Enterprise Architecture tools rated by users
The new Gartner Voice of the customer concerning Enterprise Architecture tool was released in May 12.
The “Voice of the Customer” is a document that synthesizes Gartner Peer Insights’ reviews into insights for IT decision makers. This aggregated peer perspective, along with the individual detailed reviews, is complementary to Gartner expert research and can play a key role in your buying process, as it focuses on direct peer experiences of implementing and operating a solution.
Only vendors with 20 or more eligible published reviews during the specified 18-month submission period are included. Reviews from end users of companies with less than $50M in revenue are excluded from this methodology.
And the most preferred vendors are …
The results are aligned with the recent Gartner Magic Quadrant and Forrester Wave for Enterprise Architecture tool.
Surprisingly, at least for me, only one Leader appears in the “customers’ choice” quadrant. I was even more surprised that it was ‘Mega’, but it seems that Hopex, the solution completely rebuilt for Cloud, is pleasing its users.
With the same rating than Mega, ‘Enterprise Solutions Essential Project’ is also hitting the mark, with multiple reviews saying than projects are realized in less than 3 months for an affordable pricing. The quality of their customer engagement team is mentioned multiple times.
I’m not suprised concerning Ardoq and LeaniX, which I already said are my favorites EA tools.
Orbus, with its new suite iServer 365 is offering an interesting solution for architects that loves to draw with Visio.
Finally the BOC group, which I have to admit I do not know very well, seems to perform high in all benchmarks and reviews.
By looking at the reviews, I got some interesting lessons learned
- European Software Companies are rejuvenating the Enterprise Architecture sector with great, affordable and usable tools
- There is a clear trend for SaaS based Enterprise Architecture tools, to replace legacy EA solutions or to move away from spreadsheet like solutions shared on intranet
- Customer service, and customer experience are key in order to build a solution laser focused to customers’ needs, with a compelling user experience
- Whatever the tool used, you need to have some metamodel (or information model) design upfront to avoid over-engineering and creating model with attributes no-one can fill
- Deployment time are fast (some say less than 3 months)
- Cost is still a major driver. For example, Enterprise Architecture Essential Project starts at $17k for Base Platform — (~130 views, APIs, Editors, etc) — Unlimited Users/Admins
I really encourage you to look at the comments provided, it is a goldmine for people looking for a new Enterprise Architecture tool
If you want to share your experience on the Gartner web site, go here.
