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IBM Rational System Architect vs Planview Portfolios comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

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

IBM Rational System Architect
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
18th
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Planview Portfolios
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of IBM Rational System Architect is 2.2%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 2.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Planview Portfolios2.4%
IBM Rational System Architect2.2%
Other95.4%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

GM
IT/Business Architect at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Lots of valuable features, especially the metamodel customization
In terms of what could be improved, we did not take the whole package with all the modules, and I think that the integration with other platforms like Office could be better. The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database.
Monabi Kingsley - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at 3M
Centralized planning has improved resource visibility and supports data‑driven financial decisions
The best features Planview Portfolios offers are visibility enhancement, robust system performance, and comprehensive resource management. This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency. When discussing robust system performance, the system's robust performance in meeting our various work requirements effectively and efficiently stands out. It is very stable and reliable, contributing to a seamless user experience, which enables users to focus on their tasks without disruptions. I also love the financial breakdown, planning and prioritization, and attribute collection on projects in Planview Portfolios. Planview Portfolios has positively impacted my organization since I started using it. It has enabled me to gain insights into the full scope of work consuming resources. I am able to know where the resources are being consumed more, especially which resources are consuming the most. I have been able to leverage resources management and resource time reporting, which enabled the generation of $90 million in annual revenue through labor billing to customers.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The main advantage of the solution and its most valuable aspect is the customization of the meta-model."
"The System Architect Product has greatly assisted the corporate strategic planning process in two areas: the simulation of scenarios for Enterprise Transformation Projects and providing a global view of Enterprise Capabilities and Functional Gaps."
"There are a lot of features I find valuable, but I think that the metamodel customization is one of the best features that the solution offers."
"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible."
"The solution is pretty stable."
"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible. It's easy to work with."
"There are a lot of features I find valuable, but I think that the metamodel customization is one of the best features that the solution offers."
"We have seen ROI with this solution over the years that we have used it."
"Planview has helped us connect funding and strategic outcomes with work execution."
"I love Planview Portfolios because it has better integration with reporting and other systems compared to the alternatives I had before."
"The solution’s integrated product portfolio has transformed our organization’s strategy as we continue to roll out different products."
"The data is the most valuable because the reporting that we provide out of Planview is priceless when compared to any other tool. The reporting has a variety of reports. It has the capabilities of Power BI. It gives us all these dashboards that we can show to our executive leadership, and they have been very well-received."
"Its ability to create summary reports across multiple projects is one of the best features. They have very good data warehousing. You can put that out. You can tell that data warehousing from Planview Enterprise One is excellent."
"The portfolio and technology management are well built."
"Planview is the source of truth, enabling us to efficiently look at the budget, scope, and schedule in one consolidated place and quickly identify any variance."
"The resource capacity planning is the most valuable feature because you can evaluate your team's capacity by team and what projects they're working on and you can forecast easily by team."
 

Cons

"The solution needs to better integrate with other products, like Microsoft."
"This solution can be more user-friendly and easier to use, with better dashboards."
"The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database."
"There needs to be more information at the outset about how to use the solution and how to deploy it. The deployment process needs improvement."
"We are not happy with this product and are not planning to continue with it."
"There needs to be more information at the outset about how to use the solution and how to deploy it."
"Some aspects of the user interface lack a common navigational or functional framework."
"It was sold separately and it is not very easy for somebody who wants to use the solution for modeling to think that you have to select specific modules in order to use the product."
"When you think of planning at a PI level, roadmap planning, or release planning, I think they should make a little more headway into how agile delivery works, tying it back into the financials and the planning to Planview."
"The configuration for the front-end user can be a little antiquated and it needs a facelift."
"Our challenge will be this tool is complex. It is not necessarily easy to start and learn from the beginning. How do you get people who are not professionals to adopt it, use it, and not be mean about it?"
"When we implement a release, we find numerous bugs and we have to have hot-fixes and patches put in on top of whatever we're testing at the time."
"The outcome management and work resource management in terms of teams needs improvement. Team handling, how team requirements are generated, and how the resource managers can work with teams needs to be improved."
"There's still a lot of reluctance within the organization. We're not using all of the capabilities that we have today."
"The solution is stable. However, it's so robust, there's so much data, that it has the tendency to lag."
"The technical people are very competent, but there is so much turnover in the people that we talk to, and that's frustrating."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The licensing part is a bit costly in comparison with the other available PPM tools."
"We have unlimited licenses for all of our functionalities. Since we went global, we went with that model."
"Our licensing fees are approximately $50,000 USD annually."
"In the time that I've used it, we've doubled up the amount of dollars on our intended projects."
"We recently did a new bundle for all of Enterprise One. It includes some of the newer pieces, like Projectplace and LeanKit. It bundled our CTM in with it as well. I think the total came out to be about $900,000 a year. This is for unlimited licenses."
"Planview is a little pricey. From a licensing perspective, for just a simple timesheet user who does nothing in the system but reports time, the licensing is a little pricey, but you have to look at it from what it is that you get. We have 6,000 users, and I don't manage the system at all. I just have to do add them to the system. The servers, maintenance, OS levels, security patching for the OS, and all other things are not something that we maintain. So, you have to look at it from an operational perspective. It is not just the product itself. A holistic view has to be taken when you look at the product and how you're going to support it. I would have to hire an entire operation staff to bring it in-house, and at the end of the day, that might cost me more."
"The cost of other pieces and integrating them in needs improvement."
"We have portfolio managers, resource managers, project managers, and time reporting licenses. These are the licenses that we have."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
10%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise66
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.
What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?
Planview Portfolios can be improved as the user interface defaults to the last opened portfolio, which can waste a lot of time loading a large portfolio if that is not what I need at that moment. J...
What is your primary use case for Planview Portfolios?
My main use case for Planview Portfolios is to ensure governance and decision auditability by incorporating embedded workflows, approval management, and key document retention supporting a single c...
 

Also Known As

Rational System Architect
Planview Enterprise One, Troux
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer
UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational System Architect vs. Planview Portfolios and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,311 professionals have used our research since 2012.