Planview Portfolios vs iServer comparison

Orbus Software and Planview are both solutions in the Enterprise Architecture Management category. Orbus Software is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Planview is ranked #13 with an average rating of 8.5. Orbus Software holds a 4.5% mindshare in AM, compared to Planview’s 1.3% mindshare. Additionally, 85% of Orbus Software users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 90% of Planview users who would recommend it.

iServer

Read 18 iServer reviews

1,801 Views
886 Comparison Views

85% willing to recommend

Planview Portfolios

Read 63 Planview Portfolios reviews

358 Views
203 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

iServer

Planview Portfolios

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Planview Portfolios and iServer are competitive players in the project management and enterprise architecture categories. While Planview shines in areas of resource management and reporting, iServer gains an edge with its strong data integration capabilities and user adaptability, especially with Microsoft products.

Features: Planview Portfolios integrates strategy with execution, offering a comprehensive view of demand and resources, customizable architecture, and robust resource planning capabilities. iServer stands out with strong integration capabilities, especially with Microsoft Office, customizable architecture modeling, and intuitive UI that aligns with Microsoft applications.

Room for Improvement: Planview Portfolios could improve its agile integration and reduce the steep learning curve. Enhancements in intuitive interface design and customizability are desired. iServer could improve its visualization techniques, performance speed, and integrate more options while enhancing UI usability.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Planview Portfolios provides flexible deployment options across cloud solutions but garner mixed customer service reviews, where technical support consistency is a concern. iServer mainly offers on-premises solutions indicating stability and control with favorable customer service reviews, praised for quick responsiveness and expertise.

Pricing and ROI: Planview Portfolios is seen as costly but provides flexible licensing options like FLEX, offering value in strategic alignment and resource management. iServer, moderately priced, is perceived as offering a substantial ROI with competitive pricing, improving process efficiency and integration capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Planview Portfolios vs. iServer Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios vs. iServer

June 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

iServer

Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management

8th

Average Rating

7.4

Reviews Sentiment

7.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Process Design (17th)

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 July 2025, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of iServer is 4.5%, up from 4.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 1.3%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Architecture Management

Featured Reviews

Antonios Lazanakis

Senior IT Solution Architect at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees

Flexible, easy to use, and easy to import data

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization iServer is a very flexible platform for defining your own enterprise architecture model. It is very easy to import data, and we also have good integration with Visual Drawing Tools and SharePoint. The solution is…

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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.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This is a flexible tool compared to some other solutions."

"The initial setup is easy."

"Good and effective reporting features, which help in decision making."

"There were lots of different requirements, and collaboration and review is one of the biggest things. There is also Office 360 integration, and there's flexibility to use it as a database as well."

"It has helped having data lineage in the business cluster, which is used as control artifacts."

"This flexibility is the most helpful part in the standard version."

"I have to think less with this solution. It's simple."

"The solution is easily modified to suit your needs."

More iServer pros

"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."

"It has helped improve governance, mostly. People want to know where their money's going. Projects sponsors need to know what we're spending money on and what our burn rate is. Planview can give that to you straightaway."

"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."

"Our transparency is increasing a lot. It is helping us to get people together. There are no dark rooms anymore. In some areas or concepts, we want to add more light to every single concept. That's the big impact that the tool is having. It allows conversations between people."

"I like that everyone is able to see the same data. All of our users who aren't just time reporters have read access to all the data that is out there. So, it is one source of truth where everybody can go in and see the exact same data that everybody else sees. It is transparent."

"The biggest impact for using Planview currently would be to understand the true costs of projects. We are trying to get to a point where not only do we take into account technical costs, but what the business cost is. Trying to integrate our business right now into Planview is helping us identify the true cost of the investments that we make so we can try and understand their value."

"We've brought our portfolio altogether. We have had multiple ways of reporting out what our portfolio is, whether it's in Excel, Word, or in different places. We brought all of our projects together in one place. That has worked out well for us. We've been able to manage the work on Gantt charts and our resources better. The big thing for us on research and development is around managing people's time, on which projects they are working on, and how much effort does it take to launch our projects."

"Its view into resource capacity and availability helps us to manage work. In reporting, we use this facility to help with resource capacity and availability. It also helps to see how much we are using. We derive that information from the work and resource management screen. That is very helpful."

More Planview Portfolios pros

Cons

"Requirements management needs to be improved."

"Enhancing integration options with ERP or ITSM-related solutions for triggering automated requests for process definitions, changes, and tracking them in the iServer."

"It runs relatively slowly."

"The migration tool needs to be included in the main package, and not as a separate license."

"There could be features for process mining, process simulation, and analytics."

"The modelling needs improvement, specifically forecasting capabilities and scenarios."

"The product is more expensive than Spark."

"There can be some performance issues using the solution that should be improved. When you make modifications modify to files there are embedded data within that can take a while to process."

More iServer cons

"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."

"Its support to legacy paying customers is something PlanView is not handling well. We were unable to implement due to lack of professional support by PlanView. "

"The administrative tabs are very confusing, especially in terms of configuring screens and users. It's not very intuitive versus many other applications that I have worked in the past. I have to go to separate sections than I think I have to in order to get to the place that I need to adjust something."

"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."

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

"Sometimes within the application, when you pull a report, it takes awhile performance-wise for the reports to pull up."

"I would suggest for the request module that they open up the fields and columns so it's like we are doing our work in the work module. You can't do that with today. We also have to make sure that the fields can go both ways with the request and work modules. Including fields in the column sets would be helpful, because today they only use attributes."

"The content management definitely needs to improve. We don't really use content management for projects inside Enterprise One. We have actually switched to a SharePoint site. We have a feed from Enterprise One every night of all the projects that are created."

More Planview Portfolios cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"Aim for the exact number of people who shall define/review approve and view the processes, as it will impact the cost."

"The solution is cheaper than its competitors."

"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 product has a moderate pricing."

"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."

"When we went through that process, I believe it is competitive with others on the market. However, there are less expensive options available. It's a more premium offering at a higher price."

"We are on the Flex licenses."

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

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

"In the time that I've used it, we've doubled up the amount of dollars on our intended projects."

"The cost of other pieces and integrating them in needs improvement."

"The licensing part is a bit costly in comparison with the other available PPM tools."

More Planview Portfolios pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

17%

Educational Organization

14%

Government

11%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

15%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iServer?

iServer has valuable features for workflow and document management.

See all answers

What needs improvement with iServer?

iServer should invest in enhancing the capabilities of the embedded drawing tool, draw.io. draw.io is a drawing tool used to draw architectural diagrams, flow diagrams, etc. It is an alternative to...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for iServer?

We use iServer to establish an enterprise architecture function in our organization.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

Comparisons

LeanIX vs iServer

Compared 25% of the time

OrbusInfinity vs iServer

Compared 15% of the time

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs iServer

Compared 14% of the time

BiZZdesign HoriZZon vs iServer

Compared 9% of the time

ARIS BPA vs iServer

Compared 8% of the time

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Broadcom Clarity vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 14% of the time

LeanIX vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 9% of the time

Planisware vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 8% of the time

Planview PPM Pro vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 7% of the time

SAP Portfolio and Project Management vs Planview Portfolios

Compared 6% of the time

More Planview Portfolios Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Enterprise Architecture Management

June 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios

June 2025

Download Planview Portfolios product report

Also Known As

No data available

Planview Enterprise One, Troux

Overview

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.

Orbus Software

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

Barclays, Cathay Pacific, Deloitte, British Gas, MasterCard

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

Buyer's Guide

Planview Portfolios vs. iServer

June 2025

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