SAP PowerDesigner Reviews

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.

We are using the enterprise architect version of the solution, using the repository to create our enterprise models; different business models that include process to data models and application architecture models. From a dimension perspective it's like a business application with data and infrastructure. We have categories of different models and we use this tool. I model a lot of these into centralized repositories, so they can be used by internal staff to view all the models or to see the lineage and navigate through them, viewing the relationship between the models and staff. 

In terms of modeling, we have large teams of around 50 to 60 people who have the license to show the different kinds of models in terms of system projects. For the web portal which allows viewing of the models, all users in our organization have access rights, meaning there are around 100 people that have access. The solution is used daily. We will likely carry out a review at the end of the year to see whether the current configuration is enough for us or whether we need to expand. We are customers of SAP and I'm a manager, data architecture. 

One of the key reasons for choosing this solution above others is because of the repository features which we're able to consolidate and work on a single repository where we store all our models in one location. In addition, the web portal feature allows us to present, or actually view these models from a browser's perspective. We have two groups of people: The first develops the models and the second views them. They can log in to a web portal and view the models. The product presented a strong case for us in deciding to establish this kind of creation and consumption model to make it really cost effective and increase the value of our organization. 

Although the presentation for viewing the models is good, I think it could be better. From my experience with other products, the SAP UI could be improved by enabling simpler navigation, especially for non-technical users. It would be ideal if there was a more seamless viewing experience of the models. Another improvement would be to adopt more industry models, especially from the enterprise architecture dimension. You could be adopting the industry standard as with made models, UML and other forms of industry enterprise architecture models. That would enhance the whole usability and enterprise nature of the modeling t

Additional features could support other model types which would improve the connectors to the increasing number of software to service packages now that a lot of the applications are moving into the cloud. We need to connect on all fronts. There is still a lot of room for improvement on the web portals in terms of the usability and the visual. 

I've been using this solution for about eight months. 

From the performance perspective, I think the tool is pretty stable. The only issue might be on the loading of the model which depends on how complex your model is. You need to be careful of those with a lot of relationships and you need to add other models when you load it in the web portal, and that can slow things down. In general, the solution is stable but it depends on your configuration. I don't have many crashes. 

The scalability seems to be okay although I haven't fully tested it yet. 

The technical support is good and they reply promptly. They also have information online. I'm happy with the support. 

I used to use ER/Studio and Techwin for modeling. In my previous job, the focus was more on the modeling and data modeling as a stand-alone kit. We selected PowerDesigner here because of the repository setup it caters to. SAP has the function to be able to establish the repositories, work in teams and then consolidate and present to a larger audience through a web browser. That was the main consideration for switching. The usability of how to model is pretty similar and there's no big difference in terms of the functionalities. But from a whole enterprise setup; the repositories, the check in, check out of those things into a central repository, are the key reasons we switched. 

One key difference is the connectivity. Besides the modeling we also do reverse engineering. We will try to connect to different data sources to extract information rather than building a model from scratch. That is one advantage because this is actually the SAP program so it has a good connection with the SAP product. We use quite a lot of SAP modules in our organization, so it's a good fit in a way that we can actually link it to some of our SAP servers and database and just reverse engineer the models. This is a main benefit over the other solutions which  are more neutral and more stand-alone products.

I carried out the initial setup myself and would say that it is moderately difficult. There's a lot of reading necessary on the documentation and if you're setting it up for the first time you might require technical support. Implementation took several days but the timing really depends because some of it requires the trust structures, opening up parts, etc.  

The key thing is really about the use case or the requirements. We are into enterprise modeling and we are looking at sharing the models and those are the requirements that shift the evaluation criteria. For those looking at stand-alone models, they may not be looking at sharing these, mainly they just want to produce their models and things, so those criteria will differentiate selecting the different products. And whether you have a large team of people or you are focusing on only a few players in a small team, that will also determine your criteria for selecting the product. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

I use PowerDesigner to take business requirements and model them from a data modeling perspective. We can then take the result and turn it into a physical model in a database like SQL Server or Oracle.

This is a tool that facilitates a more cohesive development. From a design and documentation perspective, it makes sure that all of the databases are the correct version for the code base, without running into issues with things being out of sync or out-of-date compared to production or development. 

I like the property sheet capability and the user-defined attributes that you can set up.

The central repository is helpful because they have the ability to check-in models when working as part of a larger team. It supports versioning, as well.

Checking-in models to the repository, especially when working remotely, is a slow process than can sometimes have problems with models being corrupted. Between the client tool and the repository, the process is very chatty. Consequently, sometimes it takes forever to download a model and if it is corrupted then you won't be able to check it in or out again.

It would be a nice feature if we had the ability to generate a JSON file from a model.

I have been using PowerDesigner for more than 10 years.

If you're just modeling on one computer such as your desktop, or your client's computer, then it is very stable. However, if you are not on your company's network and you are checking in models from a remote location then there can be problems.

I think that the scalability is fine, given that it's for design and development on a project team. On a large project team, we might have 10 or 20 modelers working on it. You don't have thousands or tens of thousands of users, so it scales just fine for what its purpose is.

In my department, we have 10 or 15 users who are data architects or solution architects.

We have somebody internally who supports the platform. We have client licensing, so if there is an issue then we can raise a ticket with the vendor, but that is somebody from another group. My personal impression is that technical support is fine.

I have used other tools like erwin Data Modeler and they have versioning repositories also, but it seems like their check-in and check-out processes are much simpler and much cleaner. The central repository seems to be a little more stable.

The other advantage to erwin is that you can model right in the diagram, which means less clicking. In PowerDesigner, sometimes there are so many property sheets that we are constantly clicking.

When I began using PowerDesigner, it was an independent product. Since that time, SAP acquired it. It is a very solid product that does both data modeling and business process modeling.

My advice for anybody who is implementing PowerDesigner is to make sure that the central repository for versioning models is on a high-bandwidth network with a solid database backing it up.

In summary, this product gives you all of the features that a modeler would require to produce both logical and physical data models. There really is not a lot that is lacking and my only complaint is about the versioning repository. Of course, this is only a problem when we are working remotely. If there is a large model with perhaps 600 tables and 2,500 attributes, then it is going to be very demanding on bandwidth.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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. 

The solution is useful for data warehousing. I'm a contractor and I work with various companies. Each of them have different versions of the product installed, some on-prem and some in the cloud.

I mostly work on the conceptual and logical side of things, and I enjoy how easy it is to use.

I've tried to use Power Designer to bring in images, which didn't work very well at all.

I think it's probably one of the best solutions, but it is not at all easy to deploy in a big organization. I think it's a problem because of internal processes, and you have to find the right person to help you. SAP as a whole is a very big, complex animal.

I have used this solution on-and-off for 23 years. 

It is a very stable solution, but we have big issues if we try to bring in FSLDM. I'm sure Power Designer can handle it, but I think it drops the links because FSLDM is such a huge model. You can't always trust it because FSLDM was not developed in Power Designer.

I think it's a scalable solution. In one company we have a 38-user license, but that's a very large bank. In another company, there's only one person doing data modeling.

The complexity depends on the client, the firewall, and the company's rules of who can use and view different things. 

The implementation can be done in-house. The time it takes depends on the client. In some instances, it takes quite a while if there are a lot of firewall issues to deal with and the client wants it deployed in the cloud.

I would not recommend this solution to others who are considering it. 

I would rate this solution as an eight 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.

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 like the connectivity or the lineage between the models and usability.

Technical support could be better and more human.

I have been using PowerDesigner for three years.

PowerDesigner is a stable solution. 

PowerDesigner is a scalable solution. I worked in a client site where there was a repository, and there were dozens of data modelers. There wasn't a problem.

It would be better if they had a more human IT support system. They are really chuffed with their support desk, they got the dashboards, and you can log your problems.

With another vendor, you log a problem, and they call straight away. You can tell somebody about the problem. They're very nice and personable, and they know you. For SAP, you're just lost somewhere in the queue, and for me, it's not a decent response.

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

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.