BiZZdesign HoriZZon Reviews

My main use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is as a read-only content platform primarily for everyone. BiZZdesign HoriZZon was introduced to us as a read-only platform, and we have added value by targeting certain artifacts for specific stakeholders. The operations team has one set, finance another, and so on. This targeted stakeholder management is a big use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon. Recently, BiZZdesign HoriZZon introduced data blocks and contributor roles, making it easier for stakeholders to engage with the platform. These are two primary value-addition use cases. A specific example is using the Explorer functionality to generate and share artifacts with targeted groups. For platform architecture, the DevOps and operations teams access relevant artifacts, aiding targeted stakeholder management. Additionally, senior stakeholders are interested in architecture decision logs, which are aggregates of architecture decision records. We are working on making BiZZdesign HoriZZon a future decision support system by aggregating data for stakeholders.

Another use case is the ServiceNow BiZZdesign HoriZZon integration. The objects from ServiceNow are imported or created on BiZZdesign HoriZZon, allowing bidirectional interface for modeling as-is and to-be architecture. This integration is helpful for companies, despite challenges. I use BiZZdesign HoriZZon for Dynamic Solution Intent. The dynamic solution architecture helps engage stakeholders outside the architecture community, allowing for unified engagement and solution development using repository components.

A system administration module for BiZZdesign HoriZZon would make user management simpler. Overall system management activities, such as tracking the growth of the repository, would add value to customers. Previously, I used a different solution called System Architect.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers various valuable features. The best ones, besides those I have mentioned, include the AI space with the Diagram Describer and the Explorer functionality. I understand that BiZZdesign HoriZZon is also working on the Diagram Importer, which complements the Diagram Describer feature, providing full import and export functionality. Together with the contributor role and targeted stakeholder management, these features are essential.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon introduced the Dynamic Solution Intent, enhancing the solution architecture by engaging diverse stakeholders with architectural artifacts. It supports the development of holistic solutions using reusable repository components.

The deployment is hybrid cloud-based, specifically using Amazon Web Services as the cloud provider. I have also seen the implementation of return on investment features that contribute significantly to the organization’s overall effectiveness.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon could improve with features such as whiteboarding or canvasing, currently being developed on the Unify platform. Adding these features to BiZZdesign HoriZZon would simplify collaboration. The MCP server, available for Unify but not BiZZdesign HoriZZon, would be useful for database querying. AI-related improvements, extraction of data more self-service, and human language-based queries are enhancements I wish BiZZdesign HoriZZon would pursue. Many features developed on Unify should be backported to BiZZdesign HoriZZon, or customers should adopt Unify, accelerating the solution architecture artifact generation process.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon since the end of 2020.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is stable. I have not seen major downtime since I started using it in 2021. Only one incident occurred, but recovery was quick, so I do not consider it significant.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon’s scalability is excellent. Opening the platform to non-architects increased usage from 700 to 800 architects to six times more users without issues or performance concerns.

Customer support for BiZZdesign HoriZZon could be better. On a 1 to 5 scale, I would rate it a 3.5. There is room for improvement, and I understand the support challenge due to multiple products and some confusion.

I previously used a different solution called System Architect.

The setup cost for BiZZdesign HoriZZon was relatively simple. The licensing model is straightforward and not expensive compared to other products on the market.

I have noticed return on investment with BiZZdesign HoriZZon. We reduced costs by over 70% compared to a previous product. The data extraction, visualization, and analysis features have added significant value. Stakeholder engagement has greatly improved. I suspect we have halved our previous expenditure. Overall, the solution is invaluable to our organization.

Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing for BiZZdesign HoriZZon, I find them not very expensive. The setup was simple, and the licensing model is uncomplicated. I will not delve into specifics, but compared to other market products, it is cost-effective.

Before choosing BiZZdesign HoriZZon, we evaluated other options, including developing the relationship database internally.

While we covered most topics, I wish I had prepared more metric data.

My advice for others considering BiZZdesign HoriZZon is, if you are already a customer, explore all features BiZZdesign HoriZZon is working on. Provide feedback to have those features from Unify downported to BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

For potential users of BiZZdesign HoriZZon, consider evaluating Unify first due to the focus on new technology. Look into how features can be backported to BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

I think BiZZdesign HoriZZon should leverage developments on Unify for current customers or until customers decide to adopt Unify. Utilizing MCP and AI technology can speed up the artifact generation process for solution architecture. I hope BiZZdesign HoriZZon achieves this.

I do not have quantifiable data for BiZZdesign HoriZZon benefits. From the adoption and stakeholder engagement perspective, traction has increased, showing a significant positive impact. Since the 2022 features introduction, stakeholder growth increased by approximately 70%.

I rate this review an 8 overall.

There was a merger that the client entered into, and following that merger, we inherited a large technology inventory from the acquired organization. The acquired inventory from the organization had a separate technology landscape, and the technology landscapes from both companies post-merger needed to become one. The challenge was to reconcile the inventory without freezing the ongoing architecture work.

The task at hand was to continue with the solution design and the architecture for ongoing projects and new projects while the collaboration and the inventory consolidation was happening. We used BiZZdesign HoriZZon's central repositories into a single source of truth. The architects needed to model new solutions. As an architect, I referenced the same shared reconciled inventory in BiZZdesign HoriZZon in real time and collaborated with other architects rather than working in spreadsheets or relying on tribal knowledge from legacy people from both companies to come back into my solution design and model with the latest version which was approved for the company's new company version of technology and was to be kept. This helped the inventory rationalization and active architecture design both happen in parallel instead of sequentially.

I used Enterprise Studio, which was installed client, and also the cloud portal, which was BiZZdesign HoriZZon version. It helped navigating through any issues that the cloud version had in slow responses while collaborating on the inventory rationalization and active solution design or seeking approval on the solution modeled while remaining in my own space with the peers, sharing privately my design with peers to get feedback on my solution and then seeking approval from senior enterprise architects on the solution architecture within BiZZdesign HoriZZon. This helped with the entire process of seeking approval, tech rationalization at the same time, solution designing and the architecture review of the existing solution architecture and new solution architecture all at the same time.

Two things which are very important are the Enterprise Studio installed client version and BiZZdesign HoriZZon, which is the cloud version, which enables two capabilities. The other capability is the support for ArchiMate, the ArchiMate language that I used in modeling my solution designs. Also important is the ability to work in my separate space and keep my designs in a private folder until it is ready to be shared. Then sharing the drafts with peers for peer review feedback and incorporating feedback in real time and getting approval on the design in real time.

Previous methods are typical spreadsheet-oriented wherein spreadsheets get locked and multiple people are not able to consolidate and whether it is there's always a lack of being able to be on the latest version in real time. That was one advantage. ArchiMate was supported because that was the common language we all used. All architects used it, so it was easy to comprehend designs and provide peer review feedback for other solution architects on their designs because ArchiMate being the common language of modeling helped us comprehend each other's designs easily. This helped with the support that BiZZdesign HoriZZon has for ArchiMate.

Being able to fix the layout and there is an auto layout feature, being able to color code the components and highlighting the components always helps with the pictorial view and then being able to present in architecture review boards in a more comprehensive way. This helps with facilitation of the architecture design walkthroughs.

The major result was how the new development was not blocked waiting for the merger's tech rationalization completion. Architects across both legacy organizations were collaborating against one model instead of two conflicting ones. This helped getting on consensus sooner than later and getting a decision from management faster and being able to facilitate the entire inventory for the executive level faster.

I noticed that there were times when the cloud version would get stuck or was not able to load. There were issues with the login capability, and that was some time ago, a few months ago. I am not sure if it has been resolved, but we had to resort to having to install the client version which is Enterprise Studio to be able to get in and continue with the work. If those performance issues can be updated, that would make it seamless and much more comprehensive and easy to use.

There could be AI functionality that can be added which gets context and gives feedback prior to peer review to the solution architect. While there is already a capability built in that flags an unsupported tech which is not in the inventory, anything else that may give more concrete inputs to the solution architect before the peer review would help.

I used BiZZdesign HoriZZon for three years while I worked for a railroad client as a full-timer in the enterprise architecture team.

I can recall concretely that we were able to pinpoint the number of technology stacks that were being decommissioned or were on older versions much faster and be able to get on their renewal cycle early on, mitigating any risks with obsolete versions that could have happened. Being remote and all architects being in different geographic locations would not have been possible without this tool. Working on spreadsheets could have made the spreadsheet block or spreadsheet lock kind of an issue reoccur.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon proved to be stable over the three-period time frame that I used it in.

I found it fairly scalable over a team of 30 architects and over 100 applications. It did have performance issues with the cloud version when collaboration with other architects over a very complex solution design did get stuck. Enterprise Studio installed client helped there.

Customer service was really good. I was able to get in touch with the people very closely working on the product and its enhancements and was able to get support in real time and over one-on-one video meetings as well. That was really helpful.

Microsoft Excel was the common tool that was being used. There was no other more sophisticated tool that was in use.

Previous methods are typical spreadsheet-oriented wherein spreadsheets get locked and multiple people are not able to consolidate and there is always a lack of being able to be on the latest version in real time.

The real experience I have had and seeing the result of using it in a large team where a large scale enterprise architecture and merger is happening is a very unique experience I have had with BiZZdesign HoriZZon and it stands out for me.

This entire tool, the way it is designed, being able to provide peer review feedback on the solution architecture, being able to record the owner of applications, being able to record the custom fields that we can create as admins of BiZZdesign HoriZZon to allow for capturing more holistic information about the inventory. For example, application owners, application portfolio, application status and different types of owners, it is helpful in finding out who to reach out to when we have any question about the application in the inventory. Recording the rightful owners in all the respects, whether it is application owner or the solution architect that is responsible for that app or has the context and the projects that the tech has been used in. That mapping is key to connect to the people who will be able to answer any question related to that tech.

After that implementation, the way the architecture and inventory got streamlined, we did not need a really big architecture team. That helped the company overall save costs by repurposing the architects in different other departments where they were needed. That helped team streamline the resourcing and overall helped company save costs in enterprise architecture itself.

I would say start with organizing your inventory and set your objectives clearly on what you want out of the tool. For example, consolidating inventory or documenting inventory is where you can begin with and then proceed on to allowing one model, either BPMN or ArchiMate to be the common language to be spoken and standardize that process of documentation before you jump in to diagramming and asking architects to start modeling using one language.

I find this tool indeed very helpful. The experience I had was also attributed to the clarity that the architecture leadership had at my previous client. A lot of it also goes to management and the enterprise architecture executive leadership that had a clear objective in mind prior to provisioning the tool. I would rate this product and my overall experience with it as a nine out of ten.

As a consultant, my main use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon involves working with clients to determine their needs. Either they have certain tools like Spark or ARIS and want to migrate into BiZZdesign, or they don't have any tools at their end and want to adopt new tools to maintain their architecture. BiZZdesign HoriZZon is where this process comes into the picture.

A specific project where I used BiZZdesign HoriZZon involved a medical client who didn't have an architecture tool at their end. We went and tried to understand their infrastructure and their applications, and then we designed their application architecture, enterprise architecture, and brought their solutions into BiZZdesign.

Normally, I use BiZZdesign HoriZZon by suggesting my clients go with TOGAF and ArchiMate standards. This gives the cross-modeling and knowledge graph, highlighting the strengths, cloud-native web access alongside local designs. BiZZdesign helps to do that flawless implementation within it. We adopt the standard and also implement that in BiZZdesign, which helps the clients with their transformation projects or with their cloud migrations.

The best features that BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers are very flexible options for architects to tell the architecture and portfolio management story of any technology or even business process with custom query capability. The open-source integration and the flexible modeling language options are some of the key features. It also has strong vendor support, and the BPM diagrams can be linked with the ArchiMate artifacts.

Since we are implementing BiZZdesign HoriZZon from scratch for our customers, the flexible modeling language options and custom query capability help provide model depth and depth diagrams. It also provides enterprise functionalities which help us demonstrate the view for the customers or the clients. The clients are also looking for multiple views, which again is possible via BiZZdesign.

The positive impact that BiZZdesign HoriZZon has created for my organization is putting all the architecture details in one place and also providing the view according to the user type. I can come up with views separately for business or for higher leadership. Those are some of the benefits it brings in.

While I don't have anything to add about the features, there are some criticisms I often hear from our clients. A learning curve is one of them; there is a steep learning curve, particularly in BiZZdesign compared with other tools.

If I could improve BiZZdesign HoriZZon, I would address the steep learning curve, as much of its Enterprise Studio functionalities are not intuitive. That leads to low adoption, which is the frustration we have heard from our clients regarding their diagramming. The front end is also unpolished for non-technical business users, which puts everything in the hands of enterprise architects. It ends up being that enterprise architects need to own all of this because we are the ones who understand the diagrams. It is not very flexible for non-technical business users. The metadata integration is low, the data management maturity is also low, and it has limited data architecture support.

Regarding the needed improvements, adding functionality to automatically consume the metadata without writing any custom code would be helpful.

Regarding BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities, I believe the governance and security can still be enhanced because the current capabilities are very basic. It would be even better if it could be enhanced by connecting with the repos of an application and getting the details of those applications from the repo directly, which is quite possible in the current scenario with AI. Those are some of the things I think BiZZdesign should do in the future, such as connecting directly with the code and preparing metadata from the repo with AI, and based on that metadata, create everything automatically in the tool, building the relation between applications.

As for the accuracy and reliability of output from BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities, I would say the accuracy is around 60 to 70 percent, and there can still be an improvement. Since the accuracy is less, there is not much reliability, which means we need to cross-verify multiple times to ensure the data.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon for at least four to five years, working with a couple of my clients to implement the enterprise architecture standards in their company.

In my experience, BiZZdesign HoriZZon is quite stable and reliable. However, as I mentioned before, if the user experience can be improved, then the adoption rate will be better. Since the user experience is currently not good, the adoption is less.

Regarding scalability, typically there are only a few users, with a maximum of 20 to 30 users in an organization.

The customer support for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is good. We get the details we are looking for, and also the support team is helpful. I would rate the customer support of BiZZdesign HoriZZon an eight.

I have previously used different solutions before BiZZdesign HoriZZon, which involved setups using LeanIX and even a native ArchiMate setup for our clients.

I have seen a return on investment from using BiZZdesign HoriZZon, knowing that for the transformation projects which I have been doing, the return on investment typically takes a three to four to five-year cycle.

The ROI I've seen includes the time taken to create the reports or to understand the application being saved. That means we are able to get the required detail faster, specifically two to three times faster compared to the setup without BiZZdesign. It's obviously faster, which brings in financial benefits as well.

Before choosing BiZZdesign HoriZZon, we always evaluate multiple options and compare the tools based on customer requirements, presenting the pros and cons of each tool to our customers. Then, the clients make their choice based on their requirements.

My advice for others looking into using BiZZdesign HoriZZon is to first sort out their requirements and what they really want in the enterprise architecture platform. I also suggest them to compare their toolset and ensure that BiZZdesign has an easy connection between those toolsets, as those integrations are very important to automate the process. If they are using some tool and we need to do a lot of manual work to bring in that data into BiZZdesign, then it becomes a time waste. I always recommend preparing with their requirements upfront.

As I mentioned, if BiZZdesign can improve their AI capabilities and automate the tasks, it would be much better. I would give this product an overall rating of seven out of ten.

Our main use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is to maximize our architecture end-to-end. We have many approaches to make architectural drawings and to try and link these to our CMDB, and our architecture was a bit of a mess. So what we try to do here is to get rid of Draw.io, to get rid of creating in Excel and Word and Visio, and to try and put everything into one tool, to have our whole business capabilities shown in one place where I can click and I can open up and I can see the integrations, and I can see which applications are connected to each other. I can see what integrations are connected, what they are doing, who owns them, who's responsible, when the next update is available, etc. So for me, everything is in one place instead of being on SharePoint and in 100 different places.

We have daily meetings within the business to understand how things are working; when we bring a new project out or have a new application, I need to document that application. I need to understand who is using it, who is owning it, who is responsible for any changes, and what the integrations within that application are. Here, I can draw a box, I can put a user, an endpoint within that box, I can put the data object; for example, an application like Workday has finance, procurement, and an HCM module. I can break down the specific domains and objects within that application and then help to build that application outwards. If someone logs in and doesn't know the application, they can make one click to open another screen or click on that integration, which tells them all the information about that integration. Everything is in one place, linked to our CMDB, which contains all information about who owns it, who is the business manager responsible for it, who is the support team, and everything is there, including when it should be end of life or when it needs an upgrade or how much it costs and how much the licenses are. Everything is in one place, making our life within the business a lot easier without having to go to multiple departments and worrying about people on vacation.

The best features that BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers mainly include the ability to drill down into the application, to put the metrics within a specific application, and to list the number of integrations or the integration touchpoints. I can put in who owns the application and have everything in a single place. It benefits me when I need to know who pays the bill for this application or what the annual cost of licenses is because I can access everything within a few seconds once I log into the application. Everything being in one place really benefits me from an architectural perspective and also benefits the architectural, enterprise architecture team and the business.

I find ArchiMate to be a very good tool within BiZZdesign HoriZZon that helps us build end-to-end workflows and drill into the application. It is not just an application where you draw boxes and a few lines to data objects, but it also allows you to drill down and make sequence diagrams to show end-to-end workflows. I am able to have a single box on the screen, and when I click on it to say "Welcome to WHO," I have a list of my enterprise architecture, data architecture, and infrastructure architecture. I can click on and see my architectural principles and my business principles, allowing me to drill down through other features and understand everything about our architectural landscape and the applications required within that landscape from the front page.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is a great tool, but it has limitations. It is not really one-to-one for common applications like Visio, for example, and there are workarounds. We have written many workarounds to translate Visio into Excel and Excel into Visio for simple drawings, whereby we have thousands of drawings in our SharePoint applications that are written in Visio and we need those to be moved across. Instead of rewriting them, we have found ways to manipulate the way it is to move everything across. So, for me, it is a great tool that helps me and the business.

I see the online version as more popular than the downloadable version. I think better integrations to other tools, moving architecture from Visio and Enterprise Architect, could be made easier for migration into BiZZdesign HoriZZon. It is great if you do not have architecture tools, but if you are moving across from another, having everything in Visio requires a lot of work to recreate everything step-by-step because it may not be in the same format as BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

I rate it a nine because it is a great tool, but the user-friendliness regarding moving things across is a bit of a letdown. From a general perspective of the tool itself and what it does, it is second to none; I cannot fault the tool, only the process of not having the flexibility to allow migrations from other tools without help from someone in the organization.

I have been an architect or I have been within IT for the last 30 years.

From my experience, BiZZdesign HoriZZon is stable, and I have not encountered any problems with it.

I find BiZZdesign HoriZZon to be scalable for our needs, although I have not tested its limits beyond what I require at the moment.

Customer support has been great; issues we have encountered have typically been resolved within an hour, with responsive communications from the customer support team about fixes and workarounds.

I would rate customer support a perfect ten out of ten since any issues that arise have been addressed quickly, and solutions or timelines for fixes are communicated effectively.

As a consultant, I have used various solutions in the past, including Sparks, Visio, and ARIS from Software AG. My current need led me to adopt BiZZdesign HoriZZon after recommendations from within the United Nations, starting from scratch as we had nothing before.

I see a return on investment because it prevents people from creating or building new applications; BiZZdesign HoriZZon facilitates workflows. If workflows and integrations are present, they save the organization money by demonstrating what is already available, thus reducing the need to create duplications.

I did not directly handle the pricing, setup cost, and licensing details as it is managed from a government perspective. WHO has recently cut back, leading us to a basic service model with a smaller number of read-only licenses. From a cost perspective, it still seems quite high, but I do not primarily deal with those aspects.

Prior to selecting BiZZdesign HoriZZon, we did send out an RFP to other competitors, but this tool was the one we had in mind due to its recommendations within the United Nations, following the process required.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is deployed as a SaaS solution in the public cloud, and while there are users with the downloaded version on their machines, it is not the old-fashioned data center type. I sign in via a data center located in Frankfurt, but whether it is public or private, I am not sure.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is predominantly hosted on AWS, and we log in to it as a SaaS service on AWS, which is also based in Frankfurt.

We did not purchase BiZZdesign HoriZZon through the AWS Marketplace; instead, we bought it through the UN Marketplace. Other people within the UN were using it, and we received preferential rates by utilizing a tool already proven within the United Nations.

We build all regulatory and compliance principles within BiZZdesign HoriZZon. We have pages for regulations and compliance, listing compliance within and linking each regulation to the application. Everything is linked to understand what can be done or how the application complies. In Europe, we adhere to GDPR regulations, which help us mask sensitive data within the organization, and for audits, everything is displayed and described within BiZZdesign HoriZZon, aiding users in understanding their limitations for specific applications or integrations.

Collaboration between different teams is limited within our organization because we have a limited user base, with around 20 main applications and each application owner having access to BiZZdesign HoriZZon to create their own architectural models. While collaboration exists between core applications, challenges arise when people leave or retire since applications may not be handed over appropriately.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon helps us really understand existing IT systems; most have been replaced or integrated into the new landscape. It provides better visibility on what applications are owned by specific business units, which is especially beneficial during audits. The tool allows users to search for applications and confirm their existence, ensuring clarity on what is being used.

We utilize ArchiMate for BPM, allowing business owners to build end-to-end workflows, which aids our support teams in recognizing blockages in different business processes and integrations. It has substantially aided us from a support perspective by limiting downtime, where previously everything was documented and less accessible.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon allows us to align IT and business strategy effectively. It helps us understand what applications are out there and what functionality they have, so if someone wants to bring in a new application or requirement, they can search and find that the data already exists or can be integrated, saving both time and resources.

We do not use BiZZdesign HoriZZon for change management; we have specific tools for that. From a versioning perspective, we are able to list the versions of applications, but it is typically not for change management, although it keeps our architectural modeling up to date with the latest architectural drawings.

I think it makes life easier within the organization; everything is in one place, allowing people to have read-only access to understand certain integrations or parts of the business. They can go in and see if an integration or application is available, which makes life a lot easier. People do not have to create a new application or separate integrations; they can pick something out of the catalog and utilize something already there by understanding who the owner of that integration or application is.

It is difficult to distinguish metrics here, but I would say there have been a lot of cost savings involved by using the tool to better identify what we have within our architectural landscape. In the past, someone would say they need a small application that can do this and they need an integration, and they would put an RFP out, leading to high costs. Now they can go in up front and see the integration with the data is there and the application can do what they need. This saves a lot of money for the future and is very important from an organizational perspective.

I see BiZZdesign HoriZZon as a good tool for the future and a market leader among other tools. Many architectural tools have failed to keep up with updates, but BiZZdesign continues to demonstrate how things should be progressing; I find it highly scalable and recommend it.

I would give BiZZdesign HoriZZon a nine out of ten.

My main use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is setting up and implementing the platform together with Enterprise Studio and laying down the blueprint for how to conduct enterprise architecture with different customers.

A specific example of how I implemented BiZZdesign HoriZZon for a customer is my work with DSB, where I set up BiZZdesign HoriZZon for building an enterprise architecture repository for the transition program between the Danish rail infrastructure company called BaneDanmark and DSB.

I have worked with BiZZdesign HoriZZon for multiple customers, and one project I would like to highlight is what we did with Maersk Line. That was a huge investment from Maersk Line about eight or nine years ago, and it provided huge benefits as they advanced their enterprise architecture.

The best features BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers include the ability to expose the content of the repository to the entire corporation. Previously, that was only allowed or seen from a client-based perspective with Enterprise Studio, but with BiZZdesign HoriZZon, the models and the repository are exposable to the entire corporation, which I feel is the best and most crucial feature within BiZZdesign HoriZZon platform.

Exposing the repository content to the whole corporation has changed the way people work or collaborate by giving enterprise architects the ability to model and also enabling business owners to have the models approved because they understand the foundations for modeling in either ArchiMate, BPMN, or other modeling features. The approval workflow is definitely one of the areas where I have benefited the most for my past customers.

Another great feature of BiZZdesign HoriZZon is the ability to build Kibana dashboards from the integration between BiZZdesign Enterprise Studio and BiZZdesign HoriZZon platform, allowing for further exposure and insights.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon has positively impacted my organization and my clients' organizations by providing a common language between architects, solution architects, infrastructure architects, and the entire corporation so that we can change and understand our actions collaboratively.

The common language within BiZZdesign HoriZZon has led to better outcomes by allowing us to address the core issues customers face. I assist by capturing tricky challenges into the repository and solving them in a structured, systematic way.

I think BiZZdesign HoriZZon could be improved by adding AI capabilities and enhancing data capture methods, as well as bridging the gap between solution architects and enterprise architects with specific tooling for sorting APIs and integrating AI patterns.

Regarding the needed improvements, I see that BiZZdesign is investing significantly in user experience to cater to users with different roles, but the complexity of the tool makes maintaining usability challenging.

I believe I have covered the key points regarding improvements needed for BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon for a little more than ten years. Before BiZZdesign HoriZZon was part of the product line, I have been using the Enterprise Studio as well.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon has become more stable after they rewrote the kernel, as there were many more issues with the old Enterprise Studio product line.

In terms of scalability, we have had no issues adding more employees to BiZZdesign HoriZZon solution. While it is not the fastest in terms of performance, it is workable and requires reasonable patience.

I find BiZZdesign's customer support to be very good as they normally answer questions on a daily basis, sometimes within hours.

I would rate the customer support as an eight because they are doing a pretty good job.

With DSB, I have not previously used a different solution. However, I have used other enterprise architecting tools such as Qualiware for different customers.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon was purchased directly with BiZZdesign as a tender rather than through the AWS Marketplace.

I think DSB has not saved specific time or money, but they have definitely improved the quality and their ability to make better decisions based on data within the repository.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing indicates that there were some limitations regarding costs for public companies, as DSB had issues with pricing and licenses during the first tender round about four years ago.

Before choosing BiZZdesign HoriZZon, DSB was considering other options, such as Qualiware, Meta, which is now part of BiZZdesign, and the Norwegian product Ardoq, but they chose BiZZdesign HoriZZon for its open standards for modeling, including ArchiMate, BPMN, and UML standards.

I would rate BiZZdesign HoriZZon an eight on a scale of one to ten as I consider it a pretty good tool.

I choose to rate it an eight because there is always room for improvement, but compared to other competitors, BiZZdesign's functionality and product development are commendable, which is also reflected in the long-term assessments we have had with Gartner and the Magic Quadrant.

The governance and security of BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities have improved significantly since its introduction about ten years ago, although there may still be some lingering issues. Overall, most customers are satisfied with the current feature set.

I have not personally worked much with BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capability at DSB yet, so I cannot comment on its accuracy and reliability of output.

My advice to others looking into using BiZZdesign HoriZZon is to think big but implement on a small scale first, addressing key problems in the organization before expanding the implementation to the entire product line.

My overall review rating for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is eight.

We usually go for ArchiMate, and using that language, we do the business process engineering. We also create a capability map and heat map there. We also do the application portfolio management there.

The business process one is the most important one because in one of my last experiences, we had more than 700 business processes and we need to optimize them as time passes because they become obsolete. Highlighting the current flows, and then creating the target flows, and then having the discrepancies highlighted, and then the removal of those discrepancies by minimizing the hops of APIs is critical. In that sense, BiZZdesign HoriZZon really helped us a lot.

The heat map is one of the best features that BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers.

It's really valuable because if I am driving an architecture for a big financial institution which has HR, which has IT, which has finance, accounting, wealth, treasury, et cetera, et cetera, capital markets. In that sense, the heat map highlights for me the applications and the business portfolios that are being catered by those applications in that specific domain. This really helps a lot in creating banking as a landscape or bank on a page.

Having a master ERP, a capability management tool, a strategy management tool, or an enterprise architecture tool to highlight where the direction of the organization is as per TOGAF, implementing the ADM cycle, going from the vision to the stakeholder management and then going down distributing those opportunities into projects, and then doing a proper governance, is essential. BiZZdesign HoriZZon does all of the work that is required. Establishing the milestones and then achieving them is really helpful using BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

Decision-making has absolutely improved. I have created a scoring table to have the KPIs being achieved that this application is scoring this much or not, what is the turnaround time, what is the efficiency rate, what is the ratio to the job fulfillment, et cetera, et cetera. It's helping me right now in doing that.

The UI/UX of BiZZdesign HoriZZon can be improved. The capabilities that it offers are great.

There should be a good drag-and-drop feature. There is currently a feature of drag-and-drop, but that's not very efficient. There should also be an integration of an AI library that can help in getting the reference models from the internet and can compare it on the runtime. The third improvement which I'm going to recommend is having a good UI/UX.

The UI/UX is an area for improvement. The intelligent option that is going to concatenate directly the connections to the reference models and libraries present on the internet would be beneficial. A better response rate would also help. The frame, the labeling, the text, everything, they are scattered. They are not very well designed, according to me.

There can be a containerization model. You can have the reference models being captured in your different library. Whenever a customer comes to you with that feature enabling request, you can enable that feature and you can give them the different 700, 600 options that these are the closest options in our local LLM without sharing their data to the internet. The AI and the governance can be done in a much better way.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon for the last six years.

This is a very fundamental question in getting things up and running. All of the banks, and all of the agencies that are my clients, they are really happy with the design, from the results provided by it, and 100% they are relying on the results because they have been using it for years now. I know organizations that are relying totally on it. The cost that we spend on each application procurement, the cost that we spend on the workdays or the work breakdown for each application development at the custom cycle, the procurement of things, the capability model, the integration model, the application landscape, they are all very well used by the organization and the decision-makers.

Most of them in Saudi and UAE have on-premises, but two of my clients, one is a bank and one is a tax agency, they are using the hybrid cloud model.

They purchased BiZZdesign HoriZZon through a local agency called Jodain.

I would be recommending using the BPM function. I would be recommending using the application portfolio function. I would be recommending that having been doing in the past, they should practice all of the use cases as per ArchiMate. I think they will be good to go. My overall rating for this product is 7 out of 10.

I am in charge of the application portfolio of the HR department, so I use BiZZdesign HoriZZon every day to check and get details about applications. I have many use cases, and I use it on a daily basis. It is not just one use case, but rather many use cases, and it is truly a tool that is very important and relevant for my role.

The best feature of BiZZdesign HoriZZon is the AI feature. I love when I click on a button and it gives me a summary of the description of the application, so it is very quick and very user friendly.

The AI summary feature helps me a lot because I am in charge of an application portfolio with around 70 applications. When someone asks me a question about a specific application, it is very quick for me to use this feature. It gives me exactly a summary, and I know exactly what the role of this application is, making it easier for me to respond back quickly.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon has positively impacted my organization because for the IT team and for the architecture team, it is a tool that is very important to document all the applications that we have. We have more than 2,000 applications in the organization where I work. If I need to find information about an application from another department, I go directly to BiZZdesign HoriZZon and I am able to find all the details and features of the application that I am looking for. I am able to have all the relevant contacts, so I am able to reach out to them directly, and it is very useful.

The main outcome is that we have reliable documentation instead of having information in emails or somewhere else. We have a centralized place where all the information is, and it is easier for the whole organization to find information. When we document an application on BiZZdesign HoriZZon, we are able to follow the life cycle of the application to ensure that the application has good health from both a technical standpoint and a business standpoint. The main outcome is that we have centralized documentation, and it is reliable. We try to update the information directly on BiZZdesign HoriZZon as soon as we have changes.

To improve BiZZdesign HoriZZon, I would say performance is crucial. We have had very bad experiences with performance over the years. It takes a lot of time, but I would say when I use the web browser, it is working well. The performance issue is more with BiZZdesign Enterprise Studio, where we have main issues. I know that the IT team does their best to improve performance, but it is still not as good as we were hoping.

Regarding BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities, I am not concerned about governance and security. The application has been reviewed during the deployment by the IT team and the security team, so I do not see any issue regarding security or governance. The AI feature only provides a summary of information that is already in BiZZdesign HoriZZon and is just used for understanding purposes, so I do not see any concern regarding governance.

Regarding the accuracy and reliability of output from BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities, it is not always accurate, so that is why I read the summary. It is based on the information that is already in BiZZdesign HoriZZon, and sometimes the information is not up to date. Any AI solution requires that we keep a human eye on it and challenge the results that we have.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon since 2019 or 2020, so it has been around five years.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is stable and works well.

The scalability of BiZZdesign HoriZZon is good. There are many attributes, so we can adapt the solution to our reality and environment.

I have never had to call customer support for BiZZdesign HoriZZon. We have an IT team that supports the application, so if there is an issue, I reach out to them directly.

I previously used Casewise, and Casewise was not user friendly. We did not like this solution, which is why we decided to switch to BiZZdesign HoriZZon because it is a solution that is more aligned with best practices.

I am not in charge of pricing and licensing, so I am just a user and not responsible for deploying the solution or communicating with the provider. I am a user of the solution and also a super user, so I train people to use this solution.

It is hard for me to have metrics regarding the return on investment from BiZZdesign HoriZZon. As I said, I am just a user, so from my standpoint, I see an improvement and find the solution useful, but I do not have any other metrics.

I was not in charge of the RFP or choosing the solution for BiZZdesign HoriZZon, so I was just a user and I do not know if the other members of the IT team evaluated other solutions. I assume they may have, but I do not know which ones.

The main outcome is that we have reliable documentation instead of having information in emails or somewhere else. We have a centralized place where all the information is, and it is easier for the whole organization to find information. When we document an application on BiZZdesign HoriZZon, we are able to follow the life cycle of the application to ensure that the application has good health from both a technical standpoint and a business standpoint. The main outcome is that we have centralized documentation, and it is reliable. We try to update the information directly on BiZZdesign HoriZZon as soon as we have changes. I would rate my overall experience with BiZZdesign HoriZZon as an 8.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is primarily used as a repository for Enterprise Architecture and is also utilized in broad portfolio management including project management and other applications, but the main focus is on implementing the EA and running the ADM using the tool.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon stands out from other solutions on the market due to its uniqueness in conformance with the standard. Once the standard has been updated, this tool is the first to follow up or commit to the new standard. BiZZdesign HoriZZon is ranked on top in conformance, while iServer follows that, but in terms of integration, iServer can fulfill the requirement for any company requiring implementation faster and with a significant amount of cost reduction because it is easy to integrate from built-in capabilities.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon's visual technologies and visual techniques help organizations make data-driven decisions by providing the required views for key stakeholders, including heat maps, road maps, project implementation, and other visualizations. With smooth integration, operational data can be integrated with the design or architecture, allowing managers, CIOs, and other operational managers in IT to see how their design performs in real-life operations. This can be viewed on the dashboard, but it requires an enormous amount of effort to integrate operational data and IT service management data into the EA repository.

The ArchiMate modeling language features with BiZZdesign HoriZZon help in representing complex architectures, as it cannot simplify to a certain extent. It is not meant to provide a detailed design specification in the way that UML does. Instead, it provides a high-level design guideline and ensures that different key stakeholders can understand what will be done in terms of changing the architecture or building a new system and defining the target architecture.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon needs to publish its integration scenarios and integration points with other digital transformation tools such as IT service management, risk management, asset management, customer service, and ERP. The company should first build the scenario and define its integration points in business and technology to make customers more confident about having a complete solution. Currently, there is a challenge with the company to offer transparent and documented integration. They offer five integration points at a fixed price, but other things come at additional costs. However, specific information about what those additional items are, what the scenarios entail, what the schemas are, what the workflows include, and what the application integration involves is not provided. The learning portal does not include integration documentation at a high level or in detail. The portal does have comprehensive resources explaining how to make their website, how to create dashboards, and how to publish EA content, which are clear. The high-end tool on the laptop is also explained in detail, covering elements, relations, and everything as standard.

I have been familiar with BiZZdesign HoriZZon for three years and have been working with it for three years.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon's technical support has presented challenges, as extra fees are required and the process is not straightforward. In terms of pricing practices, many cases have been observed where prices outside the region are less than what is offered here. Based on experience with support and related factors, I cannot give more than a seven; it is an average rating and not something that is truly satisfactory.

I do not participate in the implementation personally in the deployment process as a solution architect, but rather as an Enterprise Architecture lead, providing requirements to the solution architect and technical team for deployment. Approximately five people from my side take part in the deployment process.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon's reporting and dashboard functionalities are good and very good; they compete well with other solutions and are simpler, but they have scripting and programming tools to produce the reports needed.

The impact of BiZZdesign HoriZZon's scenario simulation on risk management strategies is that this tool is very useful. It can help in analyzing and reducing risk and optimizing processes.

Regarding licensing costs, there is dissatisfaction. The price is very high.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon's collaboration capabilities align stakeholders in the organization, as collaboration needs integration. Integration is weak, but collaboration is present in terms of building views for different stakeholders and facilitating communication between different levels of concerns among people across knowledge, fields, and domains. ArchiMate exists for this reason, and BiZZdesign HoriZZon is effective in this collaboration by presenting the right views for the targeted concerned people and stakeholders.

From experience, the deployment process for BiZZdesign HoriZZon takes on average one month for complete commissioning, with one week for implementation, but gathering information may require more time. I give this product an overall rating of eight out of ten.

A quick specific example of how I use it for enterprise or solution architecture is creating an overview of processes using business process notation language.

I also handle showing what technology is used in doing business processes and the supporting technology, and seeing the consequences of technology choices coming ahead, such as integrations, typical data we need to have available, and the quality of data and so forth.

The analysis in BiZZdesign HoriZZon works for me through a coloring view that is very simple and straightforward, which doesn't feel too analytical, but is still very powerful. It shows how different applications support the same process and forces the user, for instance, to use multiple applications at the same time.

I haven't observed a significant positive impact of BiZZdesign HoriZZon on my organization, and it's difficult to point that out.

I think that BiZZdesign is on point when it comes to usability as a modeling tool and from an enterprise architecture tool, but engaging business users with easier usability through an easier interface would be beneficial. However, I understand that Horizon, the portal, is what they are doing, and I recognize that is the business for the future. Therefore, I cannot say that they need to improve that, other than what they are already doing.

I do not think there are any other improvements needed for BiZZdesign HoriZZon that I haven't mentioned.

My main use case for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is for enterprise architecture and capability mapping.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is a fantastic tool for enterprise architecture and capability mapping that helps map capabilities by turning complex engineering data into clear design documents, which is very important for cross-functional alignment and onboarding teams so they can onboard faster and it acts as a single source of truth.

It helps me collaborate with business stakeholders, as the architectural sign-offs are built on top of the design in BiZZdesign HoriZZon, articulating the structure in transparent and well-structured components. It explains every business use case flow and how it transfers workflows in technical data design, with the data flowing well, making those use cases well explained with the help of BiZZdesign HoriZZon.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon offers a good learning curve for onboarding new team members, with features such as dynamic integration, automated data pipelines, and manual configuration, which are really helpful. It cuts down a lot of engineering rework, definitely improves system clarity, has a simplified UI for non-architectural users, and includes native AI features that assist with requirement mapping and text generation, making it a massive time-saver.

The tool definitely improves clarity and cuts down engineering rework, and these benefits are transparent to non-architecture teams as well, meaning that you do not need to be technically architecturally strong to understand the documents generated by BiZZdesign HoriZZon, which is very important as it saves a lot of time.

The major advantage of BiZZdesign HoriZZon in my organization is that it fosters collaboration, acting as a single source of truth that aligns cross-functional teams, allows us to ask questions, refine requirements, and modify underlying data pipelines when we are not meeting the enterprise policies or strategies. This modification is very easy to achieve. Occasionally, it may come across as technical, but being over-technical ensures we remain future-proof with technological advancements, including AI features and a simplified UI that is easier for non-technical stakeholders.

BiZZdesign HoriZZon is a massive time-saver, offering automated requirements mapping and text generation, which are fantastic features. Over time, as we receive new versions and updates, I expect more automated data pipelines and AI features that will further aid in transparency, saving time and costs in enterprise architecture tool implementations and designs, leading us to a new level of excellence.

While the interface can feel overly technical at times, making it tough for casual business stakeholders to navigate, I believe proper training and going through learning decks or user guides would significantly help these stakeholders since they are not the primary users.

The learning curve for BiZZdesign HoriZZon is quite steep as the interface can feel overly technical, making navigation tough for casual business stakeholders. Setting up dynamic integrations and automated data pipelines also takes considerable time due to the significant manual configuration required upfront.

Keeping documentation updated is essential, and enhancing user guide sections for specific components would assist users who find navigation challenging. Having essential guides in the form of tooltips or starting guides when opening the tool would be beneficial. These basic improvements, along with gamification, would enhance user-friendliness and greatly assist non-technical users, including business stakeholders, product managers, and DevOps engineers, who are connected and vital to the architecture team.

I have been using BiZZdesign HoriZZon for more than five years.

My advice for others considering using BiZZdesign HoriZZon is that it saves a lot of time, is user-friendly, has a simplified UI, and is an excellent tool for collaborating with business stakeholders and architectural teams, acting as a basis for obtaining sign-offs and allowing for modifications or refinements to designs, making design the backbone of technical architecture.

Concerning BiZZdesign HoriZZon's AI capabilities, governance, and security, I believe that security is non-negotiable at the enterprise level, requiring safeguards against malware attacks and multi-factor authentication, with IM access measures effectively enforced at every data pipeline and integration point. We are actively providing various options for this, which are immensely helpful for automated configurations, ensuring we can rely on it and remain foolproof against any type of technical audits, including regulatory security compliance.

The issue of hallucination is significant when it comes to the accuracy and reliability of AI output. The input must be curated and align with enterprise standards. When we focus on improving correct input data, the model tends to provide accurate output. However, we cannot rely solely on AI without manual reviews or touchpoints on the design and output. I believe conducting multiple UATs or checks and using sample data will help us establish a threshold for acceptable results, and if we drop below that threshold, we can then address improvements to eliminate hallucinations. Regular evaluation of RAG pipelines should also be included as part of our routine.

I have shared many areas of improvement as well as my thoughts and suggestions, so please work on those as it would really help elevate your tool to the next level. I have given this review a rating of nine out of ten.