SAP PowerDesigner Reviews

My primary use case is for data modeling which I then share with our IT department. We are customers of SAP and I'm a data consultant and GDPR.

I really like the import-export feature. It has a specific template that's helpful for importing metadata and that's very helpful for me. 

The tool requires a level of specific knowledge in order to be able to use it so it's not user-friendly at all. It could be more intuitive. I'd like to see better data quality and a dictionary feature in an upcoming release. 

I've been using this solution for six months. 

The solution is stable. 

I don't find this solution to be scalable. 

We're currently looking for external support because SAP are not very proactive when it comes to support.

The initial setup is somewhat complex, although I've seen worse. We work with the vendors to implement this product. Deployment time was around two weeks and the installation took a day. The solution doesn't require any maintenance. We currently have 10 users, and we want to expand that but because the tool is not user-friendly we haven't done that yet. 

SAP is quite expensive, particularly as there are other softwares and tools available that are cheaper or open source, that offer additional features and functionality. With SAP you need to pay extra for some features. 

I'm using SAP PowerDesigner to build and maintain an enterprise-wide relational data model for one of the largest banks in Israel.

As a central DA, I can't do all this work. We distribute our work to different people in different applications, and you have to teach them to use it. SAP PowerDesigner is much easier to use and much easier to teach. We have hundreds of people using SAP PowerDesigner, and you have to teach them, and you have to get them to maintain their own data models.

SAP Powerdesigner helps build proper data models based on the methodology of relational databases, which are now 40 years old. I think the big advantage of Powerdesigner over erwin is its intuitive Microsoft like usability. 

It's much easier to use PowerDesigner than erwin. It's also a cheaper product, and it supports many different relational databases. I think PowerDeisgner is more practical, easier, quicker, and more intuitive. I prefer to use Powerdesigner over erwin for large enterprise applications. 

It's a great tool for documentation. A new data scientist can easily understand the data just by looking at it. Once you are managing your physical data with a logical data model, by looking at this data model, you can understand what it means, the business meaning of the elements which are maintained by the relational database.

Connectivity can be improved because it's not very good. I would expect data catalog types of products to connect to the database, the repository of PowerDesigner, and get the metadata out more easily. 

I think as a company, once Sybase purchased SAP PowerDesigner, SAP's investment decreased. I think the number of new features and the product's development is much slower than before.

SAP PowerDesigner is a stable solution. I would say the quality of the software is good. No issues, visibility is very high, and almost no problems.

We didn't have any problems with scalability. We maintain hundreds of data models in the repository of PowerDesigner, and we are maintaining many versions in each model, sometimes maybe even ten. Sometimes even over a hundred different versions in one model, and we still didn't have any problems.

I think technical support is okay, but it could be better. As they are in France, it's a little difficult to reach them. But it's not much of a problem. For instance, if you need to resolve an issue, you have to provide them with the data model. You have to send them the data model as a problem. To do this with a bank's data model, you need to go through security, and you need to get all the approvals. This part is a huge problem. It's a huge headache, and it usually takes time. It would help if technical support is handled differently and made more accessible. 

I worked with erwin for maybe a year or two. Then we switched to SAP PowerDesigner because of the quality of the product and the price. The cost of the product is cheaper, and the bank was very sensitive to the price. I am happy with the switch to PowerDesigner.

The initial set up of SAP PowerDesigner was okay. But it really depends. For example, the initial setup for a startup would be an easy task. If it's a bank, you can't install it by yourself.
In my experience, it took months to set up and deploy SAP PowerDesigner for one of my banking clients. 

SAP PowerDesigner is cheaper than eriwin.

Before choosing SAP PowerDesigner, we actually evaluated erwin.

I would highly recommend this product to be used in each and every application system where you have to design a relational database. It doesn't matter which relational database as you can use it for MSSQL, Oracle, Postgres.

There are over 50 or 60 different tools like SAP PowerDesigner, but most of them are limited to maintaining a few relational databases like Oracle or MSSQL. But PowerDesigner, as well as erwin can be sued with many different relational databases. This makes it easy to switch and maintain the logical level and then create the DDL for Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, for DB2, or DB2W.

I am using just part of SAP PowerDesigner as a tool. This is because it offers some additional capabilities, like business engineering. Other additional capabilities that I never used because there were additional tools for that.

Whether we use Powerdesigner or some other different tool, it's impossible to build an enterprise data model for big application systems. For example, a CIF covering the count and the post.

If it's loans, once we have a database with over ten entities, it's very hard to do it manually. You have to work with a tool to create a proper data model, and then a proper database with properly defined entities, primary keys, relationships, and foreign keys. You must have a tool. It's impossible to do it manually.

Once such a data model is created, it becomes the source. When trying to understand the beats revolving around magnetic media, you don't have to use the relational data model and the logical data model to understand the data. Once you understand the data, you know the application system. The data is basically a PowerDesigner. The main usage is to design and maintain the data model, the logical data model, and the physical data model.

The physical data model is achieved by pushing a button, and the tools will automatically create the DDL. You would just have to implement it as it is. You don't have to write the DDL manually. The business understanding and the business requirements are translated into the physical design one by one. The implementation is according to the business requirement, as a business understanding of the system.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give SAP PowerDesigner a nine.

I'm an IT architect. I make use of this particular tool end-to-end, especially when I design objects. I also can immediately create the frameworks in PowerBuilder.

In just one click, I can create everything that I want.

I can download the solution right onto my PC.

It's a fantastic tool. It offers lots of flexibility. It saves companies pain and it keeps everything consistent. Whatever the idea was that started at the business level can go down to the database level.

It offers a lot of features in one solution. You would have to get multiple other products to bundle together all of the capabilities that you get in just this product.

The one issue I've found goes a long way back, especially from version 6.0 onward. In 6.0 there was a fantastic modeling functionality called "Process Analysis Modeling." It was very simple and very straightforward, yet it covered practically all of the three or four important components, which the software should have.

Later, that capability was taken out of PowerDesigner. It got lost somewhere. Yet it was something that was very, very nice to have. SAP, they missed it somehow. Maybe it was removed in error? If they could bring it back, that would be amazing. 

When we had done some of the model icons to other models attached business process modeling, was far easier. The functionality has gone away. 

The solution is very, very expensive. It would be ideal if it was a more affordable product.

I've been using PowerDesigner intermittently, not continuously. I have been using a few other CASE tools as well. In my estimation, I've been using this one since 1994.

The solution is quite stable. We haven't had any issues in that regard.

The solution is based on a RDBMS database, a proper or relational database. It is a one to multi-person version. Any number of people can work simultaneously on it. They actually can buy the license for their own computer, that's all. Therefore, it can scale easily across teams. You just need to license.

I have a team of about ten people and we all use it. We're a small consultancy firm. Everyone uses it.

We will continue to use the solution and increase it as required in the future.

We don't need to purchase technical support per se. If there is any emergency bug fix, it's called UBS. They would send it to us, especially if we signed a maintenance contract with them. if you don't have a maintenance contract, you can just ask for the UBS. 

If our suppliers want us to use other tools, we of course will, however, we've been using this solution since 1994. I do not recall if we used anything before that, or what it might have been.

The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not complex at all. You just install it. You just click on the install button and go ahead and install everything. 

It will also ask if I want a backend repository database. If you say yes, then they will install the database. It is called a Sybase SQL Anyware. Now it is owned by SAP. I don't know exactly what they call it - maybe SAP SQL Anyware or Sybase SQL Anyware. 

In the end, it doesn't take more than five or ten minutes. it's very quick and efficient.

There was no need for any type of consultant or integrator to assist me in the deployment. It's a very simple process.

The solution requires a license for each user. If you want to add another user, you just buy another license. It's pretty straightforward. 

It's an expensive product.

I'm not using the latest version of the solution, I'm using the one that came out before version 16.

When we go to specific clients if they would like us to define it or some other product, what we do is we model whatever things that they want, inside those particular tools. Some of the tools don't have the entire modeling capability that PowerDesigner offers.

If a company has a team of people or even one single consultant who has the capability to design business architecture, software architecture, database architecture, or infrastructure architecture, they should go for this particular product. None of the other products offer all of these capabilities in one tool.

This is especially true when you design on one model. The architects creating them can pull into the next model - whatever they want to create. For example, if I'm designing a business process diagram, we will be able to capture some data architecture. When we reach the data architecture part of it, all the data items, whatever they already created in the business architecture, can be pulled. It automatically creates the database from the ER diagram.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten overall.

My primary use case for this solution is to design databases, but I have also used it to design processes.

I also know how to add new features and program using the API. We added some new features to PowerDesigner about five years ago.

The most valuable feature is that we can convert CDM (Conceptual Data Model) to PDM (Physical Data Model), and then prepare an SQL statement to be executed.

It has a powerful engineering feature where if you change the data on a secure server then it will change it in PowerDesigner, too.

This solution has good tools for big data, where you can manage large and complex databases. By comparison, tools such as Enterprise Architect and Visio have problems with big databases.

This product does not have a good BPMN Modeler. Also, the simulations for BPMN modelers are not integrated well enough. If we want this functionality then we have to use another program. Compare this to Visual Paradigm, where we do have a good simulation for the BPMN modeler. 

It is a very stable solution, which is one of the advantages of using PowerDesigner, especially in big databases.

I have not had to speak with technical support for this solution. 

The setup of this solution is easy, but using it is rather complex.

Everywhere that I have used this solution, it was installed by somebody else such as a consultant. However, the installation was easy.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We were reverse-engineering several databases and doing comparisons.

The most valuable feature is that it is a very fast reverse engineering process. It does a very expansive comparison. 

In terms of improvement, the pricing is a bit high. 

I didn't investigate whether we could run business process simulations like you can do with erwin's process modeling tool. I know you can do process modeling in PowerDesigner. I just don't know if you could run simulations of the process.

I used SAP PowerDesigner for a year. 

It is very stable. 

It didn't seem to really need much extendability. For our features, it covered everything out of the box.

There was only one user for this solution, a data architect. 

We did not require any staff for the deployment or maintenance.

I did not use technical support.

Before PowerDesigner we were using IDERA and erwin. PowerDesigner was better than IDERA, but it's obviously a lot more expensive, so IDERA could be a better value.

With PowerDesigner, I had the whole studio. I had the business process solution. With IDERA there are separate downloads and everything so I only used the data modeling studio.

The initial setup was straightforward. It took around one hour. 

I did the deployment myself. 

If you have the money for it, buy it. If you were budgeted, it would be a worthwhile investment.

I would rate PowerDesigner an eight out of ten. It is very complete and robust. If you're an SAP shop, without question you'd want to use it because you can generate your ETL code as well. That also separates conceptual, logical, and physical modeling really well. I don't know if it's as complete though as erwin's solution. But erwin's solution is evolving and getting better. PowerDesigner has some room to improve, but it's still pretty solid.

We are using SAP PowerDesigner to design physical and logical data models for new releases of software.

The solution has the basic features for creating entities.

SAP PowerDesigner could improve by being more intuitive and user-friendly. It does not enforce some of the integrity of the model that we would like it to retain.

There are many areas of this solution that needs to be changed.

I have been using SAP PowerDesigner for approximately two and a half years.

SAP PowerDesigner is fairly stable.

There are five people in my organization using this solution.

We have used technical support but was it was difficult to get in touch with the right person. It was not very clear who the responsible person was. They do not seem to have centralized support, making it difficult to get the person in the right region to help us. However, once we found the right person we had our issues resolved.

The installation is in the average difficulty range.

The price of the solution is too expensive. When we asked for certain licenses in different countries it was unattainable.

We have had some issues with being able to procure licenses for specific countries. We were not able to receive licenses for every location we wanted.

We intend to switch solutions and we have been evaluating others.

I would not recommend this solution to others.

I rate SAP PowerDesigner a six out of ten.

I use SAP PowerDesigner for data modeling, documentation, and it interacts with the other tools. Additionally, we use it for all of the business requirements, such as CDM and PDM.

The most valuable feature of SAP PowerDesigner is the testing of the models, it has the best function. Reverse engineering is very helpful too.

The solution itself does not need to be improved. However, they could add support for different languages.

I have been using SAP PowerDesigner for approximately 22 years.

The solution is stable.

The scalability of SAP PowerDesigner is good. However, I have not had the chance to test it in a large environment. For my environment, it works well.

The online support from SAP I have used has been good.

The setup is very simple. 

I would like SAP to prove free licenses to professionals that are using the solution. The free version is limited.

I rate SAP PowerDesigner a ten out of ten.

As part of my consultancy business I provide training for PowerDesigner users, face-to-face and online. Working directly with clients or as part of subcontracted project work, I provide mentoring for users and customise the tool to fit the client's needs.

The majority of my clients use PowerDesigner for various types of Data Modelling and Database activities, along with Data Governance, Process Governance and Enterprise Architecture.

I use PowerDesigner myself for managing my own workload. For example, I use a Requirements Model to manage the tips and tricks I plan to include in my blog, and a customised Enterprise Architecture Model to manage my training portfolio. PowerDesigner includes a 'Free Model', which I use to manage and generate my library of PowerDesigner scripts.

The architecture of PowerDesigner is designed with extensibility in mind, supporting comprehensive customisation and automation features which allow customers to make the tool fit the way they want to work, embedding those new features directly into the tool itself. For example, the built-in Template Language enabled me to add a feature to export the structure of a Data Model as a JSON-format file for ingestion by a Data Governance tool.

Even if you don't customise or extend PowerDesigner, the tool is still the easiest modelling tool to use, with spreadsheet-like editing capabilities, the ability to link to or replicate (in a managed fashion) objects from a different model. The bi-directional traceability between objects and models is also a key differentiator - whenever you connect two objects together, that connection is visible from both objects (this may sound obvious but, believe me, other tool vendors don't seem to think it's important enough).

SAP have invested a lot of time and effort into improving and extending the capabilities of the PowerDesigner Web Portal. Following the most recent release, users can create and edit Conceptual, Physical, Requirements, Business Process, and Enterprise Architecture models using a standard web browser as well using the client software.

I'm looking forward to the day when the Web Portal supports every type of model, including Logical Data Models. I also would like to see better support for NoSQL databases.

I have been using SAP PowerDesigner for fourteen years. 

There are organisations with hundreds of users, very large models, and very large repository databases. It works.

The documentation is excellent, and more comprehensive than that supplied by the competition. However, even the best software documentation doesn't support you through your day-to-day modelling activities, which is why I wrote a book "Data Modelling Made Simple with PowerDesigner".

The technical support is very good, utilising SAP' standard customer support portal. I have interacted with technical support at another vendor, where everything is done by email, making it very difficult to keep up-to-date on a case.

I have used many modelling tools (possibly more than 10) over the years; when I set up my own consultancy I had a choice of tools to focus on, choosing PowerDesigner. I do also provide some consultancy and customisation for Idera ER/Studio Data Architect.

It's very easy to install. If you want to install a simple repository database, that's really easy as well - SAP provides a licenced copy of SQL Anywhere, which you can deploy anywhere (as the name suggests).

The list price for PowerDesigner is competitive for the base Data Architecture features when compared with the major competitors, especially when you consider the features that SAP don't charge for such as the Repository, Web Portal and 'Viewer' software. However, the pricing for small consultancies needs to be improved. The competing vendors often have special offers that make the tool more affordable, which is vital for data management consultancies that have to buy the tools that their clients use.

A powerful modelling solution has to be selected, implemented and managed in the same way as any other enterprise software - before you evaluate tools make sure you've documented your modelling process and the metadata you need to manage. Run a 'Proof of Concept' first - so you actually know what you're letting yourself in for and how much work you may or may not have to do to get it to work the way you want.