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 10.3% mindshare in C, compared to Software AG’s 23.3% 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

849 Views
34 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Software AG Apama

Read 1 Software AG Apama review

294 Views
109 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 October 2025, in the CEP category, the mindshare of IBM Operational Decision Manager is 10.3%, up from 3.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Software AG Apama is 23.3%, down from 27.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

CEP Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Software AG Apama	23.3%
IBM Operational Decision Manager	10.3%
Other	66.4%

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

"ODM's most valuable features are that it's easy to define and divide business rules, and it can handle very large numbers of transactions per second."

"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."

"It's easy to build, easy to adopt for the business. Business can change those rules. I think IBM has done a good job in re-architecting the product with Decision Center as its centralized view, where the business can make changes to the rules dynamically."

"The business owns the rules and they're taken away from IT, so business doesn't need to ask IT to implement them, and IT doesn't need to implement them. So the business owns their decisions and their rules, and therefore, finally, they take proper ownership, and model and maintain them properly."

"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."

"By using ODM, we get rules to our applications, then we get those applications to go to market a lot faster."

"Its ability to use decision tables to codify the rules and manage them better."

"So far, the usability is great. It's also easy to set up."

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

"The solution's licensing cost needs improvement."

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

"Get to the cloud."

"Extracting specific rules could be better. We've had to do a lot of custom work on that. The testing, we've played a little bit with it, but we have our own testing methods. If it could be as simple as we have for our custom work, that would be great."

"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."

"The only thing we have trouble with is integrating IBM ODM with the cloud. The product is on-prem, and we need to migrate the rules to the cloud. It's a hectic process."

"The platform is good. Its footprint is a little heavy. Other than that, the product works great."

"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

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

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

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

"It is an expensive solution."

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

"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%

Outsourcing Company

Healthcare Company

No data available

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	1
Large Enterprise	15

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

Comparisons

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More IBM Operational Decision Manager Competitors

No data available

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Operational Decision Manager

September 2025

Download IBM Operational Decision Manager product report

Buyer's Guide

Streaming Analytics

September 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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