IBM Rational System Architect vs Planview Portfolios comparison

IBM and Planview are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. IBM is ranked #19, while Planview is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5. IBM holds a 1.8% mindshare in AM, compared to Planview’s 1.5% mindshare. Additionally, 83% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Planview users who would recommend it.

IBM Rational System Architect

Read 5 IBM Rational System Architect reviews

739 Views
702 Comparison Views

83% willing to recommend

Planview Portfolios

Read 63 Planview Portfolios reviews

1,944 Views
369 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

IBM Rational System Architect

Planview Portfolios

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Planview Portfolios and IBM Rational System Architect compete in project and portfolio management solutions. Planview Portfolios is often favored for its cost-effectiveness and customer support, whereas IBM Rational System Architect is chosen for robust features, appealing to large-scale enterprise needs.

Features: Planview Portfolios stands out for advanced analytics, resource management, and integration capabilities. It provides a user-friendly interface, aiding strategy alignment and project tracking. IBM Rational System Architect excels in extensive modeling capabilities, supporting complex enterprise architectures and delivering detailed architectural frameworks.

Room for Improvement: Planview Portfolios can enhance its user interface and reporting features. It would benefit from a streamlined learning curve and increased automation. IBM Rational System Architect could improve on deployment efficiency, documentation clarity, and easing its complexity for smaller organizations.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Planview Portfolios offers flexible deployment options, cloud and on-premises, with proactive customer support ensuring smooth implementation. IBM Rational System Architect, aimed at large enterprises, provides comprehensive deployment documentation but may present complexity in execution.

Pricing and ROI: Planview Portfolios is known for its transparent and economical pricing structure, offering significant ROI for cost-sensitive organizations. IBM Rational System Architect, with higher initial costs, provides substantial ROI through its robust features, particularly appealing to enterprises investing in broad capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Rational System Architect vs. Planview Portfolios Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational System Architect vs. Planview Portfolios

July 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

IBM Rational System Architect

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

19th

Average Rating

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Planview Portfolios

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

13th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Project Portfolio Management (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of IBM Rational System Architect is 1.8%, down from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 1.5%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Guy Meyongo

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.

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EduardoMaya

Project Office Manager at Hoteles City Express

A solution that gives you all the information you need to plan detailed projects

The initial setup was just a little complex. I rate the initial setup a seven out of ten. Deploying the solution took two weeks. While deploying the solution, we had two instances, one for the IT team and one for the business team. And we had to connect the two and explain things to the team. Only two people were needed to deploy the solution, me and another person.

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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

"We have seen ROI with this solution over the years that we have used it."

"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 solution is pretty stable."

"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible. It's easy to work with."

"It has been effective for our delivery. It's given us much better visibility into what is being delivered and when."

"The biggest impact has been getting all these global groups into one space so we can even have intelligent conversations about what are we trying to accomplish. Before, it was just different regions doing whatever. Now, we're all talking the same language, and that's good."

"The overall interface is very easy to use. It puts together strategy and execution across all your investments."

"Its view into resource capacity and availability absolutely help us manage work. We can't plan out projects for delivery until we know if we have resources available to deliver them. That's been really critical. We look at our projects and see what availability of resources we have. That helps us to determine when we can start new work."

"We're still in an early stage. Things will change as we use it more. I did program reports that are important and that will provide us with value."

"We use expenditures quite a bit. We put in forecast expenditures and then we actualize them below the line in the little box in the bottom tray. Being able to track the project with relevant milestones is also valuable. Milestones are valuable because it helps us to keep the project on track. The expenditures are valuable because we need to be able to understand expenses that are beyond the regular resources in the projects."

"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."

"Enterprise One provides end-to-end work management for the full spectrum of types of work in one tool. It affects our project management because our project management uses Planview to monitor their daily work. Every night it loads our SAP system and then they monitor the daily work. They use Planview as a full planning and monitoring tool."

More Planview Portfolios pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Some of the out-of-the-box reporting is not immediately useful and although it can be configured or customized, there are still improvements that can be made."

"Recently, we have gotten on a newer version. We're currently on version 15. Some of the things that we've been running into roadblocks on, it looks like the solutions will be coming out in versions 17 or 18. So, we have to upgrade before somethings can get completed."

"It could do with a quicker response time for some reports or portfolios."

"We have almost like a third-party group who has to do a lot of our configurations. It's a bit painful for us anytime we want to make a change. The other issue is that we have different groups all in the same instance. So, if one group wants to make a change, it impacts everyone. Then, we all have to come together, to say, "Yes, we approve this change, or no, we do not." Thus, it has not been as flexible for us."

"The technical people are very competent, but there is so much turnover in the people that we talk to, and that's frustrating. They will say, "We can make this work." Suddenly, that guy has left, and we have no one. Then, we have to start all over."

"Its ability to create summary reports across multiple projects is very limited. In terms of the out-of-the-box reporting for summary reports, the reporting that we typically leverage is around forecasting for resources, timesheets, and actuals, and just looking at what is the capacity. There is no real summary of what work is being done and how work is being accomplished. So, what we typically do is that we get a copy of the data files from Enterprise One daily, and then we have a team that manages the data mod outside of Enterprise One. They use data from Enterprise One as well as other additional sources to provide the reporting that we share with the management. So, we leverage a lot of Enterprise One data for reporting, but we don't use the reporting capabilities within Enterprise One. So, reporting can be improved, and they could help us make more customized reporting. I know it is very configurable out of the box, but we have to leverage an outside data mod that pulls in a lot of data from Enterprise One. So, the reporting function, and being able to customize reports, is the area that could be very beneficial."

"I think the capabilities are there, but it seems difficult for me to even create a report as I am not a Planview technical expert. It is not particularly intuitive. It slows us down in reporting the big picture to management."

"I think that the user interface needs some getting used to. It's not immediately intuitive. That's potentially room for improvement. I think also that an organization needs to have good support from some senior management to get something like Planview established."

More Planview Portfolios cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"We have portfolio managers, resource managers, project managers, and time reporting licenses. These are the licenses that we have."

"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."

"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."

"I don't think we have necessarily purchased everything that I would have liked to have seen."

"I don't know about the actual pricing. I have not come across any costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"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."

"We overbought our licenses. We looked at our needs three to four years down the road and tried based our contract on that. However, we were over aggressive. We use about a third of the licenses that we have. We're looking to adjust the makeup so we can start utilizing the amount of money that we are spending. Right now, we're overspending, and my organization is not seeing the value in Planview because we are paying so much for licenses that we're not using."

More Planview Portfolios pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

19%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

10%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

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What do you like most about Planview Portfolios?

Planview Management integrates seamlessly with other tools and systems used within the organization, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, customer relationship management (CRM) syst...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?

Planview Portfolios is not too expensive. You get what you paid for.

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What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?

Enhancements are needed in: Advanced reporting and analytics: While Planview Management provides robust reporting and analytics capabilities, further enhancements could include more advanced data v...

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

August 2025

Download IBM Rational System Architect product report

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios

August 2025

Download Planview Portfolios product report

Also Known As

Rational System Architect

Planview Enterprise One, Troux

Overview

IBM Rational System Architect is an enterprise architecture solution for visualizing, analyzing, and communicating enterprise architecture and business process analysis. This solution provides decision support, process optimization, and integration into solution delivery. Rational System Architect addresses all aspects of your organization's enterprise architecture, including modeling, publishing, analysis, and execution.

IBM

Planview Portfolios offers a comprehensive platform for managing IT, project and resource management, along with strategic planning. The tool focuses on optimizing resource allocation and financial analysis, supporting global operations.

Organizations use Planview Portfolios to streamline project tracking from inception to completion, enhancing strategic alignment with corporate objectives. The tool integrates with platforms like JIRA to provide seamless workflows and supports critical business processes, including budgeting and capacity planning. Teams benefit from customized configurations and robust reporting, further supporting effective decision-making. Despite its strengths, improvements are sought in navigation, documentation, and integration capabilities.

What are the key features?

Customizable interface: Allows personalization to meet specific needs.
Comprehensive resource and financial management: Enables detailed tracking and analysis.
Robust reporting: Provides extensive data insights.
Integration with Power BI: Enhances data access for stakeholders.
Resource and capacity planning: Optimizes workforce allocation.

What benefits should users expect?

Improved strategic alignment: Supports better decision-making.
Increased operational efficiency: Streamlines project management.
Enhanced resource optimization: Ensures optimal use of workforce.
Better financial insights: Allows precise budget tracking.

In industries like IT and project management, Planview Portfolios supports complex portfolio handling, ensuring visibility across global operations. Companies in these sectors leverage its strategic planning tools for strategic alignment and resource management, integrating with existing systems for improved process efficiency.

Planview

Sample Customers

Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer

UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO

Buyer's Guide

IBM Rational System Architect vs. Planview Portfolios

July 2025

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