IBM Operational Decision Manager vs Software AG Apama comparison

IBM and Software AG are both solutions in the CEP category. IBM is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.0, while Software AG is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.0. IBM holds a 11.4% mindshare in C, compared to Software AG’s 22.7% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Software AG users who would recommend it.

IBM Operational Decision Ma...

Read 15 IBM Operational Decision Manager reviews

939 Views
19 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Software AG Apama

Read 1 Software AG Apama review

286 Views
97 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

IBM Operational Decision Ma...

Software AG Apama

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

IBM Operational Decision Ma...

Ranking in CEP

3rd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Business Rules Management (3rd)

Software AG Apama

Ranking in CEP

1st

Average Rating

7.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Streaming Analytics (23rd)

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the CEP category, the mindshare of IBM Operational Decision Manager is 11.4%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Software AG Apama is 22.7%, down from 26.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CEP

Featured Reviews

Bhasker ReddyPIdintla

Technical Delivery Head at Tech Mahindra Limited

The solution provides an efficient, comprehensive way to manage polices for all the applications.

We use ODM to set complex business rules. For instance, we deploy this solution for most of our banking customers because there are frequent changes in the policies and business rules. These are complex to manage for enterprise applications. ODM provides an efficient, comprehensive way to manage…

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Shekhar Pathak

Sr Executive Accounts at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

A tool to send out promotional notifications that need to improve areas, like deployment and maintenance

Software AG Apama should support offline scenarios as it may not always be possible to stay connected with the cloud. The solution should be deployed on an on-premises model, and it should be able to handle offline scenarios. If certain rules are set in Software AG Apama, then it should be able to execute them without being connected to an open internet source. With Software AG Apama, one may face challenges since it is difficult to find people with the right skill set to operate it. The solution also makes use of a proprietary programming language that is hard to trace in the market. It is better to go with the new options available in the market since Software AG Apama has become an old product. The ease of development and maintenance should be enhanced, but it is difficult due to the use of the proprietary programming language in the product.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Its ability to untangle hard coded rules and put them in a more manageable structure."

"It reduces operating costs because you are taking some of this work out of the high cost IT people, freeing them up to work on new initiatives and getting them out of maintenance mode. Now, the business people are the ones making business decisions on what needs to change. They are hands on making these changes."

"ODM provides an efficient, comprehensive way to manage all the applications. Regardless of the BPM tool we are using, we choose ODM because it's flexible."

"There are absolutely benefits to managing business rules with IBM ODM instead of hard coding them into our applications. Business can change things on the fly and they don't have to deal with us in IT to do so."

"The most valuable features are the Decision center, a web UI that allows us to make direct edits to our policies or rules; the Rule Execution Server, which allows us to analyze the rules and performance; and Rule Designer, where you can write rules and decision tables."

"The effects of allowing business users to update business rules instead of IT are business users have a closer relationship with what rules they need and are able to make those rules a lot quicker in the tools that ODM provides than if an IT person had to do it, and do it in code, requiring compiling code and deploying it."

"It has benefited our organization by having less coding changes. Thus, we save time and don't have to hire as many people."

"I like the fact that I don't have to deal with business rules, and then our business partners deal with it. I'm a developer, so I don't have to deal with that kind of stuff. I just make the code, then our business people take care of the business side. It's a great split."

More IBM Operational Decision Manager pros

"The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability that it provides its users to handle different kinds of rules."

Cons

"An area for improvement is that the documentation for ODM is huge and not very clear."

"Get to the cloud."

"There is some promise of how decisions could take advantage of machine learning and artificial intelligence. That has been slow to develop. It is still not clear where the market will take it, but that is something that I am looking forward to down the road."

"I would like to have integration of the user interfaces, and they are putting them together in the next version of the solution."

"ODM could be improved with better integration with other platforms."

"The solution's licensing cost needs improvement."

"One area for improvement is master data integration. That should be more fluid. The others are hierarchical drop-down lists, and hierarchical master data."

"I think there should be a facility for business to really create rules from scratch. The only part for IT should be to make sure the platform is stable, the technology platform, but everything else, the business should be able to create those rules."

More IBM Operational Decision Manager cons

"The ease of development and maintenance should be enhanced, but it is difficult due to the use of the proprietary programming language in the product."

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a client who had a three-month ROI on this tool, just in additional sales, from sort of the next best action of what product that they should offer to their clients. ROI can be very quick with this product."

"It was not a large cost. It was a one-time cost."

"It will definitely improve the cash flow of our clients, thereby it will improve the cash flow to us."

"ODM's pricing could be more competitive as there are open-source business rules engines that are becoming standard."

"We made a lifetime purchase. We purchased it by number of PVUs for our stage and product environments."

"It is an expensive solution."

"A commercial license is required to operate Software AG Apama."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

28%

Insurance Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Computer Software Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

Where can I learn about Operational Decision Managers?

IBM Operational Decision Manager is a best place to understand the product. There are some online videos that can help you once gain the basic understanding.

See all answers

What do you like most about Software AG Apama?

The most valuable feature of the solution is the ability that it provides its users to handle different kinds of rules.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Software AG Apama?

A commercial license is required to operate Software AG Apama.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Software AG Apama?

See all answers

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Operational Decision Manager

August 2025

Download IBM Operational Decision Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

August 2025

Download Software AG Apama product report

Also Known As

IBM Operational Decision Management, ILOG JRules, IBM ODM, IBM WebSphere Business Events

Progress Apama

Overview

IBM Operational Decision Manager is a comprehensive decision automation platform that helps you discover, capture, analyze, automate and govern rules-based business decisions. Anyone can work with it―from IT to business-line leaders. In seconds, it can authorize a loan, decide on a promotion or detect a cross-sell opportunity with high precision and customization. With IBM Operational Decision Manager, your applications will continuously remain up to date and well aligned with the changing business objectives of your organization. It is available in editions for both cloud and private cloud environments.

IBM

Enables both sell-side and buy-side traders to leverage proprietary trading strategies.

Software AG

Sample Customers

Odyssey Transportation & Logistics Corporation, Swiss Customs, Athletes' Performance, L_elo, Versicherungskammer Bayern

Okasan Online Securities

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