We performed a comparison between IDERA ER/Studio, SAP PowerDesigner, and UNICOM System Architect based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out what your peers are saying about LeanIX, Sparx Systems, erwin by Quest and others in Enterprise Architecture Management."We can track changes to our data models and tie those changes back to specific tasks or efforts that we identify."
"The reverse engineering is the most important feature."
"The interface is really simple to use and it allows me to pick and choose which tables I want to reverse engineer."
"We have been able to quickly create models for our enterprise-wide databases, even when some of them are third-party databases."
"Data lineage tracking: It allows us to identify upstream and downstream systems using data."
"The most valuable features are... those that enable me to represent the database to the development community and the business users."
"We are able to document the data lineage and data flows of our data from one system to another."
"We found a lot of duplication, a lot of non-conformity in the way our databases were designed. By identifying these situations, we're able to go back in and try to create a more standardized solution."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"In PowerDesigner, I primarily use BPM and modeling standards. I find it beneficial for process analysis, although I use data modeling to a lesser extent."
"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."
"It's a stable system. It never crashes."
"The solution is a very pragmatic tool. It's quite easy to use."
"SAP PowerDesigner is an excellent tool that does what I need it to do. What I like most about it is that it's stable, fast, and easy to understand."
"I've used the reverse engineering feature a lot. I can take a look at the structure of the database and what relationships it has."
"It has good end-to-end metamodel interrelationships."
"It is useful for creating build-outs and architecture views and for publishing reports and stuff like that for different programs."
"The solution could be sped up, as it is a little slow (e.g., when it's doing its database compare)."
"The model diagram because very clumsy when you save it on the team server and the models are very big."
"The screens are a bit outdated. They could use a new look and feel."
"What I would like to see improved is the reliability of the releases, releases that are a little less buggy."
"It isn't easy to compare the thousands of tables in the model against the database. The tool should improve the synchronization within the large organization"
"They allow functionalities to be released before the full tests for catching and correcting errors are completed."
"Sometimes our version is a little unstable. But I think this problem occurs because our version is old."
"I'd like the ability to debug the errors ourselves instead of having to call them. There are certain types of errors that, I wouldn't say they come up regularly, but when you have an error it is very often the same type of error. Knowing that it's a Type III or Type I, it would be nice to have some kind of debugging facility for us to use to find out where the problem that threw that error occurs. That would be a really cool feature."
"SAP PowerDesigner could improve by making the repository easier to understand. It is difficult to understand how the repository works because when I used logical models as part of the team, we wanted to use them together and update the older versions of the data model version but it was confusing. The repository needs to be explained."
"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."
"Not very intuitive or user-friendly."
"Pricing for small consultancies needs improvement. They sustain prices to competing tools. The competing tools tend to do special offers. PowerDesigner SAP doesn't pay much attention to the pricing of it and there are no special offers."
"The portal of SAP PowerDesigner could be better. The tool also needs more features and integration with other products, such as Collibra. It would be interesting for SAP PowerDesigner to have more integration."
"It would be helpful if there were glossary, catalog and governance tools. It would help make it a true end-to-end product."
"The data governance should be improved, like ER/Studio."
"I've tried to use Power Designer to bring in images, which didn't work very well at all."
"I don't use the tool or know a lot. It is going to have some shortcomings. When it comes down to publishing, we just found out this week that they actually have a publisher add-on. So, what we were trying to publish was not giving a detailed report about the architecture, views, etc. I just wish they had sent these to UNICOM and contacted them about add-on features for the publishing part of the tool."
"They need to add reports that show the enterprise architecture perspectives, and the dashboards should be comfortable for the senior enterprise architects so that they can view the complete landscape."
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