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ARIS BPA vs Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Alfabet IT Planning & Portf...
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (13th)
ARIS BPA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
68
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (5th), Business Process Management (BPM) (7th)
 

Featured Reviews

MS
Helps us to implement and understand the status of our projects
The initial setup is straightforward. The solution's deployment takes around two months time. We have to set up the solution. We have to put in the data to ensure that the solution is working. We need to fill out our process, our tools, and our data. Two developers were involved in the deployment process. It is a self-maintained solution that requires updates from time to time. I rate the setup an eight out of ten.
Tamer Eldamanhouri - PeerSpot reviewer
Empowers teams with robust business process modeling capabilities
They should examine competitor solutions to identify differentiators. One issue related to ARIS BPA is its integration with AI; it has AI features for cloud solutions, yet many in the government sector in Kuwait do not view the cloud as viable. Software AG should focus on developing AI models for ARIS BPA on-premises, particularly in user interfaces, as well as creating predefined business processes for common areas such as HR and finance. This aspect is crucial for adapting to the market's needs and streamlining custom solutions. While they have been helpful regarding pricing, I cannot compare ARIS BPA to other business process modeling tools because I understand some competitors have significantly lower costs than ARIS BPA. To maintain market share, good discounts should be provided to customers.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The dashboard is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable features are business process modeling and reporting."
"The simulation engine and SAP integration are technically very robust."
"The ability to sort via multiple criteria to identify the relationships you need for a specific object."
"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."
"ARIS BPA has a good directory option, which helps to keep track of all of your metadata, and that's very useful."
"There is a really powerful reporting API that allows you to create almost any kind of report you want out of your process and document repository."
"Collaboration and governance over enterprise artifacts."
"The maintenance capabilities of ARIS BPM and the strong underlying database are particularly valuable."
 

Cons

"The user-experience, enhanced performance, and in-hand governance can be improved."
"It would be helpful if ARIS BPA could have a simple database to get the extract of various attributes."
"Since ARIS 9.X was released, the product has not been as robust and responsive as the previous versions​."
"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."
"​Training is one of the important aspects for process awareness. As soon as a process is rolled out, process training is required. If ARIS could generate output in PowerPoint, it would be great for business users."
"The workflow approval process could be represented better in the overviews."
"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."
"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 cross and upselling of modules within the core ARIS component are lagging behind the SaaS movement."
"The model graphics can be exported in PDF, but the model is too small to read."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is expensive. There is a yearly licensing cost. There are no additional costs, only the standard license, and the cloud license."
"From my point of view, no, it is not cheap, but it is not too expensive because you get this big organization behind it, technical support, and all those things. It's not so expensive to use. It's a Rolls Royce in this field, I know that. Even for small organizations, they can get so much effect from using this tool, in a very fast way, so the money will be back in the customer's pocket very fast."
"The pricing and licensing costs are available on their website. They will assign a relationship manager to assist if you show further interest in their products."
"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
"Negotiate. Price is high so make sure you’re getting the best deal."
"I would recommend the product to only enterprise companies because of the pricing."
"The setup cost and pricing depend on the license (Modeler, Viewer, Administrator)."
"ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once."
"We have a concurrent license system."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management?
The solution is expensive. There is a yearly licensing cost. There are no additional costs, only the standard license, and the cloud license.
What needs improvement with Alfabet IT Planning & Portfolio Management?
The user-experience, enhanced performance, and in-hand governance can be improved.
What do you like most about ARIS BPA?
The most valuable features of ARIS BPA are its flexibility and reporting.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ARIS BPA?
Pricing for ARIS BPA is average, not cheap or expensive. It's cost-effective and worth the money we pay.
What needs improvement with ARIS BPA?
I find it difficult to access the database as I want with direct querying. I must write scripts, which requires specific knowledge. Software AG could improve this by making the database more open. ...
 

Also Known As

planningIT, alfabet planningIT, Alfabet IT Planning and Portfolio Management
ARIS, ARIS BPM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

FUJITSU, Coca Cola, ING, CreditSuisse, CosmosDirekt, GTA, Echo Entertainment Group, Electrolux, Cern
Tesco, Weifu, Airbus, Siemens, Proximus, Alicorp, Sekerbank, Bancor, Philips,Sky, Emirates NBD, Dubai Municipality, Suva, U.S. Army, Australia Post, Westfalen Weser Energie - ARIS serves customers across all industries and of every size worldwide. Companies trust ARIS as the market leader for process excellence with more than 30 years of experience in the market, 10 million users worldwide, from 1 user companies to the Fortune 500.
Find out what your peers are saying about ServiceNow, Broadcom, Smartsheet and others in Project Portfolio Management. Updated: June 2025.
860,632 professionals have used our research since 2012.