ARIS Cloud alternatives and competitors

We are experts in process analysis for the biggest companies in Poland.  

Software AG is trying to sell us on their cloud version, but for now, we still using the on-premises version on our server.  

MashZone is a very simple system for analysis because it connects widgets for object analysis. You do not have to try to develop something in SQL or another programming language. Everyone who knows something like Microsoft Excel, for example, will have enough experience to try doing analysis with MashZone. It is that simple. It is easier to use than Qlik, more simple than Tableau, et cetera.  

The ease-of-use of MashZone is better than any of the competition for data analysis.  

Within the last month, Software AG sent us a new version of MashZone. Some of the features in MashZone have been modified and there are two new functionalities that are quite interesting to us. But we are still in the testing stage so there is not much to say about the new version yet and if they have resolved some things that are currently issues for us.  

The interface is good. It is very simple. It may not have many functions, but it is enough for process analysis. By comparison, Qlik and Tableau have many, many more functions. Statistical analysis is impossible in MashZone, but for process analysis, it is enough.  

MashZone is the best for process analysis. It is a very solid system. It is not as good for BI (Business Intelligence) because when you have big data, you have a problem. When we start to aggregate data and we have a source of something like one million rows, we have a big problem with MashZone because it is a very slow system.  

I have worked with MashZone for about two years. I started work with my present company and this company working with Software AG (Aktiengesellschaft / Corporation) for many, many years. But for me, it is only the last two years that I have been with them that I have had experience with the product.  

I think the stability depends on the specialists you have in your company. It is a very stable system when you have good employees in your company who know what they are doing and how to work with the product. If the IT department that you have is good, then MashZone is very stable.  

The number of users that we have changes a lot, up and down, because of periodic fluctuations. We are a company which sells the systems to many big companies. In the last half-year, I worked for the Polish government postal services, Poczta Polska. They have about 1,000 users. But now, in our system, we have only about 10 users. The product can scale to the number of users.  

The technical support is a problem because the tech support team in Germany is the only group with enough experience. In Poland, we have had many situations where we have had a problem that we needed to address for our customers. Usually, we had to talk with the technical support in Germany to get the issue resolved because the depth of knowledge in Poland is a problem. If you get technical support in Germany they have a very good understanding of the product and the support is excellent.  

We sell Software AG solutions and when we talk about process analysis, I think Software AG has the best solution. ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems) products like Architect, Connect, and Process Mining are very good solutions for process analysis which I have used before.  

We are using only Software AG for our process analysis at my current company. But sometimes a customer will ask about some solution for statistical analysis or for financial analysis, et cetera. When they need this type of analysis we might use another product which we research or which they request.  

It is quite difficult to say how the installation is for common users. This is because we have high competency in our company and many people who know the product well. When I came to our company, I worked with my colleague at the next desk and he knows every answer to every question without doing any research. For people with experience, this product will be easier to install and use.  

Because we sometimes get data from systems and companies that need different analysis, we need the best application for analysis of the data type. We think the best solution for us when we need to do statistical analysis might be Qlik. I could not be sure without trying to compare, so we did some testing. The Qlik solution has memory technology that acts differently and we see a big difference with using Qlik for this type of analysis when comparing it to MashZone.  

The advice I have for people considering MashZone is that it is very good for specific things. When you have big data you must buy MashZone with Terracotta, because Terracotta is a second Software AG solution with better memory technology. Only using MashZone along with Terracotta will make the processing fast enough.  

I think the biggest problem with MashZone is that even though you have a lot of widgets and the system is simple to develop with, it is not a very fast system. It is a very simple system to use, more simple than Tableau in my opinion. But the biggest problem is speed. It is not fast with processing.  

I think because the system is really designed for process analysis, when we analyze a process for our customers, the MashZone is much better than all other solutions. But the database for processes can not be very big. If there are about 40,000 rows for process analysis — and this is a pretty big analysis — then MashZone is enough. But when you want to analyze something using statistics or for financial analysis, MashZone is not a very good system. This is not really what it was designed to do and excel at.  

On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate MashZone NextGeneration overall as a product as a seven-out-of-ten.  

The reasons why it gets a seven is because of the problems the product has in processing big data. If I try to analyze big data in MashZone, it is just impossible. I changed the server for a better one and it is still is not enough processing power. This is only my opinion based on the version of the software that we are using (10.3). But now they have a new version (10.5) which has some new features that we are very interested in and maybe I will score the product as more than seven when I have the opportunity to use them. For example, in the new version, Software AG claims that now there is a business component for developing our own templates for MashZone. 

For many years now, that was impossible. The template changes could only be made by the IT department in JavaScript. It required JavaScript to make the change. Now it is possible to do it in a different way. It is one less problem.  

The second problem that Software AG said they have tried to address is the speed of MashZone. Prior to this release, MashZone did not have enough capabilities to do proper Gant analysis. Now Software AG says that in new version Gant analysis is better. We do not know for certain because we have not yet put it to the test. For now, when we using version 10.3, that is practically impossible. Of course, something is there to do this type of analysis in version 10.3, but it is very complicated to use.  

I find it really easy to use. 

You can customize the process very easy. 

You can also communicate with people ad they don't even need to have the tool. They can see the processes on the internet which makes it easy to collaborate with people that don't actually choose to use the tool. 

It's easy to use generally, due to the fact that it's really basic. 

It has also a lot of Planteria, I know how to paint in it, however, you can use different samples, depending on the structures that you want to draw. It has a lot of possiblities.

I'm working with Visio Plan 2. I find some lags on this tool. For example, I cannot manage the attributes. For example, for each figure of the process map, I cannot add any further information about it. I can't add the activity or the role that I'm using to relate to other activities. It is very limited by the information that I can use. Managing data is quite limited.

I would love to see five samples for each attempt that I include in my process. I would like to be able to add some extra information. For example, to be able to add some attributes for each item. 

To be able to extract a report for business project management notations would be ideal. Another solution, ARIS, lets you configure each item that you add to the Visio model process, and you can add some attributes that we cannot currently add. For example, calls to activity, main indicators, or a lot of descriptions, etc.

After that, to be able to export a report that shows the relation between the functions and the roles that you have related would be great. If it were possible to see different functions for each role and export it, that would be ideal.

I've been using the solution for a very, very long time. It's been about ten to eleven years at this point. 

The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues in that respect. It doesn't crash or freeze and it's not buggy or have glitches.

I haven't needed to reach out to technical support the entire time I've used the product. It's very basic and very simple, and therefore I've never run into any issues I haven't been able to deal with personally.

I'm actually currently looking into different options as I am finding Visio's capabilities a bit dated and limiting.

I'm just a customer. I don't have a business relationship with Visio.

For how I use the solution, it's quite good and does what I need it to do. It's unique in terms of drawing processes. That said, it is getting a little bit old. There are other solutions out there that offer many more functionalities and users can work with more information on them. That's really useful. Visio, on the other hand, doesn't have the same kind of capabilities.

That's why I'm currently looking for another application to use. I want to be able to export more information from the business process management notations. Visio could potentially improve on this, and, if they don't I will have to look elsewhere for a solution that can handle this.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten due to its general limitations at this point.

We primarily use the solution as a support tool towards becoming more focused on process management. This high-level goal can be further broken down into increasing visibility over existing processes, facilitating the design and collaboration on to-be processes, as well as cutting down on external consultants costs related to process management. 

Furthermore, we are using Signavio for our enterprise architecture as well, in order to increase visibility over how the different IT systems used in the company are supporting different processes. 

SAP Signavio Process Manager has a strong basis for creating a process organizational structure (process owners, process managers). 

Visualizing and collaborating in one place on all cross-functional processes has led to an increased understanding of how everything connects (especially through the use of previous and subsequent processes, but also through the use of the "call activity" function within the BPMN models). 

The centralized dictionary has further helped with standardization of items such as roles at a global level.

One of the most valuable features was the possibility of not only collaborating with the other system Process Managers and also with non-licensed users (whether Collaboration Hub users or other external users). 

This functionality ("invite anyone for feedback") has substantially increased visibility over work-in-progress when it comes to process modelling and overall process management and it decreased the time spent on giving and receiving feedback through emails and through sharing screenshots/.ppt files/Visio files etc.

The user management functionality in Process Manager is not as user friendly as the one in the Collaboration Hub. The design, although good compare to other solutions on the market, is not as great as that of the Collaboration Hub. 

Furthermore, the integration with SharePoint Online doesn't offer the same benefits as the one with SharePoint classic, meaning that when using the search functionality of "search in content" you will not get results of the text within the SharePoint Online documentation.

I've used the solution for seven months.

We have not experienced many issues (if any) so far, however, we have also only started using this solution.

The product offers good scalability options, especially with the SAP acquisition.

Technical support offers prompt answers from our initial contact (sales representatives) to the consultant we worked with during the setup and training.

Positive

We did use 2c8 Apps, which was not user-friendly enough and didn't offer a cloud solution. It also was difficult to collaborate/share content with the rest of the organization.

The initial setup was straightforward, and although we used Signavio's premium rapid deployment, we could've most likely done it by ourselves.

We implemented the product with the help of Signavio (10 days of consultation efforts).

I am unable to give an answer at this point as we are still only starting to work with Signavio.

There is a rather high cost for the Process Manager licenses, however, costs can go down if there are more modules from the Business Transformation Suite added to the contract. 

We looked at up to 80 other process modelling solution providers. The top 4 vendors were Aris, Adonis, GBTEC, and Signavio.

The interface, design, and accessible user manuals to help get started using the solution are valuable features in Bizagi.

The solution is a bit heavy on resources and has slowed down my computer.

I would like to see in the future more organized features. We have all the tools needed but it would be a benefit to hide some elements to simplify things.

I have been using this solution for two days.

I have previously used Aris and this solution is much better. In Aris, it is more complex with a lot more tools to work with and is more professional but it is difficult to learn.

I rate Bizagi a nine out of ten.