Premier Mounts Polaris Universal Projector Mount MAG-PRO - mounting kit - for projector - black
$184.00
$106.99
Mfg # MAG-PRO
CDW # 1093857
| UNSPSC 45111600
Quick tech specs
- PRO
- for projector
- ceiling mountable
- Mounting kit (ceiling mount, support arm)
- black
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The Polaris Universal Projector Mount fits most projectors that weigh less than 10 lbs. Features include the patented MagnaGuide technology which makes installation a snap. Lock-It Security Hardware is standard at every point for a safe and secure installation.
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Premier Mounts Polaris Universal Projector Mount MAG-PRO - mounting kit - f is rated
4.30 out of
5 by
34.
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Gokhan Tarhan from
A business process analysis (BPA) solution, ARIS, helps you manage business transformation
What is our primary use case?
We are trying to define our business processes with ARIS BPA. We're just beginning the project, so we can't assess all the current features. We are using ARIS on-prem, not ARIS Cloud.
What is most valuable?
We chose ARIS because of its good reputation and familiarity with Software AG Tools.
What needs improvement?
Improvement should be made as per customer requirements.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for the past six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We haven't had any stability issues with ARIS BPA.
How are customer service and support?
The support from ARIS has been complete and helpful. The vendor's contact center is quick and efficient; we can work well together.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
We can easily deploy the application and process. It's user-friendly. It took about one month to deploy the application and design the process.
What about the implementation team?
The vendor provided a consultant, which was helpful.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We researched and compared other tools, including IBM, but ARIS fit our requirements better.
What other advice do I have?
I don't use AI-driven processes with ARIS BPA yet because our metrics level is too low.
It is an easily implementable solution, the design process is nice and easy, and it's quick to learn. I would recommend this tool to others.
Overall, I would rate this tool a nine out of ten. It's not a ten because no tool is perfect.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-09-04T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1332093 from
Holistic views of process modeling show interrelated effects between new and old processes
What is our primary use case?
The process modeling capabilities are what we use this for primarily.
What is most valuable?
ARIS is probably the most mature product I know of in terms of modeling an enterprise architecture so that it has context. When you need to make changes to processes, there is a view where you can actually see what other processes within different use cases or different functional areas use the same process and what those changes can affect. Workflows can be used across different business areas and that gives a really good, holistic view of what modifications end up affecting.
What needs improvement?
Some of the interactions with different versions of browsers caused a little bit of angst because there are certain corporate SOEs (Standard Operating Environments), which do not lend themselves well to representation in the latest version of ARIS. The product is sort of one version behind with current trends, typically.
I have definitely seen better UIs, but the crux of why we use the ARIS process modeler is because we have everything all one suite. When you talk about enterprise architecture, application architecture, process architecture, or whatever else you want to model and monitor, these processes are all in the same place. You can make cross-references or create links between processes, you can link part of a model to an application, you can link to a capability view, et cetera. As an enterprise architecture tool, there is probably very little they can improve on at least compared to other modelers.
Because you keep on working with different versions of a model, the only way to maintain a record is to take a snapshot. Certain things are still in design or still in the conceptualization stage. Other things have already gone into production. At a glance, it is quite hard to work out which processes are at a particular stage. The overview is very flat. Having some form of a hierarchy in terms of approvals or a sort of ranking would be good. This could show whether a process has been deployed or not, or if it is still just a conceptual model. Some sort of formal approval process that defines a released version of your models could be incorporated into the workflow approval process to help visualize what stage a process is in.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have probably been using ARIS (Architecture of Integrated Information Systems) BPM (Business Process Management)for about four years now. I used ARIS BPM before coming to this company, but quite a while ago. That was about a year ago, and that was version 10 or 11 or something in that range.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability is very much dependent on the network. If the network is not so good, then you might experience some stability issues. It would be good if you had an offline version or some means of caching development. I am not sure whether that is in the ARIS roadmap.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
All BAs (Business Analyst) use ARIS, especially for process modeling. We have a team of probably 50 people who use ARIS modeler to see the process flows, but there are different roles. I am an architect so I can see everything. BAs can only view or read, they can not contribute to the capability models. The roles help scale out so the right people get the appropriate access without causing development issues.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have our own administrators here who maintain the product.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup and installation are very straightforward. The administration is a bit clunky because of the way it is set up as a Software-as-a-Service. There was not really a Single Sign-On capability for the tool. You have to maintain your login separately and that is a little archaic.
Because it was already running, there was not really a deployment to get me going with the product. It was just a matter of adding me as a user.
What other advice do I have?
I definitely recommend the product to users seeking this kind of solution, especially for the architecture practice. If you want to have a knowledge base or a repository for architects it is very good for an overview of the enterprise architecture. Normally in a new business venture — that being a business case, a new software offering, or a new capability — the new process needs to be introduced to an existing architecture. Companies will already have a mature backend with legacy applications and integrations. It is good to keep a repository of the development to make sure that the history of that evolution stays within the company's knowledge base for later reference.
On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate the ARIS BPM solution overall as a product as probably an eight-out-of-ten. It is not rated higher because the user interface is not as modern as other modeling tools like Bizagi, which looks nice. With ARIS you are quite limited when it comes to the look and feel.
That issue with look-and-feel becomes more important when you try to present something to executives. When it looks like your ten-year-old has done something to present in grammar school, it is not the right thing to be showing at a high-level meeting. The content is all there, but it just looks like it is just scraped together rather than properly designed.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2020-09-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1598529 from
Professional, feature-rich tools, but it is complicated to learn and set up
What is our primary use case?
I am using this solution for a school project. I am using it in my laboratory back in Uni for research.
What is most valuable?
Aris BPA has a lot of tools that are more professional than Bizagi.
What needs improvement?
I didn't like working with this solution. The design and functions are lacking and they are better in Bizagi.
The interface could be improved.
The solution is difficult and not very exciting to learn. It was a bit complicated to understand. Aris BPA is very complex and very difficult to start learning and onboarding.
When you compare it with Bizagi, Bizagi is better. The interface is nicer, the onboarding process is easier, and they have a manual for you to start with. It is better because I could understand how to start with it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used it for a short time only. It was for a quick project that I had in college.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
My experience is with Bizagi and Aris.
I have only been using Bizagi for two days. I don't have a lot of experience with it.
The only issues that I have with Bizagi are that it is resource-heavy, causing it to be slow and laggy, and there are too many visible features. It could be better organized and some of the features could be hidden which would make it better.
How was the initial setup?
Aris BPA is difficult to set up and get started with.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Bizagi a nine out of ten and Aris BPA, a seven out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-06-13T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Andrew-Lim from
Detailed EPC modeling and helpful semantic check, but doesn't feel like it was designed for business users
What is our primary use case?
ARIS was used to capture current business processes in ARIS EPC through a series of workshops. Level 1-3 VACD, Level 4 EPC (Event-driven Process Chain) and FAD (Function Allocation Diagram), Activities, Roles, Metrics, Risk and Control, RACI, etc.
It was used to operationalize new business processes and also in preparation for a case management system migration to Salesforce. The management, team leader, and staff were trained to read the EPC process model and taught how to navigate ARIS in the production environment.
How has it helped my organization?
The selection criteria for ARIS as the preferred BPM was questionable in my opinion.
The main reason it was chosen is that it was on the government "approved" product list.
The solution was too complex/advanced for the organization's requirements and a big team was hired to manage the administration of ARIS and maintain it.
The choice to model the business process in EPC instead of BPMN was made by the organization and no fault of ARIS; ARIS is most certainly capable of modeling in BPMN. There's a lot of time and effort spent to help staff get their head around how to read an EPC in ARIS.
What is most valuable?
The EPC modeling is very detailed, the semantic check is helpful, and auto-layout simplifies the formatting.
The process interface is valuable for identifying the upstream and downstream processes.
The approval process for the ARIS EPC from the design, staging, and production environment is pretty good. You can obtain feedback on the process model; however, this functionality seems a bit limited by today's standard as some other BPM allows you to comment on the objects within the process model, which makes gathering feedback and making changes easier.
What needs improvement?
ARIS EPC & FAD features and functionality does not feel like they are not designed for business users. Instead, it feels like they are geared for Process Modelers and Technology users who are focused on System Interface, User Interface, Risk and Control, etc.
Trying to read an EPC in a screen Top-Down while dragging the screen is next to impossible.
The model graphics can be exported in PDF, but the model is too small to read.
In my experience, once the organization creates the process model in ARIS EPC, it will take approximately two years before most organizations ditch any effort to update it. It takes more effort to maintain it than the value that an organization gets out of it.
The requirements for events after the rules, whilst accurate, simply take up too much space and makes the process model difficult to read.
Connecting the upstream and downstream process interface is a pain.
The auto-layout is a great feature but does not work as expected all of the time, as lines appear to overlap and can be confusing to read unless you click on the line to highlight it.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ARIS BPM for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's pretty stable, at 95% in my experience. There was the odd occasion when the system was down and it took 48 hours to resolve the issue.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
More licenses can be added as the demand grows, it just costs more.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Visio was used initially prior to ARIS. Visio lacked the BPM functionality.
What about the implementation team?
It was implemented through an ARIS vendor and the level of expertise was good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would suggest trying at least three vendors and obtain written quotes.
The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator).
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
ARIS was the only government "approved" software that the organization was "allowed" to purchase. This was a questionable decision.
What other advice do I have?
My advice is to try different BPM providers and download the demo for 30/90 days to see if it meets your organization's needs. A basic tool means that you will outgrow it quickly, whereas top-end solutions may be too costly and difficult to implement.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-05-03T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mohammed Sulty from
An intuitive business process management tool with a useful documentation feature
What is our primary use case?
Most of my projects are in business process management and digital transformation. I'm using this tool for authentication.
We're heavy users. We're using it to manage the marketing use cases, for example, requirements management, subscription planning, project management, and other tools to be deployed in our projects.
The tool to be used in all our projects so internally we're using it for requirements management, project management, and for example, to maintain our ISO certificate.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the process documentation. For us, ARIS is a lifestyle more than a tool. It helps us learn how to think and how to plan for our system.
I don't know why Software AG is saying that it's for business process management. It's an enterprise management system that connects all the documentation and business processes.
It's not only documenting. It's about executing and developing business processes, performance management, strategic planning, and project management. Limited use cases can be used for documentation and for generating analytics to identify gaps in the organization.
What needs improvement?
There is a lot of room for improvement. They need to increase the performance of the system flow. They need to support it more. ARIS Process Governance is still quite basic, and they are using an old BPM and process automation module.
They have a problem with the form. It's good but has limitations when integrating with other systems. This means that ARIS Process Governance or process automation is limited to the ARIS framework.
Integration with other systems is available with the ARIS API but isn't usable in APG. There isn't a proper workflow, and they need to merge their API module with the APG module. This will increase the capability of the form builder. Customization of ARIS will also be simpler and more user-friendly. They have tried to do that for more than ten years, but I don't know what they are doing now.
The installer could be improved to avoid multiple installations. For example, you have to run a script in the database site to complete the installer. So all those should be in one single point for installation. Enter all this data in the installer, and the installer will go and create the system database in the database. The price could also be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPM since 2001. I might be one of the first ARIS users in the Middle East region.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's not a stable solution. Although you're able to import and export between other systems like Camunda and Juniper, it's not able to exchange the BPM location between ARIS and Mendix. This is not possible, and it will not be possible.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support could be better. On a scale from one to five, I'd give them a two. Their response times are slow. They never commit to a time to respond to our queries.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is still very subjective. But the installation is easy. It'll take about five to six hours to get it up and running.
What about the implementation team?
We're an integrator, and we use the API module to enable full integration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price could be better.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale from one to ten, I would give ARIS BPM an eight.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2021-05-14T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1559709 from
A stable, scalable, and complete solution that can be used from strategy to execution
What is our primary use case?
As the name suggests, it is a process performance monitoring tool. It is used for discovering or finding the gap between what has been designed and what has been implemented. This is one of the checks that you can do with the help of BPM, and then you can re-engineer your process in a very correct manner.
What is most valuable?
It provides the discovery functionality, and you can have a simulation on top of it to get your design corrected to ensure that it is within the right state of parameters. It is a complete package that you can use from strategy to execution because you have the design layer, and within the design, you can also do analytics.
What needs improvement?
Its governance tool and integration with ESB and execution engine can be improved.
Their partner support can also be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for around six or seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is there. They are going for cloud-based deployment, which will provide more scalability. They are also going for the database deployment, which will also be one of the things that can be used for scalability. Our clients are enterprise businesses.
How are customer service and technical support?
Their customer support is good, but their partner support can be improved. They can provide more technical enablement so that there is more focus on the partner, and they get more attention.
How was the initial setup?
It is quite easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It depends on different parameters.
What other advice do I have?
It has been in the market for the last 20 to 25 years, so it has most of the capabilities. I would rate ARIS BPM an eight out of ten as an architectural tool.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2021-04-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1731534 from
It offers more possibilities than some competitors, but it's also a more complex and costly solution
What is our primary use case?
I work at a beverage manufacturer. We use ARIS BPA to design and publish our core processes.
How has it helped my organization?
ARIS BPM has helped us speed up our business process transformation by centralizing everything instead of everyone working within a silo. I can't say precisely, but if I had to take a wild guess, I would say that it has sped up our transformation by about 10 to 15 percent. At the moment, it hasn't saved us much time. It has the potential to save us time in the future by giving us a firmer basis to work from. However, we're not saving time on analysis at this stage. ARIS provided a solid basis for our company to manage its assets and by that, I mean its processes. It also helps our customers to have a Single Source of Truth for processes and related information.
What is most valuable?
The two most valuable aspects of ARIS BPA are the shared common repository and the whole governance cycle. The shared repository allows for cross-functional cooperation instead of doing things in a silo. You can operate cross-functionally and really work end-to-end, instead of dividing everything up on a functional basis. The governance element is important because functions can be managed in a controlled manner. There is a stacked database, and we can move things in a controlled manner from the development environment to the publication environment.
What needs improvement?
The standard out-of-the-box solutions for modeling are not so good. You have to do some configuration to make it easier and more user-friendly. There are a lot of options, so that can get confusing, but if you filter some things out, then it's easier to use. After you customize it, the end-user has an easy toolset to work from. Another feature I would like to see is the complete visualization of the connect portal.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it since around 2018, but I think my company has been using it longer.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
ARIS is scalable but costly. You can start small and grow the solution over time, but you have to demonstrate the benefits to the leadership before scaling up. Otherwise, it's a one-off, and we aren't looking for a one-off. We're looking for sustainable solutions. Therefore, it's important for us to start small, show the benefits, and then expand.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate Software AG's support six out of 10. It depends on who is providing the support. If you are dealing with support engineers in the Netherlands, it's okay. However, if they refer you to a shared service center, they usually don't know enough to give you proper support.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
We purchased the license for ARIS a long time ago, but the central team was dismantled. We revived it back in 2018. Deployment wasn't too easy. We didn't have a maturity roadmap in place, so we were building it step by step. I wasn't able to see the end state or the steps we needed to go through to grow more mature. I'm not blaming Software AG for that. That's just how it went. The deployment process wasn't intuitive or transparent in terms of the next steps we should take. It was also complicated by the fact that our needs as a customer changed from month to month and year to year.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ARIS is quite expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I've previously used QPR. I would say the advantage of ARIS is that it offers more possibilities, but it's also a more complex and costly solution.
What other advice do I have?
I rate ARIS BPM six out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-12-08T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Harald Sommer from
Departments can simply document their processes and flowcharts
What is our primary use case?
We use BPMN for process design. We check our processes. There is the start event, then there are the tasks and steps as well as risks on the steps and controls. In the end, there is a result event of the process. There is a hierarchy model through the processes themselves to locate, classify, and build a whole tree off of the complete process design. So, we try to get the complete process model in all the layers. It is not only about flow diagrams. You also need the hierarchy system in the process design to get an idea of which business area it is, which products we handle there, etc. This is to get some kind of a systematic approach to a wide area of the complete company, e.g., which services are delivered from whom and how it is organized.
We separated the fields. We had some kind of internal control system, which was one use case for us. We had risk management and how to get a picture up of the actual risk evaluation. We had the policy management separated. We started process management. This is all integrated on the technical side and the tools' side. We tried to get the different solutions out of the one system to see them as different solutions with different responsible people with different roles behind them.
It fits all together, so there are no completely loose ends, where there is one philosophy and one architecture behind it. We managed to get it a little bit separated, but it has good connection process management, internal control systems, and a risk system. It is very well-integrated.
We are using Connect and ARCM. ARCM is the ARIS governance, risk, and compliance module to do workflow-orientated stuff, e.g., how much is your risk.
Another use case is value chain processes. These are in a hierarchy built up through the company and our business use cases since we have export and capital market services. At the bottom, we decided to use only a business process model notation (BPMN), which made it possible for us to integrate on this flow chart. This integrates risks and controls directly on a flow chart, making it easier for non-super process experts to get an idea of the steps, controls, and risk as well as how this all fits together to get a good overview at the starting point when working with these processes.
How has it helped my organization?
In normal, day-to-day business, when a process is drawn, our expert team can review the processes, risks, and controls. They can do that completely themselves on a technical level. There is a review step from the process expert to her/his boss, then it is approved and published. After that, we use the risk evaluation and control execution using ARCM Risk and Compliance Manager, where they can do everything with the risk, e.g., how much is our risk? How much is the risk now? They evaluate that and do a controlled execution. We use the ARIS APG programming to get the approval and publication processes.
Now, we have a fully automatic-supported risk evaluation each quarter. I only need to take the results and put them together for the board's report. That is a big improvement.
The implementation of the completely decentralized process management, meaning that business departments can simply document their processes and flowcharts to improve their businesses, is now in one system. They have a list of business applications that are used within the process documentation, where there is one list of organizational departments interacting within this process. It has everything that we normally would want to have if we use an integrated process management system that works fine. Therefore, we have possibilities that we did not have before.
What is most valuable?
If you ever tried to draw a picture in a browser app or with a cloud service, it is normally a painful death. ARIS works perfectly on diagrams in the browser, so I was excited. I like it because there have been so many bad experiences in the past with drawing or doing something in a browser. Normally, it's always painful because it's coded badly. With ARIS, it is really well-implemented. It's simple.
We only get emails if something went wrong or the semantic checks are integrated, which means you can't publish it. If there is the smallest mistake in it, then you can't publish it at all. It is only allowed to get the symbols which are permitted. Therefore, everything is perfect on the technical side, and on the control side, no mistakes are published. You can check the deep semantic process. For example, if it does not make sense, but it is formally correct. If it's correct on the technical side, but it does not make sense when you have to read it. That is the human interaction that you need. However, what is technically possible is implemented to get good results.
What needs improvement?
I had this decentralization mission where I had some friendly fights with the consultants of Software AG. My opinion was the business department should be able to publish their processes and do all their evaluation stuff in ARCM themselves. It has to be a one stop shop. I want a one stop shop to go from ARIS BPM to ARIS ARCM, because having everything go through that would be an improvement due to the inputs that we made with Software AG. They will make it possible that the trigger sent from BPM to ARCM will start their object generation. Although, they did something in SR 16 for our business needs, and that was great.
The process needs to be straight-through. This means, if the process experts say, "Okay, I'm finished. I sent the process to my boss," and the boss says, "Okay, it's great. The documentation is right," and they can give approval. Then, the process experts can click on it, and five minutes later, they will get the risk for the evaluation. After that, the process expert says, "Okay, it has this and those risks. We could lose this amount." So, they send it again for approval back to the boss. The boss reviews whether the risk evaluation is right, then it is approved. Finally, it is finished in one hour (in a best case scenario). The yearly process documentation can then be completed without the action of any central process management board.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using it since Autumn 2020, which is about a full year now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
We did one upgrade throughout the project. Now, we want to wait until the end of the year for SR16.
There is almost zero maintenance to maintain its design from a central process management or risk management team standpoint. Decentralized business departments can do their jobs all by themselves. Sometimes, there are questions, like, "Can you help me? I'm lost. What am I doing here?" For example, if you have new bosses in new jobs, then they do not know what to do.
In 2020, we did a lot of presentations, videos, and training. They had to do these on the training systems to evaluate risks and processes. We knew if they did not do it themselves, then they would learn nothing. If they did it themselves, then it was possible to learn to work with new tools. So, the normal maintenance should be really low.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a concurrent license system. We have about 80 persons in-house decentralized in all the business departments who received their training. We have a lot of information, material, and how-to videos to ultimately support them so they can do the processes themselves. It is completely decentralized. Once finished, they can send it to their boss to approve it, then it is published. We have a central expert team in process management, who cares about how ARIS should be used.
Because we use it within a concurrent license system, everyone within the group can read the publications of errors and do risk evaluation at the same time. We now have 15 to 30 people (out of 500) who can use it at the same time.
How are customer service and support?
The help desk of Software AG is great. We had some problems. This happens in projects, where you do something stupid, then it does not fit together. The data is not useful. You try to do some test cases and put something in the system to determine how it works. The support was always really professional. The software developers and help desk did a really good job. I am really a fan of Software AG because they are a very competent business partner.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before, we used Casewise from London for centralized process management. That was our old tool, which wasn't bad, but it was only for three heads in the central team. It limited us completely. Then, they were bought by erwin in New York, and erwin is on the data governance side. Casewise was now a small part of a big company and wasn't being developed or improved as ARIS is. Therefore, it was quickly clear to us that we would go with ARIS.
We started with the idea at our company in February 2019. We got in contact with Software AG around June 2019 to do some kind of proof of concept, learn about the design, the idea, and philosophy, e.g., how to solve such problems and how to get process management within a fully integrated tool.
Before, we had Excel lists and some types of Visio diagrams, which were put together based on the process description. That wasn't okay. We always had to do it on a central basis, take the documentation, work it through and give it back.
This solution was re...
Disclaimer: IT Central Station contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2021-10-27T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
NeerajRana from
Seamless collaboration, excellent technical support, and provides a single source of truth
What is our primary use case?
ARIS has many modules starting right from strategy to dashboarding. However, the primary focus of using ARIS is for Business Process Modeling/Analysis - although it is not just limited to process but can cover the entire enterprise architecture for an organization.
We have used ARIS for multiple projects with different objectives, including E2E process modeling, managing IT application landscape, support for eTOM frameworks, managing risk/compliance, rules modeling, et cetera.
We have leveraged it for multiple client engagements with different objectives of the program, including digital transformation journeys, IT landscape rationalization, process transformation, process improvement, process automation, S4/HANA Migration, process rationalization, legacy modernization, and much more.
How has it helped my organization?
ARIS provides the basic foundation for any digital transformation an organization decides to take.
Firstly, it helps to create the business blueprint for any organization. With clear and complete documentation of the processes, different departments and people involved can build a common understanding of processes. It helps in reducing duplication since there is only one single source of truth across the organization.
It greatly reduces the modeling effort of the processes since it is based on a relational DB which supports the concept of library objects. For example, you can create a central repository of applications, risks, data, products, capabilities, services, interfaces, technical infrastructure et cetera. You can create them once and reuse them multiple times as required along with your processes. This helps the multiple dimensional analysis of your processes.
What is most valuable?
ARIS provides many functionalities and capabilities, including:
1. E2E visibility of the processes which are typically cross-functional
2. Multiple hierarchies of the process provides a different level of abstraction
3. Multi-dimensional view of the process can be created to further support analysis from the system, data, capability, product, interface, infrastructure et cetera.
4. Provides a single source of truth for a process consumed by different departments/functions
6. Strong governance and release cycle management with a built-in workflow
7. Process simulation capabilities to perform what-if analysis
8. Seamless collaboration using built-in mini workflows
9. Out-of-the-box connectivity with SAP
What needs improvement?
Although ARIS is already a leading tool in the BPA space for years, in my opinion, there are a few areas that can be made even better, For example:
1. The reporting capabilities and the ability to create custom reports need to be simplified and made easy so that people even with a good functional understanding of the tool can leverage it to create their own custom report. Since, at the end of such BPA/BPM implementations, higher management typically wants to see the value coming out of ARIS and all the modeling effort and this would make it more adaptable for our customers as they would see the value coming out of the tool.
2. As the world is going the way of low code/no code, they should also think of modernizing the report creation in a similar fashion.
3. The integration capabilities with other COTS products should be better. Since every organization uses many applications/systems for day-to-day operations, the easy integration with such systems like SNOW, SFDC, et cetera, will make the adoption easy for the client rather than seeing ARIS as a standalone system with separate license and maintenance costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for 12+ years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The ARIS SaaS offerings are very stable and secure since they are hosted on Azure and AWS platforms which provide state-of-the-art hosting.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
With the SaaS offering, organizations can start exploring the basic functionalities with a subscription-based license. The license can be upgraded and the adoption of the tool can be increased within the organization as needed.
How are customer service and support?
They offer excellent support and customer service.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used many tools, including Signavio, Bizagi, Visio, Nimbus, Mega, et cetera.
I personally found the modeling very easy to start and adopt even for a beginer as ARIS provides a very clean and simple interface to work with.
The kind of versatility and flexibility that ARIS provides is unmatched by any other tool in the market.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite straightforward since the Software AG teams take care of the provisioning and intial setup of the SaaS instance based on the requirements.
Organizations do not need to get involved and invest time and energy in figuring out the infrastructure, security, and access-related issues.
What about the implementation team?
The SaaS offering was handled by the Software AG team itself.
What was our ROI?
Although not quoting a number, ARIS brings huge value for Organizations that have implemented it. For example, it's bringing E2E transparency of how the business process works in a department/unit since they are typlical cross functional in nature.
Different stakeholders can talk and understand the same language since ARIS provides a single source of truth for processes across the organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Although the largest customer base for ARIS is in large enterprises, the SaaS offering from Software AG starts right from free trial to basic, advanced, and Enterprise versions. Organizations can start small and rapidly scale as required.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at many tools, including Signavio, Bizagi, Visio, Nimbus, MEGA, et cetera.
What other advice do I have?
Since there is a free 30-day trial, I certainly urge anyone looking to invest in process modeling or analysis tools to try out ARIS.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:We are the SI partner of Software AG and work across geographies to deliver ARIS sol together for our clients.
Date published: 2022-02-27T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
AnkushJain from
Supports various modelling types, has helpful technical support, and offers many features
What is our primary use case?
I am part of an IT service organization and working in capacity of Advisory Consultant where various customers seek advice for Business Process Analysis. The primary use case is Business Architecture Modeling, however, I've suggested ARIS BPA as an upstream to many implementations.
I have used ARIS Architect, Designer, and ARIS Connect for various other models to complete overall Enterprise Architecture Modeling be it Applications Models, Information/Data Models or Technology/Infrastructure Models.
ARIS-Solman Integration is another useful use case when it comes to ARIS BPA.
How has it helped my organization?
ARIS BPA supports various model types for business processes, customer journeys, organizational charts, applications, information, and technology views along with product and service views. It brings transparency and 360-degree views of end-to-end processes.
Also, it avoids needing heavy documentation to maintain attributes/properties of processes, organization units, roles, positions, applications, systems, data clusters, and products and services. This list is still not comprehensive. We can easily customize attributes based on our needs and keep the information up to date. This is another important benefit that ARIS BPA has bought.
What is most valuable?
ARIS BPA provides a variety of features, however, the feature to look at the same model from a different perspective is amazing. We can show the information/view which is relevant to specific stakeholders. This also helps to avoid creating multiple views of the same model and saves a lot of time.
Also, creating various queries, ad-hoc queries, and reports (what you see what you get) helped us in analyzing the information which is captured on these ARIS models and helped with rapid impact analysis for our application and role rationalization project.
What needs improvement?
Simulation is one area that is a bit complex. Nowadays, we are talking of digital twins. We should have simulation functionality offered in a simple way and promote process twin. Also, dashboarding is another important area where some other BI tools provide very aesthetic looks to different dashboards (e.g. PowerBI) - although ARIS Process Mining can bring us that.
In ARIS BPA, if we are providing a dashboarding feature, aesthetics could be improved and dashboard templates can be added for easy and quick consumption.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for more than ten years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This can be easily scaled. They have 3 editions that start with a Basic, Advanced and an Enterprise edition. Basic provides all essential features like modeling, sharing and optimization. Advanced will give comprehensive features, provides full flexibility of method and access control. Enterprise addition is complete stack, provides full configurability and integration capabilities.
How are customer service and support?
Customer service and support are flexible and help to guide you through simple queries. If you are implementing the first time, they can assist. For complex implementations, you can always count on them to meet your needs.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used various other solutions as well. However, ARIS BPA provides 200+ model types that give me the flexibility to use different models depending on the context.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was not that complex; we could manage it with an installation guide. ARIS Connect is plug-and-play. It is a SaaS offering.
What about the implementation team?
We have implemented everything in-house.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ARIS BPA provides complete suites when it comes to the discovery, design, and analysis phases of implementation. Therefore, the cost it has is just not for modeling. The licensing models are very innovative. You can go with whatever it suits to your organization. The environment starts with basic and moves on to advanced and up to an enterprise-level offering.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have evaluated multiple other options before selecting ARIS BPA, however, I would prefer not to disclose the product names.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2022-03-29T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Keith Bohanna from
Gives us an easy way to enable visibility of end to end processes and risks across business divisions
What is our primary use case?
The core use case is rooted in a non-financial risk program. For people reading who aren't involved in financial services, there are both financial risks within financial institutions making credit and lending decisions and non-financial risks, which are similar to those faced by many enterprises. These are the elements within life which can negatively impact a business that are not related to finance. A really good example is COVID in the last couple of years, which caused fundamental shifts in operating models. Therefore, our program is seeking to address the non-financial risks within our environments, which is being done through initially capturing the processes that power the bank.
At the end of November, we recently completed a migration into the cloud solution provided by Software AG. As a consequence of that, we jumped a number of versions to 10.15.
It is a private cloud SaaS solution provided by Software AG.
How has it helped my organization?
We are still in the early stages. We are in year three of the rollout for ARIS with this use case. Although it is still very early on, we are starting to see, as a result of the deployment of ARIS, the building out of end-to-end processes used within the group have much stronger cross-team, cross-divisional collaboration, e.g., it has a very clear, specific focus and outcome. So, there is a purpose to it beyond the theoretical need for people to work together.
We are starting to see the beginnings of a more robust operational resilience capability within the bank. That will be delivered in stages and phases over the next two years.
We are also beginning to see, across a number of business divisions, a more effective early-stage analysis of business processes. Then, that leads to the optimization of those processes and the removal of customer pain points. Without a shadow of a doubt, right across the business, that is happening.
What is most valuable?
ARIS by Software AG for the most part is incredibly intuitive at the mapper and business division level. We have had many cases where we work with our colleagues across the bank who have been experiencing using solutions like Visio. Once they have a core understanding of its processes from a visual sense, they can very quickly and intuitively start to use ARIS. As you get more into the complexity of the analysis, reporting, and administration, then that intuitiveness is less obvious. However, that is a case where you receive more training and are undertaking much more complex tasks. As a tool that is used by non-technical colleagues within the business division, the first line within the bank can strongly recommend it.
This solution gives us an easy way to enable visibility for our colleagues across 11 business divisions, and a couple of countries that we work in, on how the bank operates. We are in phase two of a multi-year program to build out those processes. What we are starting to do now is build out end-to-end views. As processes, data, and customer contacts span multiple parts of the bank, we are building out full end-to-end views so colleagues will have visibility across the group.
One of the many advantages of ARIS is that it is supported by a very strong BPM community, which is critical for us. Although Business Process Management has been in business for many years, it is still at an early stage of evolution. There are so many instances where your specific use case or requirement for using ARIS hasn't necessarily been matured across the sector. So, you need access to a very active community to help you explore possible solutions and ways in which ARIS can be used to achieve those use cases.
What needs improvement?
The areas of ARIS where we see room for improvement are actually related to the background services that support it. Over the last number of years, Software AG has moved from an on-premises solution into deploying a SaaS solution to their enterprise base. That has been really successful from my point of view, as I have been a customer of ARIS, managing the relationship, for a couple years. Certain support functions around the knowledge base, customer service, and the information available on modules within the core ARIS component are lagging behind the SaaS movement.
Traditionally, enterprise software is sold by sales people pitching to customers individually. Once you move into the SAAS environment, everything becomes more digital, and they haven't yet fully moved into that space.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for four years within the bank.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have had no issues with the stability of ARIS in the cloud. We had issues with the stability of ARIS as a hosted solution internally, but that reflects on our capability rather than being a reflection of their software.
We have a COE (Center of Excellence) that both supports the deployment and maintenance of ARIS, and more specifically is part of the non-financial risk and operational resilience team. So, we have a CORE team of about 18, but very few of those are specifically focused on the maintenance and support of the deployment of ARIS. There are only two or three people within that COE team who are required for that task. The wider task is the support of business colleagues through a hub and spoke model. Within the small COE team, we support the acquisition and enhancement of those skill sets within our business division colleagues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
ARIS has very much enabled us to start small and grow with the use of the solution over time. We have adopted the approach, as we roll out ARIS, of taking small pilot proof of concepts and extending them wider across the business. Software AG ARIS has really facilitated that rollout, both in terms of the technical support provided and also the licensing that has been available to us.
This is critical for any enterprise taking on an enterprise-wide BPM program, moving into a business-as-usual (BAU) function, to be able to take it in small steps. I know colleagues across the globe in different enterprises who have done this. They have picked initial areas of small-scale deployment, then extended them over time.
We have something in the region of 100 to 200 users. We are still midway through a wider deployment.
How are customer service and support?
Recently, there was a switch to a new platform that had one or two technical challenges, which seemed to have interrupted it. Any transition to a new support platform is always a bit problematic. Because they haven't yet fully picked back up, I would rate them as seven out of 10.
Broadly speaking, over the last couple of years, the customer support has been really good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
ARIS is the first time that the bank has deployed an enterprise-wide BPM solution.
The reason that we have ARIS in the bank is because one of our vendors recommended it.
How was the initial setup?
For our setup of the recent migration, which we completed over an eight-week period, we found the migration of our ARIS instance into the cloud to be really smooth and well-supported by the Software AG Professional Services team.
What about the implementation team?
The initial setup of ARIS within the bank was held and managed by a different team.
What was our ROI?
If you were to look at the return on investment that the bank will make in terms of its use of ARIS, it can't be measured in financial terms. The use and deployment of ARIS across business divisions gives us the capability to understand and monitor processes enterprise-wide. This is improving dramatically our operational resilience, which is both a regulatory and operational requirement for us. We haven't attempted to put a financial measure on that outcome.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Software AG facilitate a gradual and phased approach to enterprise deployment so take full advantage of that. In addition (and obviously in 2022) opt for their Cloud solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
ARIS is best of breed. We are obviously aware of other solutions globally and there are a handful in the space that have specific capabilities that would have loosely matched what ARIS can do for us. Time and time again, we come away with the impression that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to move from ARIS. More specifically, we have visibility, as do any of their customers, into their roadmap over the next couple of years. We are very comfortable with it continuing to be exactly what we need.
We haven't used the governance, risk and compliance component (the GRC component) within ARIS. The introduction of ARIS into the risk part of the business through the non-financial risk program happened after the bank had already committed and put in place a risk register, which is powered by IBM OpenPages. So, we work alongside that.
We have an RPA ( /categories/robotic-process-automation-rp...
Disclaimer: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2022-01-26T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Laurent Salembier from
Provides a centralized framework and consistent structure for all our processes, giving us a single source of truth
What is our primary use case?
We have three main use cases. The first is that ARIS is our central repository to document our standards, meaning our business processes, our organization, our data, and our IT capability landscape.
The second use case is to manage our application landscape. We have all the applications that we use inventoried in ARIS, about 3,000 of them. It's used to manage all the information related to those applications, such as where an application is used, how many users there are, what the current version is, as well as the contracts connected with this application and who the product or solution owners are.
The third use case is process mining. We are using ARIS to reconstruct a process as it has been effectively executed and to automatically calculate some key performance indicators.
How has it helped my organization?
In my previous company, we used ARIS to document local processes in different countries. It helped us to identify what were the main differences in terms of processes, identify best practices, and give visibility to everyone in the company into what those best practices are.
ARIS gives us a place where we can have a single source of truth. Instead of having business processes documented in different software, in Word or in PowerPoint, and described in different ways, ARIS provides a framework and a central repository where we can find that single source of truth. It gives us a consistent content structure for all processes. This is something that is very valuable. In that way, indirectly, it saves us time when looking for that single source of truth.
It's an enterprise application that is used by many people across our organization: the business process owners, the data owners, and the IT owners. And they are enriching the content. It is also used by anyone in the company who wants to look at our standards.
The solution has also provided us with capabilities we didn't know we needed until we had them. One of the functionalities that I really like is the ability to use ARIS for application portfolio management. In addition to our applications, we have also stored, in ARIS, the footprint of where those applications have been implemented. That means we know in which country a given application has been implemented. With embedded geolocation, we have a very visual world map, where we can see the footprint of each application.
What is most valuable?
Aris BPA is a very comprehensive and intuitive solution. I like the user experience very much, including the user interface. The ARIS platform is really an enterprise solution that eases the collection of all aspects of a company. ARIS has made a huge improvement, in terms of the user experience and intuitiveness. If I compare the very first version that I used in my previous company and the one that we are using now at my current company, there really is a big difference, big changes, and big improvements.
What needs improvement?
One thing that could be improved is regarding the handling of the content itself. Maybe ARIS could provide a set of best practices, or best processes, so that people do not have to start from scratch.
Another area for improvement is the homepage. Today there is one homepage for everyone. In the future, it would be good to have the ability to design homepages for different populations of users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA at my current company for the past 18 months. I used it in my previous company from 2003 through 2016.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. We have had no issues with its stability and no complaints.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is unlimited. You can scale it as much as you want. In terms of scope, you can focus only on processes, but after that, you can add data, you can add your organization, and you can add your systems. You can build different views. The scope is unlimited.
It enables you to start small and grow in your use of the solution over time. That is what we are doing and there is no other way. You don't go for a big bang. You start by focusing first on processes, and maybe not on all processes but the most common processes. After that, you grow and add the systems related to these processes. You can then add your data and your organization and, progressively, you enrich the content in the database. Because companies are changing all the time, there are always updates that need to be made in the solution.
We have 25 named users who have the capacity to make changes in the tool, but the application is open to all of our 460,000 employees. Those 25 people are responsible for the maintenance of the solution but that's not a full-time job. Every person who has a designer role in the organization has the ability to make changes in ARIS when needed. It took a bit of time to configure and set up the framework initially. But now that we have done so, it's a matter of enriching the content on a day-to-day basis, when required.
We plan to increase the usage of the tool internally, for sure. We want to have everyone using ARIS, moving forward.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been very good. We haven't had any issues with it. We have had great support from the Software AG teams.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is not complex, but it has to be logical. If you want to have all the benefits of the ARIS platform, which is an integrated platform, it's essential to set up all objects properly from the very beginning. If you don't have a clear idea of your target architecture, you may face difficulties in really leveraging ARIS.
While there is a beginning to the deployment, there is no end. We can always enrich ARIS with more and more information, and we can always involve more and more and more people in the tool. The usage of ARIS is unlimited.
The implementation strategy starts with the transformation journey, and we are implementing ARIS to support that journey.
What about the implementation team?
We are leveraging Software AG's resources. The application is intuitive enough to use without external support. Having said that, it's very true that there are very limited resources for ARIS on the market. It's an issue. We are working with integrators on other systems to implement, for example, our ERP, SAP, et cetera. We are asking our integrators to document the processes and the system interfaces in ARIS and they are not trained for that.
What was our ROI?
There is no return on investment with this kind of solution. There is definitively a huge benefit, but no return on investment, per se. In a large organization, you need to have a reference, and ARIS helps to give us this reference.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution has a fair price for the value it delivers.
There are no additional, or even IT costs, beyond the standard fee. After that, there are the labor costs to input and maintain the content in the application, but that's not really a cost related to the application itself. It's the same for any type of software.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used many different solutions. In this field, ARIS is probably the best compromise, in terms of coverage and functionality. There are solutions on the market that are probably better than ARIS in certain areas of their scopes. But if we look at the full scope, with all the modules, ARIS is probably the best application that there is on the market.
Before selecting ARIS, we looked at four other solutions, all within the top-five on the market. We concluded that ARIS was the best one.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest lesson I have learned using this solution is that if you want to properly and fully use the capabilities of ARIS, you need to have a very good understanding of the infrastructure that you are targeting.
ARIS is really a toolbox. After that, it really depends on what you want to do with it.
Disclaimer: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2022-02-02T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Michiel Overeem from
Helps us pinpoint key areas when changes are proposed, enabling us to respond to them more quickly
What is our primary use case?
We use it for creating a structured record of our processes and for updating them. We also use it to analyze how strategic changes in our company may impact these processes.
We work with the cloud solution. We don't have to have anything installed on our computers locally. We designed the processes and the framework ourselves.
How has it helped my organization?
With ARIS:
* We now have a better view of how everybody works in our organization and it helps us to see that everybody is doing the work they should be doing.
* We have more standardization, compared to when we first started, when it comes to describing processes. When we started, we saw that different people in the same unit, who should be doing the same work, performed their work in different ways. ARIS enabled us to achieve more alignment there.
* The solution also makes it easier to solve problems, and similarly helps when there is a strategy change or a new product. It's easier for us to pinpoint where the differences will be, compared to the current way things are done. It helps us respond more quickly to things we change in the organization.
The last point helps us to identify where we have to focus when things change. There are no surprises. We know what our processes are now and, if we know where we are heading with the changes, we can use ARIS to see where the changes need to be made. It helps us to speed up the rollout of transformation processes.
It has also definitely helped us to save time on business process analysis. It's now easier to find processes. We have them clearly described and we don't have to work through a pile of Word or PowerPoint documents. We just go to ARIS and we can search and navigate in the system. It's easier to access things. We are now doing more work with the same number of people, without these people having too much on their plates. We're more efficient and we all benefit from each others' best ways of working.
What is most valuable?
A basic feature that most other tools like ARIS BPA have as well, is a database with all of the relationships in the system. It makes it easier to have more standardized processes across the organization. The database also makes it possible to run reports and do analysis, which is kind of cool.
What also makes it good is the way we have set it up so that we not only have the processes in place, but we also have relationships specified with our IT systems and our organizational chart. That makes it possible to analyze things from the systems point of view and regarding the organizational part of the company. It all comes together in one tool and that is what gives us the most value at the moment.
We use the modeling technique called BPMN, which is a standard way of describing processes. It's independent of ARIS, but ARIS facilitates working with it. All the objects are available in ARIS, which makes it quite intuitive. For me, ARIS BPM is easy to use because I have known it for quite a long time. Others need some training before they can use it properly. They need a basic understanding of how the tool works. But overall, the intuitiveness of the solution is quite good.
Also, access to the solution is good because it's a cloud solution, and the performance is quite good. It's well-organized.
What needs improvement?
There are reports available in ARIS and you can modify them a bit if you want something more specific, but it's not that easy to adjust them and make modifications. It would be nice to have some kind of tool to do that, something that is more user-friendly for people who are not too technical, so that they could create reports the way they want them. That would be a good feature. That would also help in the adoption of ARIS.
For how long have I used the solution?
At this company, I have been using ARIS BPA for a year and a half, but I'm quite experienced in using the tool, having used it for about 10 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is quite good. I haven't had any issues with it. Maybe years ago it was less stable, but it's quite stable now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We don't have that many users, so it perfectly suits our company. ARIS enables you to start small and grow the use of the solution over time, although it's quite expensive. So if you want to start small, it's quite an investment for a small company. But it's perfectly suitable for growing.
I am the administrator of the solution and we only have a subscription for 10 other users and two other designers.
We have used it very extensively over the last 18 months, but due to our strategy for growth, which is a little bit different, and because of what the pandemic has caused, we are not really growing the process area. We may have even turned it down a bit. That's a shame, but we have to focus on other parts of the organization at the moment.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is quite good. I have had a few interactions with them by email. There are formalities to the process. I have to put my issues in a certain format and then they will respond.
It might be easier if I could have direct contact, just easily pick up the phone or chat or just write a quick email, so that we could find a solution. There might be some room for improvement there.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I started here, we didn't have anything other than descriptions of processes in Word on PCs around the organization. We wanted to have that available in a more structured way.
How was the initial setup?
I have a good deal of experience in setting up an ARIS environment, so I knew quite well what I needed to do. For me, it's not really that complex. We set it up for our needs.
We had it ready within one month, approximately. It's quite important to think about what you want to have, which areas you want to touch, and what you want the results to be.
It's important to take some time to do a good implementation of the tool. Our implementation strategy involved investigating, defining, and describing what we wanted to have; what we wanted to describe with the tool, and what benefit we wanted from the tool. In that way, we could set it up, from the start, in a way that we wouldn't have to rework it in a few months or a few years. It's better to take some more time to set it up well than to start in with it directly and then see, in a few months, that you're missing some parts.
I created a framework in which we could capture all of the processes across the organization, from IT to delivery to logistics to HR and finance. Gradually, we have been filling it. We have defined five layers of detail. I interview people who are working with the various processes in the field, and I try to describe them as they are right now. When there are changes within our organization, when we have a new product or we have a new strategy, we also look at the processes and see where these changes will impact them. Based on where the impact might be, we can more easily pinpoint what we need to do when adopting a new strategy or a new product.
There is not that much work involved in maintenance of the solution. The maintenance of the content, on the other hand, depends on the business you're in. For us, it's our day-to-day work, making sure that all the processes are in place and correct. But the maintenance of the tool itself, the more technical part, does not require that much work, about half a day per week.
What about the implementation team?
I did it myself. Because of my experience, I didn't need other people to help me with it.
What was our ROI?
The ROI depends, for our company, on how big we grow. The intention is to grow and we need a tool in place, like ARIS, to make our growth happen. We have to be in control and we need an overview and insights. If we can achieve the growth we're thinking about, the return on investment should take a few years.
In the future, ARIS might help us save on development costs associated with business process transformation. At the moment, we just describe the business processes without going too much into detail regarding the technical IT solutions. That connection is there, but not too extensive at the moment. But if we improve that part, we will definitely see some cost savings there.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If you want customized reports in place and you cannot create them yourself, you have to get them done externally, so that would be an extra cost.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We briefly looked around at what was in the market, but with my past experience with ARIS, the choice was quickly made to use this tool. It might be a bit more expensive, but it has a lot of possibilities, so we didn't spend very long searching for other tools.
What other advice do I have?
If you start working with ARIS, first investigate very well what you want to achieve. You can use it for different kinds of goals. You need to know what you have and what you want to achieve. Then you have to create a setup. So the requirements are quite important to the design, before you start working with the tool. That's the most important thi...
Disclaimer: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2022-01-24T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1859217 from
A scalable solution that helps with enterprise process management
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for enterprise process management. It helps us to find gaps and improve the processes.
What is most valuable?
I am impressed with the tool's integration. It also facilitates collaboration in the organization.
What needs improvement?
The tool needs to improve its support since they take long to respond.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is scalable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-05-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer2259642 from
A simple-to-use solution that has a good directory option to keep track of all of your metadata
What is our primary use case?
We use ARIS BPA for various operations and processes.
What is most valuable?
ARIS BPA has a good directory option, which helps to keep track of all of your metadata, and that's very useful.
What needs improvement?
It would be helpful if ARIS BPA could have a simple database to get the extract of various attributes.
The solution should include a simpler database where one can select the required columns or attributes to be downloaded and various reports. Also, the report formats could be simpler.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ARIS BPA is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
ARIS BPA is a scalable solution. We have close to 20 to 30 end users working on the solution.
How are customer service and support?
The solution’s technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
SAP is better than ARIS BPA because it has some positive features.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup is easy.
What other advice do I have?
It is easy to maintain ARIS BPA. The solution is deployed on-cloud in our organization.
ARIS BPA is a simple-to-use solution with good cloud-based support.
Overall, I rate ARIS BPA an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-08-23T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer2208987 from
A Stable and Scalable Solution with a Powerful Module Feature
What is our primary use case?
In Dubai, telecom uses it, and banks just for business process optimisation. We just got until the start of the other products with areas like process performance. They called it PPM, and we didn't have projects for that. But mostly, we used it for those basic projects of optimising the business process and documentation.
What is most valuable?
There is a module designer, that one is very powerful and it creates very good reports.
What needs improvement?
The pricing of the solution can be improved and the initial setup should be made easy.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the solution since 2014.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Most medium-sized companies like Telecom, Banks and Aviation are using the solution for modeling and optimizing the business process. It is better for enterprise businesses.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is difficult because it's that you installed the server version, and then you can run it. You have to play and run some SQL scripts out of the system for the database SQL Server if you are using and searching. But the new ones on the cloud have no installation. The deployment is quick overall. Only one engineer is enough for the deployment. Now the solution is easy to maintain because the method and the codes have changed. And less support is required.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is an expensive solution.
What other advice do I have?
The recommendation is that the enterprise companies has to go with a solution like Aris BPA and not Visual Paradigm. I rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-07-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Andi Frei from
The solution can be used for process modeling and the repository of processes
What is our primary use case?
We use ARIS BPA for process modeling and the repository of our processes.
What is most valuable?
ARIS BPA has the kind of database structure to report from across all the models, roles, and systems. The solution provides integrations to ServiceNow and other systems, flexibility of connectivity, and reporting.
What needs improvement?
Sometimes, ARIS BPA breaks down, and its stability can be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
We had ARIS BPA in our organization for ten years, but it was never really leveraged. We have been using it more heavily for a year now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Around 500 users are using ARIS BPA in our organization.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s initial setup seems to be a bit difficult.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend ARIS BPA to other users.
Overall, I rate ARIS BPA an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-12-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Cirvesh-Daga from
Capable of handling a wide range of business processes but presents users complexity with two interfaces (Java application and web interface)
What is our primary use case?
It's mainly used for our customers. The biggest plus point was interfacing with JDE or SAP. With a click of a button, you can import all the current processes the company is using in your chosen notation.
How has it helped my organization?
A definite benefit is that we can do process modeling and what-if analysis. Very few tools can do product analysis for processes well, and ARIS is definitely in the top two or three for that.
Surprisingly, it can handle almost all the business processes you can think of, from CRM and finance to HR and data development. I've used it for almost everything.
It's okay for a small team. It could be better, but for large teams, it might not be scalable enough. You might need to consider other options then.
What is most valuable?
The product still does what it does well, which is why it's popular. But, the user interface sucks.
ARIS has a good collaboration function. You create a portal where any authorized users can work on the models. There are simple flows for making and approving changes.
If approved, you can deploy them directly through ARIS. It's a basic but functional collaboration tool, suitable for small teams. It might not scale well for large modeling teams.
What needs improvement?
ARIS needs to make a better user interface. The user interface sucks.
The problem with ARIS is that they have two interfaces for the same product.
You can use either a Java application or a web interface. The web interface doesn't give you access to the same features as the Java application.
You have to switch between the two interfaces to get some things done.
The web interface is more intuitive, but it lacks the functionality of the Java interface. So I'd give it a six for that reason.
The Java interface has more functionality, but it tends to run out of memory and has its own set of problems. So, I'd also give it a six out of ten because of the technology choice.
It was really frustrating having two UIs for the same product, with some functionality in one and not in the other. They've got to do something about that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for eight years. ARIS has gone through a lot of changes in how it presents its information. The changes have been drastic.
So, someone using the current version, CCio, may not be able to use the two earlier versions easily. They might remember some parts, but it's not easy.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is fairly stable. The only issue you might have is with the Java client. If your system runs out of memory, the Java client can suddenly stop working. You just reboot your system and that's it. That's an issue only with the Java client, not the web client.
I would rate the stability a six out of ten. There is always room for improvement. For example, having two user interfaces and some things working in one but not the other, that's where I would score it lower. As a user, I don't want to switch interfaces.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's a fairly scalable solution.
In fact, if you want to democratize business processes across an organization and have a portal where people can see the processes and how they integrate, ARIS is a great way to do that.
I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten.
We've created a portal for ARIS and given access to everyone in that for a customer. Almost all executives are using it.
But for the business process modeling team, that's a team of about 15 people. They were the only ones doing modeling and other ARIS tasks. View rights, all executives and above have it.
How are customer service and support?
We contacted tech support once for the single sign-on issue.
We were trying to do it based on the manual, and maybe it was unique for this client due to their certificate signing process. Even ARIS support found it interesting, and it was a discovery at both ends.
So, the support was very collaborative and very helpful. They didn't expect the issue, and we didn't expect it either. It took a few days to find the answer.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
As an enterprise architect, you tend to gravitate towards one or two products. Most use ArchiMate because it's free and the standard tool. Then, you gravitate towards the tool you were exposed to first, which could be ARIS for me.
How was the initial setup?
It should take about three hours to fully deploy and configure.
What about the implementation team?
It can be done in-house. The information ARIS provided is pretty good.
We only needed to reach out for help once, for a single sign-on issue related to certificates. It turned out to be a joint discovery, as they weren't aware of the specific sequence required for the certificates.
The deployment model is mostly on-premises. We did one proof of concept using Kubernetes container as well.
What was our ROI?
We saw an ROI. For example, with one of your biggest customers, we saved a lot of time discovering existing processes using ARIS.
The time for gap analysis was significantly reduced because we could extract processes very quickly.
Signavio gave us a little bit of information on how those processes behave. Then, we have our target processes. And then, we did a fit-gap.
The timeline for all this was compressed. With ARIS, we were able to extract information about the processes very quickly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once.
It is a mid-range product in terms of licensing costs. So, it depends on what you want to get out of the tool. If you're just using it for business process modeling, the price might be okay.
But if you want to use it as an enterprise architecture tool that also maintains all your artifacts, like architectures, infrastructure, and data architecture, then it might be expensive because it might not be able to do everything you need.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. If it's the first time you're buying a process modeling or enterprise architecture tool, I recommend looking at other options in the market. You might find something better.
I would recommend it because I'm comfortable with it. I'm comfortable with it, but I'm always on the lookout for something better.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-02-28T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mansoor Adenwala from
Provides great workflow control with additional data captured providing a holistic view
What is our primary use case?
We use BPA for modeling and documenting in a central repository. We are customers of ARIS and I'm a process professional.
What is most valuable?
I value the reporting as well as the information query features, they are both very useful. It gives us a common language and a common repository, and we're able to control the workflow and relevant key processes. We're also able to utilize all the additional data that we capture and provide a holistic view of how our processes impact other areas of the organization.
What needs improvement?
Although the reporting and the information query features are good, they could do with some improvement. I'd also like to see better control over the library assets. It takes a lot of effort to maintain all the different types of central libraries. I'd like to see a simplification of the automation in the next update, it's currently quite a complex process.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the system is good. We've had some minor issues when they're running maintenance activities but other than that, the solution is stable.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is reasonable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I've also used Bizagi quite a lot but I like ARIS because we're able to extract a lot more information. Bizagi has the ability to start executing processes via the platform, which is a definite advantage over ARIS. Once we model a process in Bizagi, we can configure it and create an executable web service out of it.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is deployed across the entire company, almost everyone uses it.
We currently have around 600 users, but we're planning to scale up to approximately 2,500 soon. We have around 30 people maintaining the data.
What other advice do I have?
I rate this solution eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-01-30T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Regina Janitsch from
Replaced complicated ICS process with something much simpler for evaluating risk
What is our primary use case?
We have three main use cases. One is process management and the second is ICS (internal control system). Our third use case is very important for us: to evaluate the operational risk situation of our company, not only of the company itself but of the whole group. It was one of our requirements to find a system that could, on the one hand, evaluate risks for each company in the group, and on the other hand, conglomerate these risk situations for the whole group.
How has it helped my organization?
We use ARIS Risk & Compliance Manager (ARCM) for our ICS. There are different people who have to evaluate the risks and actualize the processes. We have a workflow implemented so that there is a reminder for the people who have to evaluate the risks and the controls, once a year. We also have a workflow for the process owners to assign a process model.
For our ICS, we used to have an Excel- and Word-based solution. It was very complicated and it was not really digital. Now, it's very simple for the people who have to evaluate the risks. They get a reminder from Outlook that a certain risk needs to be evaluated and they can evaluate it and send it to the risk owner. It's a more digital process and has improved things.
With our ICS we didn't have control of the controls, and this is something we are now working on. It is very easy in ARIS to model it and evaluate it. This was something we learned about and a capability we didn't have before.
What is most valuable?
The browser-based modeling tool is very awesome. It's very easy for the people who use it. One of our aims was and is to use ARIS in a decentralized way. That means we want our business departments to be able to publish their processes and to evaluate risk and controls. For that purpose, we have ARIS BPA and ARCM, which are connected. We model the risks and controls on the process diagrams, and the evaluation of risks and controls take place in ARCM.
ARIS BPA provides very good visibility and control of processes because we have a concurrent license system. As a result, every person in our company and group is able to look at the published processes. We have also built a tree from a process map so that people can navigate through different steps to the process model itself. That works quite well.
What needs improvement?
The intuitiveness of ARIS when it comes to business process management and modeling is not quite there. We have invested a lot of time and money in building a very usable system. The modeling part is very intuitive, but there are so many possible elements you can use. We had to invest a lot of time to reduce the elements to those we want people to use. If you take all the elements and all the modeling types that ARIS has, it is not possible to model in an equal way.
Also, we are part of a community that has one or two events per year where we can talk about our experiences with the solution. From these meetings, my impression is that a lot of customers do not use the current release. Migration to the next release is very tricky. You can't do it without support from ARIS or from a software kit. And it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to migrate. My impression is that a lot of companies do not migrate regularly because of that issue. There are always a lot of bugs, especially when you adapt the system to your needs. It's very complicated.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ARIS BPA since 2020.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability has been okay. We haven't had any interruptions so far and the concurrent license model works very well. We have enough licenses that people don't have any problem getting into the system.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good because it is a modular system, and that was another factor in our decision to go with ARIS. You can buy additional modules to adapt it to your needs.
The solution enables you to start small and grow its use.
How are customer service and support?
For small problems, their tech support is okay.
For larger problems, it's more complicated to explain to their tech support what we really need. Our experience has been that it's better to buy two or three consultant-days with the consultant who knows our system, because he developed it together with us. He can identify problems very easily. With the regular tech support it takes a long time to explain what the problem is.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Casewise – EA & BPM was the system we had before. It was a system that wasn't fit for our decentralization goals because it was very complicated. There were a few specialists in our company who could work with Casewise, but it was really a system for specialists and not for business departments.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was complex. Ours is a complicated environment and we had complex requirements. But we had really good trainers from Software AG. They have a lot of knowledge and they were able to help adapt the solution to our needs. But it was a very long process to get the system to where we wanted it to be. It took about a year for the implementation.
We have done two migrations since we deployed the solution. One migration was during the implementation phase, and the second is being done now. As I said, the migrations are very complicated.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Signavio, in addition to Casewise, among the solutions we looked at in an intensive way.
Signavio was okay, but it didn't fit our needs when it came to risk management, and their licensing system also didn't fit our requirements.
What other advice do I have?
We deployed the solution on-premises because our IT security team is very strict. We don't have any cloud solutions so far. This was one of the topics that influenced our decision to go with ARIS. Other solutions prefer the cloud or develop cloud products in a more efficient way. Our aim was to have a product that works on-premises.
We do not have a lot of experience because we implemented process management, as a strategy, in 2019. Before that, processes were not really the focus of the business departments. IT had processes in mind, of course, but they only used drawing tools that were not management tools. There is now more awareness of process management in our company, not only in IT but in the business departments as well. Still, at the moment, people see it as additional work, but I hope that will get better.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclaimer: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2022-03-13T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Veronika Ellermann from
User-friendly, has an active community, but the content-sharing functionality should be enhanced
What is our primary use case?
I have been working with ARIS across different projects in several companies, including a project where we implemented ARIS.
In my current company, we use ARIS for business process mapping, capability management, and process analysis. In some of my previous jobs, we used it as a tool for quality and compliance management, because processes are obviously the basis for audits. In this respect, ARIS always came in very handy.
How has it helped my organization?
It is pretty easy for users to get access to published processes. With regards to published content, I can think of one or two enhancements but overall, it's pretty easy. When you know how you need to do it, then it's a good tool.
ARIS has the largest BPM community in the world, although I don't particularly care about the size. The important part is how active it is. For example, if you have 1,000 people that form a community but nobody is saying a word, then the community is useless.
Software AG is promoting the ARIS community quite heavily, and they may have started to rebuild it with this platform. People tend to use it more frequently and I personally try to contribute to the content. Essentially, for me, the engagement of the community is more important than its size.
As a process management tool, it provides a lot of transparency when it comes to processes. This means that people have a solid basis for discussion and this is important because only when you have a process mapped, people will understand how it works. Sometimes, they will then even say that they have understood the process to be something totally different.
In general, process mapping using ARIS is a really good basis to get discussions going and also for audits to ensure or to prove to the auditor that you have good processes in place.
My gut feeling is that ARIS helps to save us time on business process analysis. However, it is difficult to confirm because we wouldn't be able to measure that. It certainly helps to create transparency when it comes to processes, and thus automatically increases their effectiveness. This suggests that it saves time.
What is most valuable?
ARIS is very user-friendly compared to other BPM tools that I have used. The user has a really modern view when they're using the ARIS Connect platform, which is the web-based part of the application.
In general, the users really like it and they can get started using it very easily.
For some people, ARIS is quite intuitive when it comes to business process management and modeling. In the time that I have spent training people, I have found that there are two mindsets. If somebody is a very organized and structured person then it will be relatively easy to get started with ARIS. However, if somebody is more creative then it tends to be quite difficult for them. That said, these people would have the same difficulty when using other process management tools. The reason is that process management is about structure. For those with that type of mindset, it's really easy to get started.
As an administrator with several years of experience with ARIS, I find that getting end-users set up is a really easy thing to do.
I really like the large variety of functionality that ARIS provides. If you look at it from a methodology perspective, you have more than 100 different diagrams or model types that you can choose from. It's really flexible in all of your modeling needs.
You can easily model process diagrams, but you can also model bowtie diagrams, UML diagrams, and more. ARIS has a really wide range of functionality.
I really like the EPC modeling because it allows you to model not only the doer's perspective, which is often done with BPMN notation, but it also allows you to model the contributors or the people who are accountable or informed in your processes. When it comes to manual processes or semi automatic processes, this is really useful because this is where you can improve a lot.
What needs improvement?
The Risk and Compliance Management tool is rather complex. So, we customized it. Customization was done by SAG and was done fast.
The facility for sharing content should be enhanced. For example, it would be nice if you could share content with viewers who do not explicitly have access to the model. As it is now, if you share a process with somebody that does not have access to the model, then the person receives a link that simply tells them they have no access.
Particularly, when you're in the process of modeling something and you want to share it because you want to get feedback from your colleagues, I would appreciate being able to share that content. It could be valid for a period, such as 24 hours or one week. This is something that would help.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS since 2009. This has been in various positions in different companies.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability has increased a lot since I began working with it. I remember in one of the earlier versions, perhaps version 7 or version 9, there was a lot of trouble. We would run into unexpected errors, some of which were quite severe. Since then, however, there have been some errors, but it's pretty much stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are different roles depending on the employee. We have regular employees who can read or view content. They can also comment on it. We also have employees, such as team leads, with modeling privileges. There is a big variety in terms of the different roles that people have.
We have approximately 130 modelers that use ARIS. When I run training sessions, I shift licenses from one person to another.
I don't have much experience with scaling but for our current use cases, it is sufficient.
ARIS definitely enables you to start small and increase usage over time. This is very important to us because it requires you to have a process-driven mindset in the company. This mindset becomes part of the organizational culture, and culture is something that evolves over time. Importantly, developing the proper mindset is a journey so you need to start small and then grow, otherwise, it will not really work. That's the nature of cultural development.
Generally, as process management is something that evolves over time, we expect our usage of ARIS to grow. Some people are early adopters but for others, it happens a bit later. Right now, the speed is increasing when it comes to the adoption of process management, which means that more people are using ARIS and have been requesting modeler licenses. This is something that is quite good.
How are customer service and support?
I really like the support and I would rate them an A+.
Their response times are really good. Whenever I have a question, I get an answer, or at least I know that somebody is taking care of my ticket really quickly.
They do not close tickets without asking, which I appreciate a lot. So, from time to time, I've received an email notification asking, "Hey, can we close this ticket? Did we answer your question sufficiently?" This is also something that I value a lot.
Support also asks for feedback. The head of the global support team has also checked with me whether I had any ideas for improvements. The fact that they are always seeking to become better is another thing that I really like.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have some experience with other BPM tools but nothing as extensively as ARIS.
One of these is Signavio, and the ARIS interface is more user-friendly. Also, when I tested Signavio a few years back, they did not have as wide a range of functionality available.
How was the initial setup?
From an implementation perspective, it was rather straightforward.
My colleagues at my previous company found the technical installation documentation really difficult.
As an end-user and ARIS administrator, I knew what the different steps were in order for people to start using it. From this perspective, I found it really easy.
Leaving the technical aspect aside, because it took our IT department quite a long time to deploy it, I was able to complete my part of the implementation in less than a week.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Their license model is really difficult to understand, and licenses are quite expensive. However, with the new subscription model, it's fair that you can rent licenses for a specific time and then give them back. From that perspective, it's okay.
In general, the licensing model is not clear and the complexity is growing. Even their sales department cannot tell me, when they provide a feature overview, whether I require a new license for one of the features being presented. This is something that is really poor, and where they can improve a lot.
I've communicated this to their sales and support departments because it's really annoying for me as an administrator when people ask me about new features and functionalities, and I tell them what is coming, only to later find out that the feature is not available to us. After three or four discussions with customer support, you learn that you need a new license for it. This has happened to me two or three times and it ...
Disclaimer: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
Date published: 2022-02-22T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Beenish Mustafa from
A user-friendly tool that can extract different reports while being stable
What is our primary use case?
We are modeling different processes and documenting all of them using the solution.
What is most valuable?
It's a really nice and user-friendly tool, and we can extract different reports from it. We have had different processes modeling and everything done with the solution. With the solution, we were using it for documenting, and then now we are updating all of these. So it's been great software for everyone.
What needs improvement?
We would have appreciated it if the company who has sold the software could show us how we can create our own reports, apart from showing us how to extract different SOPs and run our own scripts. So that would have been helpful for us.
An area where it lacks and can be considered for improvement in the future is if we can somehow automate or learn how we can automate different processes. So, it's like The processes in which we initiate a request, and we can follow where the request is and how the workflow management is being done in different software. So if you can somehow learn how we can do it, it will be great.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for two years. I am a user of the solution. I don't remember the version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine to ten out of ten.
My designers are very few in number, but there are a lot of users. Also, we have a lot of viewers. We have around 10 designers and more than 2,000 viewers. We frequently use the solution in our company.
How are customer service and support?
The support for the solution is good. I rate the support a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used Microsoft Visio for process mapping.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to install. It wasn't hours but maybe days to do the deployment, but it was done swiftly. It wasn't an issue.
I don't remember how many days it took to deploy. But currently, we have multiple designer licenses. So now the deployment doesn't take long. We can use it. Also, I wasn't involved in the installation process.
What about the implementation team?
If we get stuck with the installation part, we request the provider company to let us know how to proceed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I can't speak about pricing because I was not involved during the installation days.
What other advice do I have?
It's a great system for viewing, modeling, and everything, extracting different kinds of reports. So the only thing is that the users must understand how different reports can be extracted. What are the different attributes or the fields, what is their purpose, and learn how analysis can be done. So we need to do the aforementioned things, and overall it is great software.
On a scale from one to ten, one is worse, and ten is the best, I rate the overall solution a ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-06-02T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Bora Perzic from
A fantastic tool for creating content
What is our primary use case?
Over the years I have used ARIS in many ways depending on the project, and I have experience with many different versions of it. I've used versions seven, eight, and now ten. About ten years ago, I worked on developing ARIS and its standardization for six months.
When I first started using it, I used to build a center of excellence for a global project. We used it to document the expansion process of our company to the global market. There were a lot of Visio files and it was quite disorganized since anyone could edit the files however they would like. We tried to turn the Visio files into something more formal. For a year, we used a low-end tool to document the process. With ARIS, we documented around 2,000 processes. We used it to organize and create a publishment where people could find what they're looking for.
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
I like everything about ARIS BPA. I've used it for a long time and I think it's a fantastic tool. There is a list of things ARIS has that other solutions do not have.
What needs improvement?
The solution does not have an efficient way to track employees' work. It shows who worked on something last, but that overwrites the history of changes in a way. It is supposed to provide information on team activity, but it does not do that. The creators of the solution elaborated in great detail on quality control and thought about every possibility, but they didn't make that useful and simple to use. The overhead maintenance is good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA since 2010.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is very scalable. A ten out of ten. There is nothing even remotely close to it on the market.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
ARIS BPA is an extremely stable solution.
How are customer service and support?
ARIS' technical support team is great.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Many years ago, we used BusinessOptix at our company.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of ARIS BPA is simple. When we first started using it, it was deployed on-premises. The latest version was deployed on cloud and it only takes a few days. It promises to teach you how to do that, but that is not very helpful since your company's team and organization need to be suitable for this kind of complexity. It's web-based, but there are technical limits to what you can do with it. In a way, it encourages you to purchase more and more if you want to maximize its usability. It does not teach you how to use it and it's very formal. Although ARIS is a fantastic tool, it would be better if it was focused on the customer's success. It requires a lot of maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ARIS BPA is extremely expensive and the training time for it is extensive.
I had a hard time with ARIS' access and licensing policy. It requires you to pay for each step you want to take forward with the solution. To get the documentation, you need to be an administrator. If you want the license to read the documentation of the process, you need to be some kind of administrator/support account, but you will need to pay for the support. Even if I'm qualified they will not provide me with the documentation. Instead, they will ask you to print it out and send the request to them. I had to wait two months to get the account and six months to get the contract. All of that is extremely time-consuming.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have seen how MEGA works and it is definitely more user-friendly than ARIS.
What other advice do I have?
The requirements are extremely high and it takes a skilled professional to use it properly. Whether it's a big or a small company, it has to be used by someone who is familiar with its complexity. You should be aware before purchasing the solution that it is not simple to use and it takes time to learn. ARIS' free tool is much easier to use. I work in Germany, but I think they made ARIS less complex in other countries.
When it comes to ARIS BPA as a tool, I would rate it a solid ten out of ten. It's a fantastic tool, but it is not easy to achieve results with it. The chances of producing what is promised by the vendor are zero.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-09-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer2239197 from
Scalable product with an efficient object reusability feature
What is our primary use case?
We use the product for modeling business scenarios and processes. It helps in designing BPMN and functions.
How has it helped my organization?
ARIS BPA is customizable as per specific business requirements. It is flexible to structure and arrange essential components in business models.
What is most valuable?
The platform’s most valuable feature is object reusability. It has occurrence copies, which help us reuse any object in any model.
What needs improvement?
The product is difficult to use for someone without prior knowledge of working with it. It requires a certain level of administration training.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ARIS BPA for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product and quick to use.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 30 to 40 ARIS BPA users in our organization. It was highly scalable the last time I checked it with the technical advisor.
How was the initial setup?
We have deployed the product on the cloud.
What other advice do I have?
I rate ARIS BPA an eight out of ten. I advise others to appoint an executive with specific knowledge about the product.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-10-20T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Vikas Mheoe from
A stable and easy-to-deploy solution that provides an excellent user experience
What is most valuable?
My experience with the product was great. The tool has good navigation.
What needs improvement?
The tool must provide more documents. If someone gets stuck while using the product, the documents will help them to deal with issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I am learning the solution currently.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The tool is stable.
How are customer service and support?
The support team resolved my issues. I rate the support a seven and a half or eight out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. The solution is deployed on the cloud. It took us a few days to deploy it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is a bit pricey.
What other advice do I have?
ARIS BPA is my first BPA solution. I heard about it and thought to start working with it. I saw some YouTube videos and gathered some knowledge about it. It was a great experience. Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-11-10T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
BPMexp67 from
A solution that helps you to collect information, design, publish, and validate processes
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to collect information, design, publish, and validate the process. We can implement the process according to the improvements that can be retrieved. We monitor the process before the four phases of discovery, design, publishing, and implementation.
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
BPA is used to represent reality. We need to find and implement potential improvements from a workshop presentation and then monitor the results. We are not implementing these tools to plan and organize artifacts. This tool covers everything except implementation because that is not the purpose of a BPA tool. However, this tool can interface with implementation tools, and after implementation, you can use APIs and other interfaces to get information back from reality. In terms of improvement, the app could use some small details and functionalities. However, I need more time to sync to get more specific suggestions. We already have interfaces for these four tools, and it is possible to develop interfaces for the other four tools.
Inside the product, we can have a developer environment where we can create new scripts using APIs or STPI. This is the environment that we use to help interface the tools. In the past, we had many packages of interfaces. The suppliers of the provider preferred to have these package interfaces. We like to open the code, at least part of the code, with APIs and other things like this so that the consultants can create the interfaces with the specific tools. We use APIs and other search tools for this.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for more than 30 years.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is expensive. People who don't understand BPA or only understand a little bit about it often compare tools with videos and things like this, which are not comparable. They may have a lot of models and artifacts, but nothing is aligned or consistent. Customers prefer to start with fizzes and things like this, and later on, they come back and prefer to use a more professional tool.
What other advice do I have?
The solution is not easy to use. People at the operational level don't have the abstraction level needed for this proposal. When they get information from business people, they immediately decide on the other model. They come with additional information from other business departments and do the same. To do things properly, you need to think about a proper structure based on components. Then, when you get new information from previous areas, for example, IT, you should frame this further information or these recent changes in the structure you previously found. Otherwise, you're constantly reacting, doing a lot of ad hoc models. You'll have a lot of content without alignment, sense, or semantics.
The first step is to contact the customer. The next step is to present the customer with some proposals because when you present the proposal to them, they may accept or reject it. If they leave it, what will you do? This flexibility allows you to generate different views of the process for different stakeholders. For example, someone in top management might want to see a view from the customer contact until the proposal. Another person might want to see everything. You can take all of the components that you have designed before and create a specific view for them. It’s only about how to design business processes. It depends on the other two. One of the primary and critical requirements is to create business processes based on specific components that are well-linked and aligned together, in order to avoid ad hoc models. Ad hoc models are not very good. They do not work in the future. Usually, people start doing this because it is easier. This is closer to how ordinary people think.
Still, in the middle and long term, you will realize that it is not manageable because you have to prepare models, a visualization of things, and different models of the same reality. You will not know what the source of truth is at a certain point in time because you have many different presentations of the same fact. For me, this structure is crucial. This is where it should start: defining the system, how you will model it, and the methodology. What are the pros and cons of the method? How will you capture, model, validate, implement, and monitor the information? You must define this beforehand, at the beginning of any project. Otherwise, forget about it, regardless of your tool, because it is more about the concepts. If you don't have the right concepts, then forget about it. Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-09-28T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Mxolisi TrevorNgwenya from
Creates, manages, and analyzse your end-to-end business processes
What is our primary use case?
We use it for enhancing systems.
What is most valuable?
The solution is user-friendly and easy to use.
What needs improvement?
They should make improvements as per customer requirements.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Aris BPA for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a highly stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is a scalable solution. One hundred users are using the solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward. It does not require much maintenance.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate it a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-01-08T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Victor_Sleiman from
Easy-to-setup product with efficient reporting features
What is our primary use case?
We use the platform for document automation and capture all the processes.
What is most valuable?
ARIS BPA has valuable reporting capabilities.
What needs improvement?
ARIS BPA's scripting language takes work to understand. Even a JavaScript developer has to learn the language to write the script. This particular area needs to be easier to understand.
The user interface could be more intuitive and better designed. There is a lot of unused space in the interface, which could be utilized. Additionally, the color needs to be changed to make it more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using ARIS BPA for five to six months overall.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product crashes sometimes. They could provide clearer documentation detailing the right GDPR releases for installation on laptops or desktops. This documentation should not just state a generic version like "JDK 11" but provide specific details, such as recommending a certified or tested JDK version like "GE 11.0.19. Given the frequent updates in JDK releases—such as those from Oracle and Java, occurring nearly every week—it becomes essential to specify the precise compatible version and any performance implications between 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Additionally, aligning the development environment (potentially using JDK 17) with the executable's certification (such as JDK 11.0.19) is crucial for consistency and stability when users download and use the solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have 20 ARIS BPA licenses in our organization. It is a nice software. I rate its scalability a nine out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We are also using an open-source VPN solution.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. We have deployed it on-premise and in the cloud. We are a large organization requiring an IT team to manage the installation. I rate the process a nine out of ten.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The product is inexpensive.
What other advice do I have?
ARIS BPA's facilitate the visualization of change management during the development phase. We can extract the factory report directly. It is quite encouraging for the users. It has been in the best leadership position in Gartner since 2023.
I rate it a nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2024-01-05T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Nikola Dlaka from
Provides good reporting and is used for documenting and analyzing processes
What is our primary use case?
Most of the use cases I worked with were for documenting processes and trying to do some visual analysis with the stakeholders involved in those processes. It was a very convenient way because the solution has a repository. It's an integrated database where you can see a lot of interconnected views of your whole enterprise, including applications, roles, processes, documents, risks, and controls.
You can model everything about your enterprise in an interconnected repository, which you cannot easily do with other document-based tools like Visio. An object you place in a document doesn't really have any connection to the same object with the same name that you place in another model.
The solution's flexibility, reporting, and ability to customize your set of models, connections, objects, and attributes was really a positive thing. That's why many customers use ARIS BPA, and we recommend it for those scenarios.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting. You can use the solution to customize the whole set of objects and models. If you know a bit of programming, you can easily pull out or get data in ARIS BPA. You can even integrate the solution with other systems. The solution now has a REST API, which provides a lot of possibilities as the reporting does, but it's not quite there yet. We still depend a bit on the reports to integrate with other systems or fetch data from ARIS BPA very easily.
It's really a unified repository, and it's quite easy to configure and set up. Compared to other tools, the solution has good modeling, analysis, and visualization of processes. Currently, it has a really good process portal with a lot of nice functionalities. With the solution's search functionality, people can easily find processes relevant to them or where they are involved as someone executing some parts of the process or interfacing with another process.
A gas and oil company with oil rigs concluded that in the past, they had procedures always documented in some Word or PDF documents. It was really hard for people working on those rigs to follow these processes. They often disregarded or couldn't find relevant documentation. ARIS BPA improved their situation. People found it much easier to go to the portal, find their process, and link in more condensed documents. We can link some checklists to that activity. They find it much easier and user-friendly to follow and comply with the processes.
With the solution's process portal, you can present the whole content, and the users in the company can see how the process looks and what their roles are in the process. One company could even see screens of the applications that they need to use for that particular step in the process. It increases the documentation and serves as a knowledge base for the company employees on how to execute their processes.
ARIS BPA is a good solution for documenting and analyzing processes. We are really happy with the solution's reporting and documentation capabilities.
What needs improvement?
I always miss an execution module that is better than the current one. The current one is called ARIS Process Governance, and it's mostly focused on setting up internal workloads for ARIS and the process content. If you want to do some release cycle management processes, you would use the ARIS Process Governance module to create a workflow that sends tasks and emails to the users of ARIS.
ARIS BPA is not really a platform that offers you the opportunity to execute processes that you model. So, the model for execution is something that is missing. Typically, I wouldn't recommend ARIS as a process execution platform.
The solution is not built for automating and running workflows.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for 15 years.
What other advice do I have?
The awareness about business processes typically becomes much higher with the solution. Some organizations use Word documents, Excel, and PowerPoint to sketch up some business processes. This is typically done as a one-off exercise. Later, this gets forgotten, or someone leaves the company. Someone new comes, and then they may use a completely new methodology or way of modeling or working.
The positive thing about ARIS BPA is that you can easily set up and configure your methodology once. Then, everyone using it uses the same way of modeling processes, depicting different relationships between objects, models, roles, applications, etc.
You can establish a new unified methodology that can be expanded later on as you grow, or you want to model some other artifacts within your enterprise. It does help you establish a common methodology and a common repository to build your business process management and business process analysis suite.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2024-02-16T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Gururaj Shetti from
Has a web portal which makes it easy to model and show to the clients
What is most valuable?
The solution has come up with a web portal that makes it easy to model and show to clients.
What needs improvement?
The tool's installation and configuration part needs to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for a few years.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support is good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The solution is complex to install. The solution's configuration part is heavy and complex. The tool's setup takes one day to complete. You would need two to three people which would include, the technical lead, project manager, and developer to handle the deployment.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:Partner
Date published: 2023-07-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Toni Ojanaho from
A stable and scalable solution that helps to define processes
What is our primary use case?
The tool defines the processes. It's the documentation of everything.
What needs improvement?
The solution's processes are huge and it is not easy to get an overview of how things work. It needs to improve the interface. I would like to see the product include a better overview of processes and improve search.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the product for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The tool is scalable.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-06-09T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
Jon_Robinson from
Performs automatic rendering of diagrams, but usability needs to be improved
What is our primary use case?
ARIS BPA was underutilized because they used the ARIS modeling paradigm, including value-added chains, EPCs, and functional allocation diagrams.
How has it helped my organization?
ARIS BPA is coming up with a centralized repository of local business processes that could be referenced for design work and operations.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are the centralized repository and the automatic rendering of diagrams.
What needs improvement?
ARIS BPA’s usability could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPA for almost three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate ARIS BPA a nine out of ten for stability.
How was the initial setup?
ARIS BPA’s initial setup was straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective. It is also too costly to maintain, configure, and integrate.
What other advice do I have?
I am using the latest version of ARIS BPA. Do your due diligence to ensure that this is the product you need from a feature and cost perspective.
Overall, I rate ARIS BPA a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2023-06-06T00:00:00-04:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
David March from
Intuitive, easy to use, and adheres to the standards extremely well
What is our primary use case?
Our customers have generators on their facilities, and we manage those generators to provide services to the grid and reduce their costs. It involves peak shaving and that sort of stuff. We use ARIS BPM to essentially automate the communication to the grid and the generator and then update all of the account information regarding those transactions.
What is most valuable?
The ease of use is the most valuable. I have tried a number of BPMN packages, and I find the user interface of ARIS BPM easier and more intuitive than others. If your team is knowledgeable on BPMN, it is really pretty easy to figure out on your own because it adheres to the standards extremely well. I have tried Bizagi, BizFlow, and a variety of such solutions, and I just liked ARIS BPM better.
What needs improvement?
I use it strictly for developing the business process model. I don't use it for the actual automation. I do that with Vtenext. I have standardized on Vtenext, and I don't use ARIS BPM anymore. The Vtenext UI is just as good, and it is much more tightly coupled to the underlying object model. I can get more done in one session with Vtenext rather than first going to ARIS BPM, then importing, and having to edit it for tight coupling.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using ARIS BPM off and on for six months.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would not comment on this because we use it primarily just for the business process modeling and not the automation. So, I really can't comment on scaling. We have four users who are using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
We never contacted them. Its user interface is good and pretty intuitive.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented it through an in-house team.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend ARIS BPM depending upon the use case. I would generally recommend Vtenext first. I found Vtenext on GitHub as I was looking through and trying out lots of BPMN and BPA stuff. I used their product, and it is a really good product. We've now partnered with them.
I would rate ARIS BPM an eight out of ten.
Disclaimer: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Date published: 2020-11-07T00:00:00-05:00
Rated 5 out of
5 by
reviewer1379070 from
Good web-based portal that supports simple modeling, but the technical support has room for improvement
What is our primary use case?
We are a solution provider and ARIS BPM is one of the products that we implement for our clients.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature in the latest versions is the connect portal, where you can do modeling in a very simple manner using the web-based portal.
What needs improvement?
If you look at the administration function, it is rather complex.
If you want to create new reports then you have to use JavaScript, or ARIS script as they call it, which is beyond the competencies of most people.
I would recommend to Software AG that they move to SaaS as soon as possible. Currently, they have a cloud offering, but they don't really have a SaaS business model in place. They are still thinking in terms of licenses and my recommendation to them would be to stop doing this and move to SaaS ASAP because all of the other competitors are moving in that direction. As a SaaS, they might reconsider the positioning of the ARIS portfolio in the markets and to have, for example, specific pricing or specific environments for mid-size companies, instead of just a single implementation for enterprises.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with ARIS BPM for between 16 and 20 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of stability, it depends because there are several possibilities for how it is hosted. If it is on-premises then I can't say anything in terms of stability. However, the Amazon cloud is quite stable. We offer our own cloud environment and over the past four years, it has proven to be really stable.
Overall, if you look at the environment, it's quite stable, and if you look at the product, it's also very much improved in the last years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
My clients for this product are enterprise-level companies.
How are customer service and technical support?
There is room for improvement, especially in the communication area. If you have Software AG as technical support in a partner environment, there is obvious room for improvement here.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have worked with a lot of similar products including BiZZdesign, Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, and Bizagti. We are also currently doing a lot with GBTEC BIC.
At this time, I would recommend the BIC product from GBTEC the most because it comes down more or less to a newly developed ARIS environment, but in better shape. The core code of the product is new, and you might say, in general, that this is a better product. Also, if you look at the functionalities that they are building, it is less complex. It's more of a SaaS product and it's much easier to use.
How was the initial setup?
This product is rather complex to set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Currently, ARIS is just targeting enterprises of, for example, one-billion-plus companies. For these organizations, the price is fine. This is absolutely not the cheapest solution in the market, but for large companies, the price is fine.
If one were targeting companies of perhaps a hundred million and a billion, then the price might be a bit on the high side. For companies below a hundred million, then it's too expensive I would say.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for anybody who is implementing ARIS BPM is to have a good organization in place first. You really need to have ownership because if you implement ARIS and start using it there you have quite a few admin functions that you need to have in place. For example, looking at conventions, filtering, reports, account management, etc. There's a lot of work to be done and ownership in this regard is very important.
In summary, this is a good product but there is room for improvement in several areas.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclaimer: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:partner
Date published: 2020-11-06T00:00:00-05:00