Surprisingly little.
Enterprise Information Architect at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Setup is straightforward, but the display of relationships between objects is not automatic.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
It hasn't really improved the way our organisation functions. iServer provides a repository for the reuse of objects, but that is about all that is of use. It means we may save some time from not having to retype things, but the overhead of maintaining these objects is quite large. There is supposed to be features around impact assessments (i.e., what systems are being used by what), but that reporting is a bit clunky, and hence not used very often, if at all. Because the system relies on using Visio, and there is no live-link between them, the repository and what is displayed in Visio must be checked out and refreshed to reflect changes.
What needs improvement?
The display of relationships between objects is not automatic if they exist in the repository.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for 12 months.
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What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
7/10 as the customer service is quite good, however, unfortunately the product itself isn't.
Technical Support:7/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Visio/PowerPoint. I'm not sure of the value of the switch, and if I had my way, I'd switch back.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We used a vendor team.
What was our ROI?
It's supposed to make us more efficient, but that hasn't been borne out during use.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't know the setup costs, but it's day to day ones are negligible.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would say that it's a poor man's EA repository. It seems like a good idea, but doesn't really work in practice. It's really two components, Visio and the iServer repository, and there is no live-link between them, so the Visio diagrams can be out-of-date. Don't implement it, you should stick with Visio, as this is a solution that ends up having the worst of both worlds.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Digital Transformation Expert at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Stable with the potential to scale and integrates well with Microsoft
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has wide use within Microsoft products. The integration with Microsoft products, and, in particular, Microsoft Office, is great."
- "The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is mainly used for technology architecture. Clients need to model infrastructure network solutions that they have. There is no focus on business modeling.
What is most valuable?
The solution has wide use within Microsoft products. The integration with Microsoft products, and, in particular, Microsoft Office, is great.
What needs improvement?
It's a very simple tool, which makes me concerned with the performance. Performance is an issue for us because it takes a long time to load the document. It's a big issue.
The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is okay. The performance is a question, however, largely, it's stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution can scale well. However, I worry about scaling due to the fact that the performance of the solution is generally poor. Once they solve the performance issues, I have no doubt scaling will be much better.
How are customer service and technical support?
We've been in touch with technical support in the past. We found them to be highly responsive. They're very good. We've been satisfied with their level of service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have tried different solutions other than iServer. I've tried Avolution ABACUS. I've tried Sparx. I've tried Visual ParadigmiServer was well. This is based on these tools, especially how it converts things to components, and how the components are related to each other. This type of tool here in my country is particularly useful because there are not many projects taking advantage of its usage here. There is very big potential when using this tool.
The main difference between all of these solutions and iServer is the integration with Microsoft Office. Many users are using Microsoft Office Visio in terms of modeling. It's very easy to integrate or migrate what they have to the solution.
It's also very simple. It's simpler than Avolution and Sparx, with a lot of reference architecture being within the solution, and a lot of templates ready to go.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite complex.
The complexity is mainly in terms of installation and installing the web portal in particular. It requires a lot of consideration at the beginning. After that, it's easier. At the beginning of the configuration, however, its challenging.
What other advice do I have?
I'm a consultant. I work with the product, however, I am not a customer.
We typically deal with the on-premises deployment model as our clients aren't well-versed in the cloud just yet.
I'd advise that those who wish to implement the solution ensure they are well trained on it beforehand.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. If the performance was better, I would rate it much higher.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
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Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- Sparx Enterprise Architect vs. iServer - has anyone compared them?
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One of the most powerful advantage is that iServer Provides a lot of reference architecture and best practices implemented through many different industries. It has a huge library of complete and end to end templates and references that could be utilized through different architecture projects.