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Segment vs erwin Data Modeler comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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 Modeler
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (4th), Business Process Design (10th)
Segment
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
8.2
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Web Analytics (6th), Data Governance (27th), Customer Data Platforms (CDP) (1st)
 

Featured Reviews

JorgeSanz - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamline data modeling and automate network changes for increased efficiency
The initial setup depends on the tool if you are using the data model environment. Stopping the server could be complex and require strong expertise. If you have everything set up and configured, Erwin is straightforward. You can deploy it in a few hours. In our case, it took a couple of months to address internal conditions, assign machines, and set up everything for the services. I rate the initial setup a six out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.
VikasAgarwal - PeerSpot reviewer
Simplify data management and analysis and offers built-in integrations for many data sources and destinations, reducing effort required for custom integrations
The main challenge is that the SDKs are pretty similar across programming languages, and they're not super flexible. They might not support certain use cases. It has a set of functions that work well if they fit your needs, but if you need something custom, you can't rely on the SDKs and have to use recipes. And using those recipes extensively isn't ideal. For example, we were getting leads from the D2C application, sending them to Segment, and then from Segment to HubSpot. If Segment could mimic HubSpot's API, we could leverage HubSpot's SDK capabilities even through Segment. But Segment's API is generic, so it doesn't do anything tailored to HubSpot. As a product designer, I know that would be hard to accomplish anyway. It's not a criticism, because I would probably design it the same way. But as a consumer, I don't care how it's designed; I care if it fits my use case. If not, how much effort will it take to make it work? That was the challenging part. It took a lot of time to integrate Segment and make it communicate with HubSpot in a certain way. So, the challenge is the lack of flexibility in the SDKs, given the capabilities of the destinations. From my experience, it's mostly fine. It could benefit from more customization capabilities. The product itself is good, but it would be awesome if it allowed you to write your own extensions to augment the CDP's capabilities. And another suggestion. It's not about a missing feature, but rather something Segment is doing that I personally don't think a CDP should do. It's like a mobile phone you use for watching videos, listening to music, and making calls. But to be a good mobile phone, you need to be the best at making and receiving calls, and texting. Everything else is a distraction. Instead of optimizing for those distractions, you should solidify the basics. To illustrate this, Segment has many capabilities that overlap with things like CRMs, campaign management systems, tracking systems, and so on. These capabilities can give a small startup a real kick-start, but as you scale, the capabilities other than the core CDP features don't scale as well. For example, it does campaign management, but it's not really a full-fledged campaign management system. When you're starting out, it's fine, it's great, it fits almost all your use cases. But as you grow from a two-person organization to a 300-person organization, you'll have to deal with more complexity. You'll likely need to look for a dedicated campaign management system and integrate it with Segment. Now, if you've been using Segment's campaign management for a long time, moving that part to a different system will be a roadblock.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Another feature of erwin is that it can help you enforce your naming standards. It has little modules that you can set up and, as you're building the data model, it's ensuring that they conform to the naming standards that you've developed."
"It reduces monthly savings by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Think about a company like Costco and all of the points of sale systems in Costco, all of the systems, the applications, but if all the applications in Costco all had their own data model, trying to integrate those, upgrade them and manage their different versions of the same model throughout the store, is an absolute nightmare. It's phenomenally expensive. This helps reduce that cost significantly. I'm talking on the orders of hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"We find that its ability to generate database code from a model for a wide array of data sources cuts development time. The ability to create one model in your design phase and then have it generate DDL code for Oracle or Teradata, or whichever environment you need is really nice. It's not only nice but it also saves man-hours of time. You would have to take your design and just type in manually. It has to take days off out of the work."
"Quest can create conceptual and physical data models to facilitate effective communication between business and IT. It can also integrate expertise from various engineering and database systems within your organization to enhance data management and administration."
"The fitting model is very intuitive."
"The ability to collaborate between different members across the organization is the most valuable feature. It gives us the ability to work on the same model, regardless of where we are physically."
"It allows us to create logical data models. We can represent a database model in business terms, which is very useful for us."
"It is a scalable solution...The technical support team is fine."
"I like the straightforward way of connecting with various data sources and destinations. That's the most valuable feature. It has built-in integrations for a lot of them, so the overall effort required for integrations is relatively low."
 

Cons

"Although Quest Software has made tremendous strides in recent years, they need to evolve more in the big data arena; erwin Data Modeler could use a little more work when it comes to big database designs."
"The solution's reporting side needs to be improved."
"I would like the solution to be less rigid in terms of its theory."
"This is a very complex product."
"There is a lack of local support in the China region."
"In terms of new features, it would be great to have a cloud base. We should be able to put it on the cloud for better collaboration and data models sharing."
"As someone who has used it for a long time, I have seen stability vary from version to version."
"The navigation is a little bit of a challenge. It's painful. For example, if you've got a view open and you want to try to move from side to side, the standard today is being able to drag and drop left and right. You can't really do that in the model. Moving around the model is painful because it doesn't follow the Windows model today."
"The challenge is the lack of flexibility in the SDKs, given the capabilities of the destinations."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive."
"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."
"There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."
"It is not a very expensive solution. Only the licensing and maintenance fee needs to be paid."
"erwin is expensive compared to other solutions. We are paying almost $6,000 per seat a month."
"The price should be lower in order to be on the same level as its competitors."
"There is either a one-year or three-year license. It is not a pay-as-you-go license like a SaaS solution. It’s more of a traditional licensing. They are a little bit on the pricier side."
"The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world."
"The pricing was on the higher side but it wasn't excessively high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Energy/Utilities Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
Forward engineering, DDL generation, reverse engineering, and reporting are the most valuable features of the solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
The product is expensive. I rate the product’s pricing a nine out of ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with erwin Data Modeler by Quest?
As a documenting tool, it's solid, though its reporting could be more robust. The reporting mechanisms could be more intuitive regarding report creation. It can generate reports in CSV files, displ...
What do you like most about Segment?
I like the straightforward way of connecting with various data sources and destinations. That's the most valuable feature. It has built-in integrations for a lot of them, so the overall effort requ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Segment?
The pricing was on the higher side but it wasn't excessively high. It's definitely not tailored for the smallest businesses, but it's well-suited for setups that anticipate significant growth.
What needs improvement with Segment?
The main challenge is that the SDKs are pretty similar across programming languages, and they're not super flexible. They might not support certain use cases. It has a set of functions that work we...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

erwin DM
Segment.io
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

 Premera, America Honda Motors, Aetna, Kaiser Permanente, Dental Dental Cali, Cigna, Staples
Nokia, rdio, Bonobos, LiveNation, Atlassian
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