We performed a comparison between SAP PowerDesigner and Visio 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."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."
"The most useful feature has been the detailed possibility to model almost anything regarding physical databases."
"I like the connectivity or the lineage between the models and usability."
"The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison."
"It can automate many routine tasks and save human resources to focus on real problems."
"The feature I found valuable in SAP PowerDesigner is extraction. I also like that my company hasn't faced any issues because of the clear documentation about SAP PowerDesigner."
"SAP PowerDesigner is fairly stable."
"The most valuable features of the solution are it's built very well, easy to use, and simple to describe freely what is needed in logical and physical data models."
"The most valuable features are process mapping and identifying responsibilities."
"I like that once you create what you need, you can group that, at least within that drawing, and you have access to that new stencil object or that custom object throughout that drawing."
"It's very agile and user friendly with a lot of templates."
"The ability to visualize a workflow is certainly an advantage over just tracking a process in something like Excel."
"It is very easy for people to start using this tool, and we can import Visio templates that are already published by vendors such as Azure without any issue."
"What I like about it is that the templates are easily findable and usable, and they are usually created for other software packages. It seems to be pretty much widely adopted in the industry."
"The solution makes it very easy to make exciting pictures and designs. Everything is very intuitive and simple to figure out."
"It is ideal for putting out flowcharts and swim charts. It's really good. It has all the various options to use, particularly depending on what kind of audience you have. It provides you different kinds of options to insert the pictures and explain things."
"Checking-in models to the repository, especially when working remotely, is a slow process than can sometimes have problems with models being corrupted."
"Connectivity can be improved because it's not very good."
"Not very intuitive or user-friendly."
"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 many areas of this solution that needs to be changed."
"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."
"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."
"In terms of improvement, the pricing is a bit high."
"The one particular thing which I would like to see improved is in comparison to other products in the market, and is still lacking in Visio, is publishing on a web application. For example, there is a freeware application business process modeling tool, Bizagi."
"They could improve the drawing function, other solutions provide easier drawing capabilities."
"One thing that I always felt was missing was the ability to integrate with other Microsoft products, particularly with things like SharePoint or other Excel Office tools. It may be available, but it is not as good as it could be."
"The solution could improve by making it more modern."
"The only downside to Visio is the learning curve."
"Its support team could be well-equipped with the required information."
"The solution should be included in Microsoft Office 365. For some reason, it's not. It should be bundled in with everything else."
"It should be easier to transition into a new version without having to spend so much time in just one area."
SAP PowerDesigner is ranked 4th in Enterprise Architecture Management with 32 reviews while Visio is ranked 1st in Business Process Design with 101 reviews. SAP PowerDesigner is rated 8.0, while Visio is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of SAP PowerDesigner writes "Difficult to operate, long process to publish, but scalable". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Visio writes "A software for drawing a variety of diagrams which include flowcharts, org charts, building plans, floor plans, data flow diagrams". SAP PowerDesigner is most compared with erwin Data Modeler by Quest, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, IDERA ER/Studio, LeanIX and MEGA HOPEX, whereas Visio is most compared with Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Bizagi, Visual Paradigm, IBM Blueworks Live and Mindjet MindManager.
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