage errors. Access to the
Salesforce Player is managed via a single sign-on process under Salesforce, so access is seamless to Salesforce
users. Like Process Knowledge, the Salesforce Player is also free of charge.
To help customers get started, Q9 Elements has a partnership with APQC to license its generic business
process framework, together with 18 industry-specific frameworks, that are converted into Elements process
maps.
Who is it for?
As a free, web-based tool with simple online signup, Process Knowledge can be used by any individual or team
wanting to document their business processes and help people apply that knowledge in operations.
When it comes to proactive business development, though, Q9 Elements aims its products at three particular
customer groups:
n Consultants wanting to add value to their services by using a more rigorous process management tool
or packaging their IP to share with clients.
n Enterprises wanting to drive transformations with greater confidence. Here, Q9 Elements is particularly
focusing on organisations with transformations in regulated industries: particularly Pharmaceuticals,
Food & Beverage, and Financial Services.
n Software vendors wanting to offer interactive, online process knowledge documentation along with
their products. Here Q9 Elements is particularly focusing on the Salesforce ISV community, as the
Salesforce platform is easy to work with and Salesforce has a vibrant, tightly-focused partner
community.
Why is it interesting?
Q9 Elements is particularly interesting for three main reasons.
Firstly, the company has made a public commitment that the core features of its process mapping and
knowledge management tool will be free, forever. That commitment is good for professional consultants and
software vendors wanting to work with, extend or embed the project, just as it is for enterprises.
Second, the core documentation approach and notation implemented in Process Knowledge is very similar to
that used in the Nimbus process mapping tool that the Q9 Elements team built previously. This is important,
because the notation and approach is proven to work in the context of large-scale transformation projects, and
also because there’s a ready-made community of consultants and change practitioners familiar with it.
Thirdly, the company has built its tools based on real-world knowledge of how business transformation projects
often work – with large, distributed teams collaborating across organisational boundaries, often assisted by
external consultants working with multiple clients in parallel.

4. On the Radar: Q9 Elements 4
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How established is it?
Q9 Elements was founded in 2015 by Ian Gotts, Richard Parker and Adrian King – all key executives at Nimbus
Partners, which was bought in 2011 by TIBCO. Q9 Elements is essentially a reboot of Nimbus Partners, but with
a more modern technology approach and a business model designed to encourage viral adoption.
How open is it?
Elements provides a number of open REST APIs that make it possible for partners to both extend the product,
and to build tool import/export integrations. Its tools use only HTML and Javascript front-end technologies:
there are no plugins or client applications to install. Google Chrome, IE, Firefox and Safari browsers are all
supported.
Who does it partner with?
Q9 Elements’ business model is built with consulting partners and the business improvement community at its
heart. The company realises that for most potential clients, it will be third-party consultants who drive process
knowledge management projects and transformation projects. Not surprisingly growing a formalised partner
programme is a high priority for Q9 Elements, and it’s established a programme with three tiers: Partner,
Global Partner (reserved for companies able to support and deliver large projects for the largest enterprises)
and App Partner (those developing and marketing complementary tools and applications).
Are there areas for improvement?
At the time of writing, one of Process Knowledge’s significant weaknesses is the lack of change management
functionality – however Q9 Elements is addressing this with the introduction of a new Process Knowledge
Governance product (see What’s next? below).
Separately to this, we’d like to see integrations with other tools to enable customers to import existing maps
and knowledge Process Knowledge. This would mean that, particularly when documenting large-scoped or
complicated business processes, customers wouldn’t have to re-map processes if they’d already done
preparatory analysis work elsewhere (for example in process mining or modelling / architecture tools). We’d
also like to see the ability to create and manage maps that can be viewed and shared in multiple languages.
What’s next?
The core process documentation and knowledge management features of Q9 Elements are promised to be
‘free, forever’; however the company is releasing two further products that will be paid-for:
n Process Knowledge Professional. This version of the product will support organisations wanting to
take use of Process Knowledge further with tools to brand content with their own logo, colours etc,;
manage large user populations; and provide access rights at a diagram rather than map level. Model
editors using the Professional version will pay $50/month (map viewers are free).
n Process Knowledge Governance. This complements the core Process Knowledge product, adding
map versioning and archiving, release management and authorisation workflows for maps. Those
managing the Governance lifecycle will pay $75/month, those approving changes will pay $15/month,
and viewers are free.

5. On the Radar: Q9 Elements 5
© MWD Advisors 2016 www.mwdadvisors.com
Q9 Elements is also working on a number of other products in the Process Knowledge family. Process
Knowledge Playbooks will enable customers to record guided walkthroughs of process maps; Salesforce
Configuration Manager will enable customers to track how Salesforce customisations relate to their Process
Knowledge; Process Knowledge Enterprise adds enterprise-level support to Process Knowledge’s premium
features; and Checklists adds the ability for customers to create and manage checklists to help individual users
progress their work through process maps.
Further to this, Q9 Elements plans to launch a Content Database, enabling partners to make their own industry-
and scenario-specific process content available to clients through a programme called Open Practices.
Should I consider it?
If you need to document one or more business processes with the primary aim of helping people get their
work done consistently and efficiently, then you should experiment with Q9 Elements’ tools to see if the
notation and approach is a good fit for your needs. The fact that the core Process Knowledge tool is free of
charge (and is promised to be free forever) means you would be foolish not to explore this option.
The particular emphasis on integration with the Salesforce platform makes Process Knowledge particularly
interesting as an interactive training and documentation aid for Salesforce customers.
If you’re running a large-scale business transformation programme or are introducing significant system change
and need a tool to help you ensure that people understand their new roles and responsibilities, then you
should definitely consider using Q9 Elements’ tools, particularly once Process Knowledge Governance is
released.