What is our primary use case?
We use erwin Data Model to create logical and physical data models.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution has been very helpful. The logical and physical data models provide visualization for communication across the business, among the data team, and technical team. Without this solution, communication would be difficult.
What is most valuable?
The ease and quick ability to create the model is valuable. The fitting model is very intuitive.
The other cool feature is the reverse engineer feature. If we connect to the database, we can reverse engineer from the database itself of the physical model. That gives us the relationship of the data if not much documentation is available.
What needs improvement?
So far, we have used it in either a workroom version or a standalone version. It does not have a cloud application.
We have licenses for Mac Linux since a lot of our people have Mac laptops, so erwin should work on their cloud application.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using erwin Data Modeler since 2006.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution. So far, we have not had many problems. Sometimes it freezes because it is a resource-hungry application, so it uses a lot of memory and a lot of processing power while running. But so far, we have not lost any of our work.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We had a concurrent license where multiple people could it. Typically, this is not a tool that you’ll use for hundreds of people. It’s very scalable for ta limited number of people.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is pretty prompt. The tier-one support is pretty prompt. We contacted them a couple of times for a security patch and a few times for transferring the license to a different user. Their support was good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have tried Lucidchart, PCO, and ER Studio.
erwin and ER Studio are very comparable. I personally think both are more or less the same. However, erwin has richer features, and productivity is boosted. Once I have a model in mind, putting that in the tool is very quick, followed by generating the DDL, creating the table, and integrating it with the data explorer. The bulk editor feature is also very useful.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward for someone who understands the data.
For the workgroup version, you need to set up a database and then connect to the database. After installation, you have to maintain those connections. For someone who is well-converged with a database, it’s simple. If someone has not worked with web databases, they might find it a little complex. The deployment was done within a couple of hours by three to four people.
What about the implementation team?
The deployment was done in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
However, there are tools that are less pricey, and some of them are open source and free as well.
From a pricing perspective, it is not very competitive in the current market.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the erwin Data Modeler an eight out of ten.
They have small videos that explain how to use the tool and they are very useful. If you know the principles of data modeling, erwin will be very easy to learn. If you are new to data modeling, then I’d recommend getting a course on data modeling first.
*Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
