erwin Data Modeler by Quest vs iServer comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between erwin Data Modeler by Quest and iServer based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Enterprise Architecture Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed erwin Data Modeler by Quest vs. iServer Report (Updated: March 2024).
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"We can create mappings in erwin and possibly data dictionaries.""It has centralized storage so that a data model can be shared by different teams.""There is absolutely no problem with the stability.""When you're getting down to the database level, where you're building a design and you're creating DDL out of it, or you're going in the other direction where you're reaching into system catalogs and bringing things back, that starts to really require specialization. Visio isn't going to reverse-engineer that for you. Those features in erwin are valuable.""Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.""The product allows us to reuse entities and attributes.""It supports a wide variety of databases, including the latest ones. We have chosen to go for a cloud-based database, and it supports that, which is very useful.""The solution's ability to compare and synchronize data sources with data models is fantastic. We use it for that on a regular basis to make sure that changes haven't been made to the database outside of the modeling process. I can take existing databases and reverse engineer them and understand their structure within 15 minutes. If I didn't have Data Modeler it would take hours. It increases our productivity and helps in understanding our legacy application."

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"Tech support is very responsive. They solved issues within a prompt response time.""Good and effective reporting features, which help in decision making.""iServer is a solution that helps catalog enterprise architect solutions and catalog information.""The most valuable features of iServer are the integration with Microsoft Office and the interface is similar to Microsoft applications making them easy to use.""iServer has valuable features for workflow and document management.""It has helped having data lineage in the business cluster, which is used as control artifacts.""The solution has wide use within Microsoft products. The integration with Microsoft products, and, in particular, Microsoft Office, is great.""The solution is easily modified to suit your needs."

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Cons
"We are planning to move, in 2021, into their server version, where multiple data modelers can work at the same time and share their models. It has become a pain point to merge the models from individual desktops and get them into a single data model, when multiple data modelers are working on a particular project. It becomes a nightmare for the senior data modeler to bring them together, especially when it comes to recreating them when you want to merge them.""Some Source official systems give us DDLs to work with and they have contents not required to be part of the DDL before we reverse engineer in the erwin DM. Therefore, we manually make changes to those scripts and edit them, then reverse-engineer within the tool. So, it does take some time to edit these DDL scripts generated by the source operational systems. What I would suggest: It would be helpful if there were a place within the erwin tool to import the file and automatically eliminate all the unnecessary lines of code, and just have the clean code built-in to generate the table/data model.""I would like to have more data sources from other, different vendors. In recent years, the vendor has reduced the number of data sources, and I would like to have more data sources for every brand. For example, with Oracle, I would like to have compatibility for many versions, including old ones, not just the most recent.""In terms of improvements, support could have been better in terms of installation, especially of workgroups. We struggled quite a bit to get it up and running. Collaboration could have been better from an installation perspective, but it is trivial as compared to what we use it for. Other than that, I don't have much feedback. It works pretty well, and the fact that we've been using it for more than a decade shows that it is quite solid.""The erwin ETL functionality has room for improvement when it comes to mapping databases with a classic entity-relationship model to a data warehouse model.""The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.""I would like to see the reporting capabilities be more dynamic and more inclusive of information. The API is very sparsely understood by people across the user community.""I would like to see improved reporting and, potentially, dashboards built on top of that. Right now, it's a little manual. More automated reporting and dashboard views would help because currently you have to push things out to a spreadsheet, or to HTML, and there aren't many other options that I know of. I would like to be able to produce graphs and additional things right in the tool, instead of having to export the data somewhere else."

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"Cannot see which activities are control activities.""It definitely needs help to improve the visual aspect of the solution.""The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license.""We could allocate permissions to use only specific components to the users rather than the entire instance.""The one issue is that if you want to import predefined work, you need to put the licensing model in. So if you wanted to import work that was done before, you then need to buy a separate product for that.""I haven't used this solution long enough to know what areas could be improved.""There could be features for process mining, process simulation, and analytics.""Requirements management needs to be improved."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "The primary reasons that erwin was selected were that it was much more affordable for us [than Embarcadero] and it was easily maintainable."
  • "This company had bought the license for three years, and it's not an individual license. While you can buy a license for each individual, that would be very expensive. There is something called concurrent licenses where you can purchase licenses in bulk and 15 to 20 people can access the license and model. Concurrent licenses are scalable to the number of users and are proportional to the cost."
  • "An issue right now would be that erwin doesn't have a freely available browser (that I am aware of) for people who are not data modelers or data engineers that a consumer could use to look at the data models and play with it. This would not be to make any changes, but just to visually look at what exists. There are other products out there which do have end user browsers available and allow them to access data models via the data modeling tool."
  • "The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."
  • "I wish it wasn't so expensive. I would love to personally buy a copy of my own and have it at home, because the next job that I'm looking at is probably project management and I might not have access to the tool. I would like to keep my ability to use the tool. Therefore, they should probably have a pricing for people like me who want to just use the solution as an independent consultant, trying to get started. $3,000 is a big hit."
  • "There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
  • "I don't specifically know what we're paying now. About three years ago, in another organization, I have this memory of 6,000 AUD a seat or something like that, but I am not sure. In the mid-2000s, it was something like 1,200 AUD a seat. I get the impression that there was a price jump when it was spun off from CA as a separate company, which is understandable, but it could sometimes be a barrier in some organizations picking it up. I haven't talked to erwin people yet, but I'm going to suggest to them that they could perhaps think of having an entry-level product that is priced a bit lower, and then, you can buy the extra suite."
  • "The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."
  • More erwin Data Modeler by Quest Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "Aim for the exact number of people who shall define/review approve and view the processes, as it will impact the cost."
  • "It's about 13K to set up and 9K for the license for three months. I think it's about 20K a year, but we haven't firmed up on pricing yet because the price depends on how long we commit to the solution."
  • "The price of iServer is reasonable compared to other solutions."
  • "They offer annual subscriptions for developing countries, which are not affordable for small or medium businesses."
  • "The product has a moderate pricing."
  • More iServer Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer:Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.
    Top Answer:The solution's model mark could be better because it crashes sometimes.
    Top Answer:iServer has valuable features for workflow and document management.
    Top Answer:They haven't introduced new features for the product's on-premise version since 2021, similar to the SaaS version. There could be features for process mining, process simulation, and analytics.
    Top Answer:We use the product for various critical functions within our environment, particularly in a government entity, where it assists in governance, workflow management, and generating reports and live… more »
    Ranking
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    6,668
    Comparisons
    3,534
    Reviews
    11
    Average Words per Review
    432
    Rating
    7.9
    Views
    3,468
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    1,480
    Reviews
    6
    Average Words per Review
    335
    Rating
    8.0
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    erwin DM
    Learn More
    Overview

    erwin pioneered data modeling, and erwin Data Modeler (erwin DM) remains trusted, award-winning software for data modeling and database design, automating complex and time-consuming tasks. Use it to discover and document any data from anywhere for consistency, clarity and artifact reuse across large-scale data integration, master data management, metadata management, Big Data, business intelligence and analytics initiatives – all while supporting data governance and intelligence efforts.

    iServer is a unified software platform and enterprise modeling environment that extends and enhances the familiar, market leading Microsoft Visio and Office products. Core capabilities provided by iServer include an enhanced Microsoft Visio diagramming interface, a powerful central repository for all enterprise architecture or business process models and documentation, and a range of tools for visualization, analysis and decision making.

    Sample Customers
     Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
    Barclays, Cathay Pacific, Deloitte, British Gas, MasterCard
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm28%
    Insurance Company21%
    Government14%
    Energy/Utilities Company7%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm19%
    Government10%
    Computer Software Company9%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm20%
    Maritime Company10%
    Energy/Utilities Company10%
    Real Estate/Law Firm10%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Educational Organization34%
    Government11%
    Financial Services Firm11%
    Computer Software Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business33%
    Midsize Enterprise7%
    Large Enterprise60%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business16%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise74%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business29%
    Midsize Enterprise18%
    Large Enterprise53%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business12%
    Midsize Enterprise40%
    Large Enterprise48%
    Buyer's Guide
    erwin Data Modeler by Quest vs. iServer
    March 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about erwin Data Modeler by Quest vs. iServer and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
    765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    erwin Data Modeler by Quest is ranked 3rd in Enterprise Architecture Management with 37 reviews while iServer is ranked 6th in Enterprise Architecture Management with 15 reviews. erwin Data Modeler by Quest is rated 8.6, while iServer is rated 7.2. The top reviewer of erwin Data Modeler by Quest writes "The product lets users import different types of models, but it is expensive, and the interface must be improved". On the other hand, the top reviewer of iServer writes "Enables flexible parameters for any process model and has a valuable document management feature ". erwin Data Modeler by Quest is most compared with SAP PowerDesigner, IDERA ER/Studio, Visio, Lucidchart and Ardoq, whereas iServer is most compared with LeanIX, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, Visio, ARIS BPA and SAP PowerDesigner. See our erwin Data Modeler by Quest vs. iServer report.

    See our list of best Enterprise Architecture Management vendors and best Business Process Design vendors.

    We monitor all Enterprise Architecture Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.