Global Data Excellence DEMS vs erwin Data Intelligence comparison

Quest Software and Global Data Excellence are both solutions in the Data Governance category. Quest Software is ranked #16 with an average rating of 8.0, while Global Data Excellence is ranked #41. Quest Software holds a 1.9% mindshare in DG, compared to Global Data Excellence’s 0.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Quest Software users are willing to recommend the solution.

erwin Data Intelligence

Read 19 erwin Data Intelligence reviews

2,788 Views
2,732 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Global Data Excellence DEMS

Read 2 Global Data Excellence DEMS reviews

300 Views
300 Comparison Views

0% willing to recommend

erwin Data Intelligence

Global Data Excellence DEMS

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 23, 2025

Global Data Excellence DEMS and erwin Data Intelligence are competing in the data management and governance space. erwin Data Intelligence seems to have the upper hand due to its robust feature set, although Global Data Excellence DEMS offers favorable pricing and support benefits.

Features: Global Data Excellence DEMS focuses on semantic modeling and automation capabilities, which streamline data governance. erwin Data Intelligence provides comprehensive data lineage and impact analysis features, offering a clearer data flow overview and advanced analytics tools that enhance its value proposition.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Global Data Excellence DEMS boasts a straightforward deployment process with responsive customer service. erwin Data Intelligence offers flexible deployment models that adapt to various organizational needs, although it may present a steeper learning curve. Its support is reliable but can be less immediate than DEMS.

Pricing and ROI: Global Data Excellence DEMS presents competitive setup costs, providing a budget-friendly option with quicker ROI for small to medium enterprises. erwin Data Intelligence, although requiring a higher initial investment, promises significant long-term ROI through its versatile features and strong analytics capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Global Data Excellence DEMS vs. erwin Data Intelligence Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Global Data Excellence DEMS vs. erwin Data Intelligence

December 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

erwin Data Intelligence

Ranking in Data Governance

16th

Average Rating

8.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

AI Governance (2nd)

Global Data Excellence DEMS

Ranking in Data Governance

41st

Average Rating

0.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Data Governance category, the mindshare of erwin Data Intelligence is 1.9%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Global Data Excellence DEMS is 0.7%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Data Governance Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
erwin Data Intelligence	1.9%
Global Data Excellence DEMS	0.7%
Other	97.4%

Data Governance

Featured Reviews

Jog Raj

Senior Consultant at a computer software company with 11-50 employees

Automated lineage and business glossaries have improved data understanding and collaboration

I am open to answering a few questions about erwin Data Intelligence and sharing my opinion about the product. Regarding the analytic part of the product, I find it very interesting that erwin Data Intelligence has its own inbuilt reporting toolset, with a new version coming out in January that will be AI-powered. This means you will be able to write analytical reports and questions based on the metadata and data lineage, making it more powerful than the current version, as AI will assist in creating those reports and performing analysis on the metadata. I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long. Creating a data catalog and developing data lineage takes significant time, and I expect that AI will help accelerate the process of creating data products by streamlining the steps involved. I can recommend erwin Data Intelligence to other users. I would rate this review as an eight out of ten overall.

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Alejandro Subia

General Manager at Datia

Great language features allow users to interact with the solution in their own language, and ROI can be seen within weeks

The initial setup is completely straightforward and not complex at all. The system is not invasive. It connects directly through your agents to your database. There's no integration or migration process needed, and it's very simple. The time to go live is minimum. You can have it running in two weeks. Since it's a solution for corporate governance, you need to have a data governance steering committee that's going to drive the project in the organization. One of the key benefits of the solution is that it's directly for the user, so you don't need anyone else for setup but the real user, the person that wants to get the best out of their data. You start with the business owner, and they define their business needs. They see what data you need, how you're going to use it, and what's going to be corrected. Then you start playing the data stewards, and that's all that you need.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The interface is easy to use. I also like Erwin's automatic data classification and data quality checks."

"The data mapping manager is the most valuable feature."

"We always know where our data is, and anybody can look that up, whether they're a business person who doesn't know anything about Informatica, or a developer who knows everything about creating data movement jobs in Informatica, but who does not understand the business terminology or the data that is being used in the tool."

"It is a central place for everybody to start any ETL data pipeline builds. This tool is being heavily used, plus it's heavily integrated with all the ETL data pipeline design and build processes. Nobody can bypass these processes and do something without going through this tool."

"The data management is, obviously, key in understanding where the data is and what the data is. And the governance can be done at multiple levels. You have the governance of the code sets versus the governance of the business terms and the definitions of those business terms. You have the governance of the business data models and how those business data models are driving the physical implementation of the actual databases. And, of course, you have the governance of the mapping to make sure that source-to-target mapping is done and is being shared across the company."

"Data Intelligence has provided more profound insights into legacy data movements, lineages, and definitions in the short term. We have linked three critical layers of data, providing us with an end-to-end lineage at the column level."

"Mind map... is a really good feature because it is very helpful in seeing which column's tables are related. Also, you can flag them with "sensitive data" and other indicators. You can also customize your own features for the mind map. That was another very robust feature."

"The biggest benefit with erwin DI is that I have a single source of truth that I can send anybody to. If anybody doesn't know the answer we can go back to it. Just having a central location of business rules is good."

More erwin Data Intelligence pros

"The most valuable feature is the semantic linguistic artificial intelligence that allows the user to have contact with the system in their natural language."

"It is not only a software solution. It is also based on a direct policy. You get a methodology for data governance and the solution that supports this methodology, which makes things much easier. In addition, this is the only solution right now in the market that has an approach directly directed to the value. By value, I am referring to a tangible value raising money. It has an aspect that is called governed by value. We only focus on the data that is actually bringing a monetary value to your organization or your business process. It is so much simpler working around this system. It has a lot of intelligence embedded in it, and it does a lot of things automatically. It just hooks on to your virtual databases, and you are ready to go in hours. It is an all-in-one solution in which you get data governance, data quality, business transformation, and business excellence."

Cons

"The SDK behind this entire product needs improvement. The company really should focus more on this because we were finding some inconsistencies on the LDK level. Everything worked fine from the UI perspective, but when we started doing some deep automation scripts going through multiple API calls inside the tool, then only some pieces of it work or it would not return the exact data it was supposed to do."

"Really huge datasets, where the logical names or the lexicons weren't groomed or maintained well, were the only area where it really had room for improvement. A huge data set would cause erwin to crash. If there were half a million or 1 million tables, erwin would hang."

"We still need another layer of data quality assessments on the source to see if it is sending us the wrong data or if there are some issues with the source data. For those things, we need a rule-based data quality assessment or scoring where we can assess tools or other technology stacks. We need to be able to leverage where the business comes in, defining some business rules and have the ability to execute those rules, then score the data quality of all those attributes. Data quality is definitely not what we are leveraging from this tool, as of today."

"I find that the time taken to realize value from erwin Data Intelligence can be quite long."

"Everything about Data Intelligence is complex. Though we've used the tool for five years, we're still only using about 30 to 40 percent of its capabilities. It would be helpful if we could customize and simplify the user interface because there are so many redundant things."

"One big improvement we would like to see would be the workflow integration of codeset mapping with the erwin source to target mapping. That's a bit clunky for us. The two often seem to be in conflict with one another. Codeset mappings that are used within the source to target mappings are difficult to manage because they get locked."

"The fact that I sometimes have to go in and out of different applications, even though it's all part of the whole erwin suite, perhaps means it could be architected a little bit better. I think they do have some ideas for improvements there."

"There is room for improvement with the data cataloging capability. Right now, there is a list of a lot of sources that they can catalog, or they can create metadata upon, but if they can add more then that would be a good plus for this tool."

More erwin Data Intelligence cons

"Its interface could be simpler. Sometimes, you need to go through many clicks in order to find something in the software. You need to move from one thing to another to find something."

"It could be nice to have a little update on the menu to get it more up-to-date with current trends and to make it pop out more when you visit the site."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The whole suite, not just the DI but the modeling software, the harvester, Mapping Manager — everything we have — is about $100,000 a year for our renewals. That works out to each module being something like $8,000 to $10,000."

"erwin was at a good price. The federal government wouldn't buy something if the pricing wasn't good."

"We operate on a yearly subscription and because it is an enterprise license we only have one. It is not dependent on the number of users."

"Smart Data Connectors have some costs, and then there are user-based licenses. We spend roughly $150,000 per year on the solution. It is a yearly subscription license that basically includes the cost for Smart Data Connectors and user-based licenses. We have around 30 data stewards who maintain definitions, and then we have five IT users who basically maintain the overall solution. It is not a SaaS kind of operation, and there is an infrastructure cost to host this solution, which is our regular AWS hosting cost."

"erwin's pricing was cheaper than its competitors."

"There is an additional fee for the server maintenance."

"You buy a seat license for your portal. We have 100 seats for the portal, then you buy just the development licenses for the people who are going to put the data in."

"erwin is cheaper than other solutions and this should appeal to other buyers. It has a good price tag."

More erwin Data Intelligence pricing and cost advice

"This is the only company that I've worked with that has a very good way of thinking and placing itself in the buyer's shoes. They offer a pretty competitive price. They understand that the market is different in our economy for different clients, which makes it easier to get the products into the market. If needed, they are pretty open to adjusting the price on the case-by-case scenario. They understand the Latin American market. This is something that has been impossible with other companies or data governance care providers. The prices were much higher for these companies, and they don't understand our economy and market. There are a lot of local taxes that we pay locally to get any solution down here. To give you an idea, there is more or less a 60% increase in the price of any product that comes to Ecuador."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

26%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Government

Insurance Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	14

No data available

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

The dashboard in erwin Data Intelligence is customizable, and you can easily create different views. However, you are confined to the widgets that are already provided, so the customization is some...

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What is your primary use case for erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

erwin Data Intelligence serves two primary use cases: one is where people use it as a data catalog, which is one of the main ones, and the other is for traceability and lineage.

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What advice do you have for others considering erwin Data Intelligence by Quest?

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Comparisons

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Compared 27% of the time

Microsoft Purview Data Governance vs erwin Data Intelligence

Compared 23% of the time

Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) vs erwin Data Intelligence

Compared 11% of the time

Alation Data Catalog vs erwin Data Intelligence

Compared 11% of the time

Ataccama ONE Platform vs erwin Data Intelligence

Compared 5% of the time

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Ataccama ONE Platform vs Global Data Excellence DEMS

Compared 100% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

erwin Data Intelligence

January 2026

Download erwin Data Intelligence product report

Buyer's Guide

Data Governance

December 2025

Download Global Data Excellence DEMS product report

Also Known As

erwin DG, erwin Data Governance

No data available

Overview

Erwin Data Intelligence drives automation, supports data catalog and literacy, and offers Smart Data Connectors for efficient metadata handling. Its customization flexibility and integration facilitate enhanced data governance, visualization, analysis, and compliance.

Erwin Data Intelligence offers automation scripts that accelerate development, integrated data cataloging, data profiling, and lineage analysis to streamline information management. Users appreciate its capability in metadata harvesting, code engineering, and infrastructure integration. The tool provides flexibility to enhance governance and data visualization. While it performs well, users have noted challenges with API robustness and interface complexity, and there are opportunities to improve workflow integration, AI features, and large dataset handling. Companies rely on it for metadata management, automation of metadata mappings, and data governance to support compliance and literacy.

What are the main features of Erwin Data Intelligence?

Automation Scripts: Speeds up development processes through powerful scripts.
Data Catalog: Supports comprehensive data mapping and profiles for better analysis.
Smart Data Connectors: Efficiently handles code engineering and metadata harvesting.
Customization Flexibility: Adapts to existing infrastructure for seamless integration.
Comprehensive Visualization: Empowers data visualization and standardization processes.

What benefits and ROI can users expect?

Increased Development Speed: Automation scripts notably enhance development efficiency.
Improved Data Governance: Streamlines processes, supporting compliance and business definitions.
Effective Integration: Seamlessly fits with ETL tools and existing workflows.
Enhanced Data Literacy: Supports data literacy initiatives with robust cataloging features.
Comprehensive Impact Analysis: Facilitates thorough analysis for informed decision-making.

In industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, organizations implement Erwin Data Intelligence for efficient metadata management and governance. It assists in automating lineage and mapping, supporting ETL procedures while enhancing compliance and data literacy efforts. Its flexibility and integration support create valuable data insights and governance improvements.

Quest Software

The Data Excellence Management System© (DEMS) is a complete integrated cloud-based system (internal or external) that enables organizations to accelerate the maximization of the business value of organization’ strategies and transactions while minimizing operational costs. It provides a factual value-driven collaboration that engages end-users from all levels in the ultimate value creation.

DEMS fits the maturity of your organization functions and resources. It establishes accountability and responsibility throughout the organizational structure and links the data assets to the value flows to predicatively govern business strategies.

Global Data Excellence

Sample Customers

Oracle, Infosys, GSK, Toyota Motor Sales, HSBC

Givaudan, Firmenich, Bacardi, Manitowoc, Romande Energie, Noveli, BNP Paribas, Michelin, IUCN

Buyer's Guide

Global Data Excellence DEMS vs. erwin Data Intelligence

December 2025

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