iServer Reviews

Process modelling through object creation and management. It is beneficial as a very effective change management of processes at the object level if you need to modify a process, and it will impact other processes as well, the object changed automatically changes in other processes as well.

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

• Reduced time to roll out and define processes.
• Easy access for end users through web interface.

Customizing features can be enhanced. By giving the user the option to add and modify customized fields for the properties of the objects by enhancing the import capability from other tools, such as Visio, Word, PDF, etc.

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

For two years.

No.

No.

Can be improved as the vendor is based in UK. Having regional support could improve time and communications.

No, we were managing process definition and management manually.

Initial setup was a little complex, perhaps because we were doing it for the first time.

The configuration of the server, reporting server and clients took a little time.

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

Yes, we evaluated AG software, some online process definition tools, and several document management solutions.

Have your manual process definitions ready and up-to-date. The relationships between objects to be defined should also be clear and ready. It will help reduce the time to implement the processes.

Surprisingly little.

It hasn't really improved the way our organisation functions. iServer provides a repository for the reuse of objects, but that is about all that is of use. It means we may save some time from not having to retype things, but the overhead of maintaining these objects is quite large. There is supposed to be features around impact assessments (i.e., what systems are being used by what), but that reporting is a bit clunky, and hence not used very often, if at all. Because the system relies on using Visio, and there is no live-link between them, the repository and what is displayed in Visio must be checked out and refreshed to reflect changes.

The display of relationships between objects is not automatic if they exist in the repository.

I've used it for 12 months.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

No issues encountered.

7/10 as the customer service is quite good, however, unfortunately the product itself isn't.

7/10.

We used Visio/PowerPoint. I'm not sure of the value of the switch, and if I had my way, I'd switch back.

It was straightforward.

We used a vendor team.

It's supposed to make us more efficient, but that hasn't been borne out during use.

I don't know the setup costs, but it's day to day ones are negligible.

Overall, I would say that it's a poor man's EA repository. It seems like a good idea, but doesn't really work in practice. It's really two components, Visio and the iServer repository, and there is no live-link between them, so the Visio diagrams can be out-of-date. Don't implement it, you should stick with Visio, as this is a solution that ends up having the worst of both worlds.