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I use erwin Data Modeler as the modeler, utilizing the desktop version to develop and design tables, determining which attributes belong to which tables and designing their relationships. Another software developed by Quest, called erwin 360, is a public version that allows my leaders to view the models I created on a webpage, review my work, and give feedback. This is the main use case in our work.

In our case, we have 80 tables, each with potentially hundreds of attributes. Taking a simple screenshot wouldn’t be effective, as it wouldn’t be readable for others. However, erwin Data Modeler offers a very useful feature called diagram generation. This feature allows us to create a PDF file that clearly illustrates the details of each table, including its attributes and relationships. The representation in this PDF is quite effective, making it easy to share with others for reviewing the model.

erwin Data Modeler helps improve data governance frameworks. For instance, we can specify that each table must have only one unique attribute. If we accidentally duplicate attributes in a table, we'll identify the error immediately. Additionally, because Erwin serves as a source of truth, all other platforms and databases rely on it for their data deployment. This makes it much easier to manage data models. We won’t encounter issues like having to rename a column in Databricks and then rename it again in Snowflake, which can cause significant problems. Whenever we need to update the model, we can simply change it in the logical model. We can then create multiple physical models accordingly and deploy those physical models. I would say this approach is very helpful for data governance and maintaining control.

In terms of improvement in collaboration between business, IT, and data teams, we don’t have many teams involved in our work—just another data modeler like me and the leaders who are using erwin 360. So far, it’s working well. We are using merge functionality for version control, so there are no model version conflicts at all.

Currently in the market, there is no competitor to erwin Data Modeler; everything is very powerful, such as performing reverse engineering from an existing database and deploying that on Databricks or Snowflake. It is very easy, and because there is no comparison, every feature in erwin Data Modeler is very powerful and exactly meets our expectations. 

erwin Data Modeler could improve its UI as it still feels old school and not very modern. There are many features, and I would expect good documentation detailing each feature, including when and how to use it, to be very useful because data modeling is not very popular in the data area and there aren't many educational videos regarding erwin Data Modeler. Every time I need to find a feature, I have to contact the erwin support team. If there were detailed documentation of its features, that would be great. The UI can also improve, and I have faced issues where diagrams appear different in the Data Modeler versus erwin 360. If they could fix those bugs, that would be better.

In terms of integration, it’s more powerful than I initially expected. However, there are still some minor issues. For instance, when I generate DDL (Data Definition Language) for Databricks using a prebuilt template, everything works fine. The problem arises when I have a definition for a table or attribute that includes double quotes. Databricks does not accept this format, which prevents me from deploying the generated DDL. It would be beneficial if erwin Data Modeler could provide an error message indicating that using double quotes in definitions may lead to deployment issues. Additionally, if erwin Data Modeler could offer alternative solutions for handling double quotes in definitions, that would be very helpful. Overall, I am satisfied with the integration of erwin Data Modeler with ProView, Databricks, and Snowflake. I have used various tools, and so far, my experience has been positive.

I have been using erwin Data Modeler for almost one year and a half.

I do see some stability issues with erwin Data Modeler. Sometimes when I want to open the attribute editor, it stops working and the whole application freezes. I have found a solution online regarding the registry, but I have already noted that in a Word document on my laptop, so every time I face the same issue, I just follow that solution. If they could solve this issue, it would be easier for me next time.

Regarding scalability, erwin Data Modeler is performing well; from a few tables to 100 tables, it is working effectively so far.

I have contacted their technical support several times. The quality and speed of their support are excellent; everyone is very helpful, and they can solve problems quickly.

Positive

I have not used any alternatives to erwin Data Modeler or similar solutions as I did not find any alternatives.

When I first started with erwin Data Modeler, it was difficult. Starting erwin Data Modeler is very easy, but connecting it with the Mart portal was quite difficult, possibly due to our company's security settings and firewall settings. Overall, that process took me one to two months, so I would not say it was easy. It took me approximately one month to fully understand how to use erwin Data Modeler.

erwin Data Modeler requires some maintenance on our end. I recently contacted their technical support because some issues appeared unexpectedly. Luckily, we still have their maintenance coverage.

I do not recall the pricing from about a year and a half ago, but it seems reasonable.

erwin Data Modeler is effective in managing data across different environments, but we only work with SQL, SQL Server, and Snowflake; I did not interact with all environments, so it is only structured data. 

I would rate erwin Data Modeler an eight out of ten.

My use cases for SAP PowerDesigner involve data modeling.

What I appreciate best about SAP PowerDesigner is that it is a very detailed and comprehensive tool. It can produce data design definition language scripts and perform source-to-target mapping. The data modeling is what I do. It can also do process mapping and IT systems architecture design.

It provides a full suite of conceptual, logical, and physical data models, but we tend to focus on the physical data models here. In terms of what I appreciate best about it, it is very comprehensive and covers all the bases. The flip side of that is that it is quite a complex tool to learn.

Besides that, it has a web portal feature that can be improved. It is an application that you install on your device and you fire the application up and you work on that. It also has a web portal feature, which is much more convenient for giving people access to look at entity-relationship diagrams, but that web portal is unstable and does not work. It freezes up all the time.

I have been using SAP PowerDesigner for about eight years.

The scalability of SAP PowerDesigner is very good. I have never had any issues with scalability. We have some big models in there. We have a lot of detailed information stored in SAP PowerDesigner and it works very well from that perspective. You can have a lot of people using it, and you can share the models.

Regarding their support team, we have not really reached out for support for several years. When we did reach out, this was quite a long time ago, probably pre-2020, they were responsive, but they were not always able to fix all of our challenges or it took them a long time. I could not rate that very highly.

We have been on our own for a while due to the response time. There is not any support anymore as far as I know. We have reached out once or twice, and they have not really been able to resolve issues. We had problems with the slow portal, but we have largely fixed them in-house.

Neutral

In terms of the initial setup and deployment of SAP PowerDesigner, your IT department will need to help anybody actually get SAP PowerDesigner and to pay the license fees. In terms of installing it, from my perspective as a front-end user rather than an IT expert, installing it on people's devices does not seem to be too difficult as long as the correct security access is given. It is not too tricky.

Not everyone can use SAP PowerDesigner. You need to have experience and knowledge. It has an abundance of features, but you have to know where they are.

I am just a customer with them. I would recommend SAP PowerDesigner to other people, notwithstanding the fact that it is going to be discontinued, likely in a few years.

For data modeling, I am not using anything else at the moment. In general, I am not using anything else from SAP. I give SAP PowerDesigner an overall rating of 8 out of 10.