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?
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