RSA Archer Reviews

We use the product for policy management, vulnerabilities and risk management. We also use it for business continuity.

It is a good tool to use. The product is very flexible. It can easily connect to other tools like ServiceNow and Nexus. The workflow feature is very interesting. We can automate a lot of stuff using the workflow. The product makes it very easy to publish dashboards.

We are implementing COBIT 2019. It is in English. It would be useful for customers if COBIT 2019 could be translated into different languages.

The product’s scalability is pretty good.

The initial setup is not complex, but you need some knowledge of the methodologies in the market to implement the product. These methodologies are in English. We have to translate the methodologies to use in Brazil. It would be better if it were available in different languages.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We use RSA Archer in my organization for assessments (ISO, GDPR, PCIDSS, etc.) or to raise dispensation for any application, security-related controls.

If we want to perform the application assessment or any ISMS assessment, earlier, we had to do it manually. The RSA Archer tool gives us the output in an automated manner, it is beautiful and has helped our organization.

RSA Archer is the most usable GRC tool and leading tool and I have found performing the application, ISMS, and TPRM assessments beneficial.

In a future release, there should be an option to upload the main data.

I used RSA Archer within the last 12 months.

Early on we faced lots of issues because the communicating with the RSA Archer, the database was not synced properly. Two times when we installed RSA Archer in an environment a few settings and configuration was not correct, this caused the passwords not to match.

The stability could improve.

The scalability is easy to achieve.

Most of our clients are large businesses. I have plans to continue the usage of RSA Archer.

The technical support is good, but they respond a little late, sometimes it can be a few days to have a response.

Positive

The initial setup is a bit complex. The whole process can take approximately three hours with one or two people.

We have faced challenges. For example, the database is not synced with the RSA Archer. A few services were not running if the RSA Archer was logged in through local admin or the specific user, we have received few errors. 

Archer is responsible for the maintenance of the solution.

The ROI depends on the company's needs as RSA has 7 solutions, the company can pay based on the subscription. 

The solution's price should be reduced. You only have to pay the license and there are no additional fees.

I did not previously evaluate any other solutions.

They have to use RSA Archer if they use the automated tools, their data will be safe.

Though there are some issues with the technicality of the solution, such as errors. The solution provides great features, such as customization, we can customize it as per our requirements.

I rate RSA Archer a ten out of ten.

RSA Archer's best features are advanced workflow, reports, dashboards, and notifications.

There is some lag and instability with the platform when using the cloud version. I would also like the look and feel of the layout to be updated and made more customizable. 

I've been using RSA Archer for eight to nine years.

RSA Archer is scalable.

RSA Archer's technical support is a little disappointing because the first level is always manned by junior members who don't have much technical expertise.

Neutral

The initial setup was straightforward.

I would give RSA Archer a rating of eight out of ten.

We use Archer as a risk management portal. We've customized Archer to follow the Sherwood Applied Business Security methodology for governance and risk assessment. We don't use the compliance module much.

The main benefit is that we can automate risk management. The whole purpose of having Archer is to automate governance, risk, and compliance. Previously, we used to do everything in Excel sheets and Notepad. It was mostly manual. We'd send emails to people and collect information. Once you have Archer, you can automate all these processes.

I like how Archer requires very little programming ability. A person with minimum coding experience can configure the necessary fields in Archer. It's more of a drag-and-drop solution. 

When we have to do formulas or some other type of calculation in Archer, it sometimes doesn't work correctly. The fields don't display right, and we have to contact RSA Archer support to fix things. I think the calculation components are a bit complicated.

I've been using RSA Archer every day for the past six years.

RSA Archer's overall performance is good. It slows down at times whenever a script or some process is running in the backend. Sometimes our users have complained about the speed.

Scaling up RSA Archer is a straightforward process. You just need to upgrade your hardware and software. We have about 80 end-users working on Archer now. 

We've opened several tickets with RSA, and they're settled pretty quickly. The experience has always been good. 

When we started working with Archer, it was more or less the only product in the field that could do GRC automation. A few have been launched since then, but we've only ever worked with Archer.

Deploying RSA Archer is effortless. You just need to make a database backup of Archer and keep it somewhere. Then you can install Archer on any server and load the backup. Everything from A to Z comes back. It's restored, and you don't have to do anything. It's a straightforward process. The initial installation takes three hours, and two technicians can handle the job. 

After installation, it doesn't need much maintenance. We periodically deploy some security patches on the operating system, make backups, and cross-verify if the backup is working correctly or not. 

The initial purchase is cheap. You pay a nominal price to start then renew the license annually. You also must buy a license for each module. I'm not too fond of that aspect of the licensing model. You buy the elephant and then spend more money to feed the elephant.

I rate RSA Archer seven out of 10. To anyone thinking about deploying Archer, I would suggest exploring other products in the market as well. Archer is a bit costly compared to its competitors. 

My primary use case varies depending on the requirements, but uses include working on email notifications, fetching data feeds, and working on feed managers.

Archer allows us to define the progress of the organization's processes and helps build the right cyclic process and improve the current structure. We also track a lot and transfer a lot of vendors and users, and Archer has a repository that allows us to collect that data step by step. It also makes auditing easier.

The most valuable features of RSA Archer are notifications, workflow routing, and data filtering.

An area for improvement is the turnaround time for advice from the support team. In the next release, I would like to see a maturity rating feature that would provide industry ratings and information on the market.

I have been using this solution for about a year and a half.

Stability has improved over time, but there's still a lot of latency with some features, like looking up or checking the database.

This solution is scalable.

The tech support team's turnaround time is often slow.

Previously, I have used Aravo, and currently, I'm using Process Utility.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward as we were given hands-on training. Deployment took around three months.

When implementing Archer, I recommend looking through the videos supplied and making use of the free sessions that Archer provides. I would rate this product as six out of ten.

We have a partnership with RSA Archer and I'm a lead analyst and GRC for the company. 

We use this solution as a central repository. Instead of using various GRC options or other tools, we can use one platform with options to tailor the product to our needs. That's the benefit of using RSA Archer.  

I like the dashboards and reporting features; it's easy to gather reports quickly which is great when your VP is waiting for the KPIs. The solution is generic and it's great to have out-of-the-box workflows and concepts. I'm very satisfied with Archer, possibly because I've been using it for so long and I'm in my comfort zone. I know, for example, that ServiceNow GRC is more customizable but it's not as secure as RSA Archer.

I'm using a Mac and I can't get Archer to load in Safari. In addition, there are certain restrictions on API integrations, and it is not simple or straightforward. I'd like more customization and to be able to design our API integrations more easily, it would make a huge difference. We moved to SaaS because we wanted more integration and we wanted RSA to help with that. There has been some improvement but it's still not great. For no reason that we can figure out, there are issues with email; sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. We've raised that problem with RSA. There are some security concerns when it comes to authentications or DMZ or service accounts, which are still managed by RSA.

I've been working with various Archer solutions for about nine years. 

The SaaS version is stable. We have an Archer admin team that meets weekly with a representative from RSA so that any concerns or issues can be resolved as soon as possible. 90% of my work is on Archer and about 60% of the company are users of this product. 

The scalability of the solution is reasonable. 

I'm satisfied with the Archer support. 

I don't have a good recollection of the deployment process but we had three representatives from RSA and three or four engineers from a vendor contractor. Deployment probably took over six months, including the change from on-prem to SaaS. The solution hasn't required maintenance since we moved to SaaS. 

It's important to first look at the out of box workflow that RSA is offering, and then go for customization. Don't customize or overdo workflow because it degrades the overall Archer performance.

I rate this solution seven out of 10. 

Our primary use case of this solution is for GRC. I work for a bank and we used this tool to audit our information security team and our cybersecurity team. We had our control library, regulatory requirements, and third-party risks on Archer. So basically, I would say audit, regulatory requirements, third-party risk management solutions, and all kinds of controls, including SOX. These are the integrations we had set up. Right now, it's deployed on-prem. 

This solution helped us with the centralization of our governance data, so we could house all of our controls in one place. We could use that central repository of all our controls to build our risk management strategy and our policy and governance. So we could use controls as a central library and build policy, and then build risk management around it. 

One of the most valuable features is the ease of use. The customizable forms and drop-downs are pretty easy to configure. Automated notifications is another feature that is nice. The whole workflow, basically—if you're going through a workflow process, the whole process is automated with notifications. Basically, it's a pretty straightforward, easy-to-understand interface. I've also had the chance to develop some backend configurations, which is straightforward as well, if you want to add a new field or anything. 

Archer could be improved by having more customization. I'm not sure if the backend processes have API calls and those kinds of seamless integrations, but from the front, some of the solutions are very out-of-the-box. It's not customizable, so that could be a little problematic since you have to use their features. In terms of the backend structure, I'm not too sure because I'm not a developer—I was an end user and product owner of Archer—and I don't quite know the backend and developmental features. But since it's an out-of-the-box solution, sometimes customization was challenging and support was a little problematic because we had to reach out to them all the time. 

I have been working with this solution for the past 18 months. 

We did have a few outages, but otherwise, I must say it's fairly reliable. 

For maintenance, there's an admin dashboard. It's a capability that is handed over to our user and admin has super user access. 

This solution is quite scalable. At that point, it really depends on the strategy. Since we had all our controls on Archer, it was easy for us to scale and deploy other applications or develop other applications seamlessly. But imagine you had your controls on a different application—if it was not on Archer and you had to scale, it would be challenging to move all your data into Archer and then scale. So that is something that could be challenging, but since our strategy was already Archer through and through, we did not find it difficult to scale. 

There are approximately 500 users, across all departments, using Archer. It is being used extensively at the moment. Right now, we don't have plans to increase usage, but I'm sure there's going to be organic growth. 

On a scale of one to five, I would probably rate support a three. I wouldn't say it's the best, but it's not bad either, in terms of both the response time as well as the support. 

We used SharePoint for a bit. We switched to Archer because the graph, user interface, and all that was better than SharePoint. I'm not too sure about the strategic decision because I wasn't with the organization back then, but I know that they wanted a centralized location for their governance, risk, and applications. 

I think the deployment process is pretty straightforward. The solution was deployed for us through a third-party consulting agency, so it wasn't Archer or RSA developers, but a third party that implemented the solution for us. During the time of deployment, we were in a CI/CD mode, so we always had new applications, customization, new fields getting added. 

A third party implemented the solution for us. 

If you are considering implementation, my advice would be to decide on a strategy first before you implement a solution. The solution is nice, but unless you have a strategy, I don't see the point in implementing it. 

I rate Archer a seven out of ten. 

We customize this solution for our clients. We take all their requirements and prepare the design and format by creating fields, notifications, access controls and workflows. We use all the management features that the solution provides to support our clients. We are customers of RSA Archer and I'm a senior consultant. 

The Advanced Workflow feature is one of the most valuable and user-friendly. We used to have to write multiple calculations. With Advanced Workflow, things are much easier for the developer and end user. It's a robust feature that allows users to easily identify what they're doing and where they are. We're able to create multiple layers with a specified functionality that gives an understanding of what is required as well as increased flexibility. Archer provides good security, enabling access where necessary. It's also a useful reporting tool, clearly showing functional data and, when needed, the ability for comparison. The default dashboard shows daily activities that are easily captured allowing for information to be extracted. 

In the current version, RSA is a little slow mainly because of Silverlight which I believe has been removed in the next version. We have some issues using .NET because migrating requires retraining the custom object every time; it's a manual change which is challenging. For that reason, we don't use the custom object. What's needed is a valueless field, where we can drag and drop, add some values and the process is automatic. I'd also like to see an 'approved' button incorporated in the notifications for updates. It would save time and make life easier for the end users.  

I've been using this solution for 11 years. 

This solution is very easy to scale and easy for new users to understand.

Because we use most of the modules we're paying a lot to get good support. We interact with someone from RSA on a weekly basis and deal with any issues on the platform.

The initial setup is straightforward when you understand the system. We put our new users in the sandbox environment and get them to play around with it before setting out our requirements. It can be a bit of a challenge initially but not for long. It's not a common platform and is different from other tools. Once our users are implementing, it's a very smooth process for them. We have a total of seven developers, four are in-house and three are on contract. 

Deployment time depends on the use case; if it's a large implementation, it can take between six and nine months. The solution needs maintenance because of the updates and that often results in patching needs. We're using Archer on a daily basis. 

I'm not sure about the cost of the solution but every year we purchase additional on-demand applications. Archer offers a package that allows the purchase of 10 on-demand applications. You can purchase more than that and the price goes up accordingly. I believe these purchases come with two years of maintenance support. 

This is a good solution compared to others in the market because it is more secure. It's suitable for any size company although smaller companies will only need to use certain modules with larger organizations using multiple modules. This is a one-stop storage device that you can access from anywhere. 

I rate this solution nine out of 10.