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ARIS BPA vs SAP PowerDesigner comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

ARIS BPA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (4th), Business Process Management (BPM) (8th)
SAP PowerDesigner
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (5th), Metadata Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

ARIS BPA and SAP PowerDesigner aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ARIS BPA is designed for Business Process Design and holds a mindshare of 8.1%, down 9.3% compared to last year.
SAP PowerDesigner, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Architecture Management, holds 8.9% mindshare, up 8.1% since last year.
Business Process Design
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

Veronika Ellermann - PeerSpot reviewer
Very user-friendly application; ARIS has an active user community; Content-sharing in the tool to be improved
The Risk and Compliance Management tool is rather complex. So, we customized it. Customization was done by SAG and was done fast. The facility for sharing content should be enhanced. For example, it would be nice if you could share content with viewers who do not explicitly have access to the model. As it is now, if you share a process with somebody that does not have access to the model, then the person receives a link that simply tells them they have no access. Particularly, when you're in the process of modeling something and you want to share it because you want to get feedback from your colleagues, I would appreciate being able to share that content. It could be valid for a period, such as 24 hours or one week. This is something that would help.
JorgeSanz - PeerSpot reviewer
Effective in terms of validating everything, but sometimes they don't allow us some flexibility and GUI could improve
I would recommend SAP PowerDesigner to others for data architecture management. It provides all the functionalities in terms of data modeling, so it's also a good tool for that. I see trends in terms of data classification, but I don't see this tool with the intelligence to do that automatically. So, like, with artificial intelligence. Overall, I would rate the solution a six out of ten because there are too many validations. Also, I found some gaps in terms of relationships; they didn't appear when you do reverse engineering. Also, this tool lacks artificial intelligence that should be very good in terms of automatically identifying the classification of elements and maybe also to incorporate some artificial intelligence in providing descriptions for each data element included in the solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"I am an advanced user. ARIS BPM is intuitive for me because I know the UML, BPMN, and EPC methodologies implemented in this tool. It is very easy to create processes for restructuring a company with some descriptions."
"The most valuable features are business process modeling and reporting."
"The ease of use is the most valuable. I have tried a number of BPMN packages, and I find the user interface of ARIS BPM easier and more intuitive than others. If your team is knowledgeable on BPMN, it is really pretty easy to figure out on your own because it adheres to the standards extremely well. I have tried Bizagi, BizFlow, and a variety of such solutions, and I just liked ARIS BPM better."
"Platform that it supports covers legacy and new. Caters to moving older objects into an integrated DB, relatively popular ones: SQL, Oracle, etc."
"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."
"​​ARIS process modeling and analysis allows integration of end-to-end business processes with the organization's vision, strategies, and business objectives, through visual management."
"MFT is quite attractive. A large amount of data is passed in almost no time and it is quite easy to use."
"​It is a well-featured, functional product."
"The initial setup was very easy."
"I do a data-centric design, so for me, the data analysis and design tools are the most valuable features."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"This solution has good tools for big data, where you can manage large and complex databases."
"It has helped me to develop the as-is state, design its to-be state, and track the capital investment according to gap analysis."
"I like the connectivity or the lineage between the models and usability."
"I like the property sheet capability and the user-defined attributes that you can set up."
"Very good repository features."
 

Cons

"The governance mechanism could be better, as could automation."
"The product is difficult to use for someone without prior knowledge of working with it. It requires a certain level of administration training."
"While the dashboarding solution for integrating all kinds of process-related information from company sources other than ARIS is getting ever better, my personal wish would be to have a module that is more targeted to an Agile implementation of some modeled processes (model–to-execute)."
"The interface is a little archaic."
"The workflow approval process could be represented better in the overviews."
"It needs external API and the ability to navigate back, similar to "Back" in web browser."
"Displaying role allocation matrix models in ARIS Connect needs improvement."
"One of the biggest challenges is to realistically enable the defined structures of the processes that you have in ARIS documented, and then actually implement them in the business."
"There are some minor things that could be easier. We're writing up procedures to bring all the modeling back into one group as this reduces delays in production."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"Connectivity can be improved because it's not very good."
"Not very intuitive or user-friendly."
"The solution is very, very expensive. It would be ideal if it was a more affordable product."
"Technical support could be better and more human."
"Regarding improvements, I suggest enhancing the connection between objects in process and data models. It's crucial to define the structure of objects, especially when dealing with standard frameworks like VMM. There should be better visualization of arrows between BPM and data modeling objects, specifying their structure and impact. For future versions, a feature similar to Bizagi, allowing users to see forms or SQL representations of objects, would be valuable for demonstrating and presenting project details to stakeholders."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is a bit pricey."
"Negotiate. Price is high so make sure you’re getting the best deal."
"ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective."
"Their license model is really difficult to understand, and licenses are quite expensive."
"ARIS enables you to start small and grow the use of the solution over time, although it's quite expensive. So if you want to start small, it's quite an investment for a small company."
"It is well worth the investment in the enterprise."
"ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once."
"The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator)."
"The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable."
"The price of the solution is low."
"Regarding costs, SAP PowerDesigner is pricey, as I've heard from my team manager, which is why the company has been thinking of bringing another solution on board."
"SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin."
"When you purchase the license for SAP PowerDesigner, you have to buy one year of support. The tool is worth the money."
"The pricing varies based on functionality and users."
"I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited."
"The ROI has been 43%."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
10%
Financial Services Firm
24%
Government
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
Improvement should be made as per customer requirements.
What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
Based on my experience with SAP PowerDesigner, I'd like to see improvements in the DMM feature. Even if I have an ETL tool, I'd like the DMM options to directly connect to ETL tool repositories lik...
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
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837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.