We performed a comparison between SAP PowerDesigner and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Enterprise Architecture Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."This solution has good tools for big data, where you can manage large and complex databases."
"It's a stable system. It never crashes."
"Provides the flexibility to create logical and conceptual data models."
"The most valuable features of SAP PowerDesigner are the creation the flow charts and folders. It is a powerful tool."
"It's a great tool for documentation."
"It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases."
"The most valuable feature is the way you can extend it and customize it. With most modeling tools, you fit your modeling process to fit the tool. In PowerDesigner, you can make the tool fit the way you want to work."
"I do a data-centric design, so for me, the data analysis and design tools are the most valuable features."
"Customizable and tailored to the environment. Several template frameworks are provided."
"I have found the Meta Model tuning feature useful as it provides me with an overview of all my work needs."
"The solution saved a lot of time, about 30%."
"I like that there is support for software patterns."
"It's a stable and scalable solution. I like that it's similar to Rational Rose."
"The stability has been good and satisfactory. I would rate the stability a ten out of ten."
"The features I find most valuable is the ability to create a document and then put it into a OneCare artifact."
"It's like a repository. So far, we use it only for Information Modelling."
"The focus is more on mainstream development environments, and I see a lack of focus on the open source world. I think SAP PowerDesigner probably interfaces better with SQL Server and Db2 but not with open source databases like PostgreSQL and MySQL."
"I have found the solution not easy to use. When publishing you have to download the HTML, make adjustments against the updated HTML, convert it to HTML, then finally paste the HTML. There is not an on-the-fly function available to bypass the step-by-step converting process that other solutions have."
"The tool lags in the area of customer service."
"You have the possibility to complete a connection for abbreviations if you are creating columns or names of the tables. In the Citrix environment, this has been lagging to the point where the PowerDesigner was not usable."
"One disadvantage of SAP PowerDesigner is that you cannot reverse engineer the ALTER statements, so that's an enhancement or area for improvement I'm looking forward to seeing from the SAP team in the future. That should directly reflect on the physical data models my company builds."
"The data governance should be improved, like ER/Studio."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"UI could be improved by enabling simpler navigation."
"The user interface is not so good. It's not easy for someone to use it at first. The product takes some getting used to."
"In general, we now have a problem with Sparx Enterprise Architect because many analysts think it's too complicated to use in a giant environment."
"Greater OMG UML and XMI compliance"
"It would be great if we could decrease the use of different parts of the Toolbox."
"The Business Process Modeling or BPM feature can be improved to make it more interactive and user friendly because it is a tool for technical people. My current use is only for business process modeling notation and putting in the icons etc. You need to take them in as a class, which makes things very complex. Because of this complexity, it is not an easy-to-handle solution. Enterprise Architect is not very good for mockups. We cannot create user screens and other similar kinds of stuff, which is bad. For these things, we prefer to use Axure RP and other similar solutions. They should either remove this feature from this product or provide some kind of connectivity with Axure RP so that people can do better mockups of screens and import them. They need to augment and strengthen the BPM feature, which is the main feature. They need to put in some elements like artificial intelligence and augmented reality. They should look into such features because these things are coming up."
"When collaborating with other people, it needs to be more user-friendly."
"The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds."
"The solution needs to offer better support for the mobile-based system. Right now, it's not working."
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SAP PowerDesigner is ranked 5th in Enterprise Architecture Management with 34 reviews while Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is ranked 2nd in Enterprise Architecture Management with 97 reviews. SAP PowerDesigner is rated 7.8, while Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of SAP PowerDesigner writes "Effective in terms of validating everything, but sometimes they don't allow us some flexibility and GUI could improve". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect writes "Easy to set up and had no issues with stability, but it's not a very friendly tool, and its database modeling and entity-relationship modeling functions need improvement". SAP PowerDesigner is most compared with erwin Data Modeler by Quest, Visio, IDERA ER/Studio, LeanIX and MEGA HOPEX, whereas Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is most compared with Visual Paradigm, Visio, No Magic MagicDraw, Lucidchart and Avolution ABACUS. See our SAP PowerDesigner vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect report.
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