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ARIS BPA vs IBM Rational System Architect 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

ARIS BPA
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
66
Ranking in other categories
Business Process Design (4th), Business Process Management (BPM) (9th)
IBM Rational System Architect
Average Rating
7.4
Number of Reviews
5
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Architecture Management (19th)
 

Mindshare comparison

ARIS BPA and IBM Rational System Architect aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ARIS BPA is designed for Business Process Design and holds a mindshare of 7.8%, down 9.2% compared to last year.
IBM Rational System Architect, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Architecture Management, holds 1.7% mindshare, down 2.6% since last year.
Business Process Design
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

Libor Černý - PeerSpot reviewer
I can usually find an answer to my issue on ARIS Community
From the start, there were some difficulties on how to create outputs since there wasn't a repository tool in version 6. However, in version 7, there has been a tool for creating standards for a company, and that tool has been very intuitive. While I have been using this tool for several years, other people just starting to use it find the learning curve steep. This tool is very robust and accommodates many roles, where people can participate from compliance, IT designers, etc. This can create problems for users who have no experience with similar tools. It took me a year before I felt comfortable with this tool, because when I came from university it was the first or second tool that I worked on. It took me a year to run every feature or use it for every possibility since this tool is very robust. We sometimes have to create the link to the server and the repository twice because it is deleted once for some unknown reason. Though, this is not a big problem. There should be a more intuitive tool when creating reports.
it_user951237 - PeerSpot reviewer
Modeling is useful, but many features need improvement and technical support is lacking
I find that almost every feature related to the models requires improvement. For example, I would like to see more trendy models, the look and feel of the models can be improved. This solution can be more user-friendly and easier to use, with better dashboards. The impact analysis feature is in need of heavy improvement. The is a standalone product that lacks integration with a business process automation engine. I would like to see the workflow improved, where it integrates seamlessly with the artifacts.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Process Modeling or Process Mapping/Documentation. This is the most comprehensive tool for capturing the process details. Any organization who wants to embark on a BPM journey, process mapping/documentation, lays the foundation for the BPM led implementation."
"The most valuable feature in the latest versions is the connect portal, where you can do very simple modeling using the web-based portal."
"Also, the UML parts have been improved very much in the last two years. And it's very powerful now to combine the BPMN and UML parts in the product, because you can make a connection between them, so that you have the right interoperability between them. So if you're doing data modeling, you can use your class diagram and bind that to the BPMN part."
"Platform that it supports covers legacy and new. Caters to moving older objects into an integrated DB, relatively popular ones: SQL, Oracle, etc."
"​It is a well-featured, functional product."
"The solution's basic features are easy to use, overall designed well, and it has good process mining analysis."
"The stability of the ARIS BPM platform is quite good. The nice thing about it is the central database, where we can use all of our data. We can even manage users."
"The capability to integrate all information of the business and to generate simulations of processes. It can analyze the model of operations quickly."
"The solution is pretty stable."
"The user interface is good. It's both clear and comprehensible. It's easy to work with."
"There are a lot of features I find valuable, but I think that the metamodel customization is one of the best features that the solution offers."
"We have seen ROI with this solution over the years that we have used it."
 

Cons

"Create simple data uploader."
"Its governance tool and integration with ESB and execution engine can be improved. Their partner support can also be improved."
"The tool's installation and configuration part needs to improve."
"The governance mechanism could be better, as could automation."
"ARIS has an internal fully customizable workflow system called APG, which is very good, but it’s targeted mostly at creating workflows related to ARIS content, and not general workflows to support other processes inside a company."
"​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."
"One of the issues is, when you are defining databases, the way they use entities and relationship diagrams, the way we can define data, like data models, there is still a part they could improve."
"Needs flexibility in automation of the modeling processes and real-time analysis of data, not just a static view.​"
"This solution can be more user-friendly and easier to use, with better dashboards."
"The reverse engineering of the database is already there, but in the next release I would like to see some pilot supplied with the solution in order to address any database."
"There needs to be more information at the outset about how to use the solution and how to deploy it. The deployment process needs improvement."
"The solution needs to better integrate with other products, like Microsoft."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"You will never get a fixed price for this product because they will go in and ask you what kind of environment would you like to set up? How many people will you work with? How big is your organization? Today, they have a fixed price to say, "Okay, just to start the business area, buy two licenses for modeling and eight people that can look into the product." They have this kind of fixed price. It's 50,000 Danish Krone. If you divided that by about six, then you get the pricing in dollars. Still, when you are going out, negotiate and find the right price. You will never get a fixed price: "It costs this and, if you take ten of these, seven of these and eight of these, and then it costs this." No, you negotiate every time."
"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."
"ARIS is quite expensive."
"ARIS has different licensing mechanisms for different modules, but they are perpetual licenses. So you pay once."
"Their license model is really difficult to understand, and licenses are quite expensive."
"ARIS BPA is too costly from a licensing perspective."
"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."
"Prices are high. However, they are worth it if the organization utilizes the tool to its full potential."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
18%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
15%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

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. ...
Ask a question
Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

ARIS, ARIS BPM
Rational System Architect
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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.
Wuxi Lake Cloud, Nationwide, ETI, IDS Scheer
Find out what your peers are saying about Camunda, Microsoft, Sparx Systems and others in Business Process Design. Updated: March 2025.
845,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.