Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Planview Portfolios vs SAP PowerDesigner comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 3, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
6.4
Planview Portfolios boosts visibility, efficiency, and decision-making, supporting strategic alignment and enhancing collaboration and operational performance.
Sentiment score
3.4
SAP PowerDesigner users report a 43% ROI, with improved efficiency and quick returns outweighing licensing costs.
It also delivers a set of shared metrics focused on customer value, such as speed and quality, to achieve business results while being able to roll up objectives and key results in the system where work gets done to ensure strategy informs execution and vice versa.
Project Manager at 3M
Reports and real-time analytics enhance real-time data-driven decision making.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
I also love the ability to provide visibility and transparency across an organization; it allows us to create custom reports and dashboards for easy data analysis, hence making data-driven decisions easily.
Project Manager at AT&T
I cannot put a number on it, but if you think about developing software manually or using a tool to generate software and considering the license cost of SAP PowerDesigner, the ROI is pretty positive relatively quick because it's not that expensive.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
8.3
Planview Portfolios customer service is mixed, with proactive support but occasional slow resolutions and varying assistance quality.
Sentiment score
5.8
SAP PowerDesigner support is efficient but has issues with slow response times, complex systems, and accessibility concerns.
The customer support for Planview Portfolios has been quick to respond and very proactive since I have reached out to them several times.
Project Manager at AT&T
The customer support for Planview Portfolios is very proactive and responsive.
System Engineer at BNY
The customer support for Planview Portfolios is very proactive and responsive.
Project Manager at AT&T
It relies heavily on VBScript, which is something that will be end of life in a few years in Windows.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
Regarding technical support, after a recent licensing issue caused a temporary halt, we realized the importance of tracking licensing and version updates to avoid future disruptions in service.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Until I get 16.7 and complete the migration, I'm not getting any help from them.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
8.1
Planview Portfolios scales effectively for enterprise use, integrating well with tools, despite performance issues with large data loads.
Sentiment score
7.3
SAP PowerDesigner is highly scalable, effectively supporting varied team sizes and models, with generally positive feedback on its performance.
The scalability of Planview Portfolios is very effective, and it handles all of my organization's projects and tasks.
System Engineer at BNY
Planview Portfolios is very scalable because it grows with the organization.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
Planview Portfolios is very scalable because it handles my organization's growth, allowing us to work with both small projects and big projects at the same time.
Project Manager at AT&T
Currently, there are no scalability limitations in SAP PowerDesigner, allowing us to create numerous data models for various projects.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The scalability of SAP PowerDesigner is very good.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
Our main objective is to upgrade to the supported version and be able to do whatever we are doing at the moment.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
9.1
Planview Portfolios is reliable and stable, with minor performance issues often linked to external factors or large configurations.
Sentiment score
7.0
SAP PowerDesigner is generally stable, though challenges may arise with remote access, complex models, and specific configurations.
Planview Portfolios is very stable; I have not experienced any downtime.
Project Manager at 3M
Planview Portfolios is very stable.
Project Manager at AT&T
If you use a lot of customizations, especially using VBScript, it becomes less stable.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
This may lead to frequent downtimes requiring server maintenance; thus, it is not suitable for highly complex solutions, but moderate complexities can be handled.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The product is reliable.
Principal Architect at Sopra Steria
 

Room For Improvement

Improving Planview Portfolios' integration, customization, automation, documentation, metrics, and UI could enhance user adoption and streamline management.
SAP PowerDesigner faces challenges with high pricing, limited database integration, poor usability, and inadequate collaboration, requiring improvements.
An important improvement would be to add more automation features and provide more online documentation videos that would make it much easier to use for non-technical users.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
Additionally, there should be plenty of resources online, such as tutorials and videos on how to guide and how to use Planview Portfolios, especially with its robust features, explaining each feature and how it works.
Project Manager at 3M
Reporting flexibility is needed so that end users can create their own quick ad hoc reports for analysis and for better data-driven decisions.
Project Manager at AT&T
SAP PowerDesigner does not have a cloud option. It's only on-premise.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
I would like to see a feature added to SAP PowerDesigner where, upon extracting data from a source, it automatically identifies relationships between tables.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
The web portal is unstable and does not work. It freezes up all the time.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Setup Cost

Planview Portfolios is costly but valued for large enterprises; the FLEX model offers flexibility, benefiting strategic alignment.
SAP PowerDesigner pricing varies, manageable for large firms but costly for small consultancies, considering licensing and setup expenses.
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Planview Portfolios has been cost effective and affordable.
Customer Service Representative at Roche
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Planview Portfolios has been cost-effective and fairly pocket-friendly.
Project Manager at 3M
Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.
Project Manager at AT&T
One issue is the cost, as it is a high-priced tool coming from SAP.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
 

Valuable Features

Planview Portfolios enhances productivity and decision-making through flexible reporting, resource management, and integration with Power BI.
SAP PowerDesigner is praised for its data modeling, customization, user interface, and collaboration features enhancing data management efficiency.
This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency.
Project Manager at 3M
End-to-end visibility enables us to analyze performance data across the organization to measure the success of strategic initiatives with key performance indicators and make timely decisions to ensure outcome realization.
Project Manager at AT&T
The comprehensive set of features empowers users to allocate resources strategically, analyze costs accurately, and align project timelines with available resources seamlessly.
Project Lead at Wells Fargo
The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis.
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
SAP PowerDesigner doesn't only allow you to model the structure of your database, but you can also model data mappings or data flows or lineage.
Data Solution Consultant | Owner at a non-tech company with 1-10 employees
What I appreciate best about SAP PowerDesigner is that it is a very detailed and comprehensive tool.
Senior Advisor-Data Modeling at Suncor Energy
 

Categories and Ranking

Planview Portfolios
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
71
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (4th)
SAP PowerDesigner
Ranking in Enterprise Architecture Management
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
39
Ranking in other categories
Metadata Management (5th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Enterprise Architecture Management category, the mindshare of Planview Portfolios is 2.4%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SAP PowerDesigner is 7.4%, down from 8.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Architecture Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SAP PowerDesigner7.4%
Planview Portfolios2.4%
Other90.2%
Enterprise Architecture Management
 

Featured Reviews

Monabi Kingsley - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at 3M
Centralized planning has improved resource visibility and supports data‑driven financial decisions
The best features Planview Portfolios offers are visibility enhancement, robust system performance, and comprehensive resource management. This enhanced visibility in Planview Portfolios ensures that all users can easily track progress, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize workflow efficiency. When discussing robust system performance, the system's robust performance in meeting our various work requirements effectively and efficiently stands out. It is very stable and reliable, contributing to a seamless user experience, which enables users to focus on their tasks without disruptions. I also love the financial breakdown, planning and prioritization, and attribute collection on projects in Planview Portfolios. Planview Portfolios has positively impacted my organization since I started using it. It has enabled me to gain insights into the full scope of work consuming resources. I am able to know where the resources are being consumed more, especially which resources are consuming the most. I have been able to leverage resources management and resource time reporting, which enabled the generation of $90 million in annual revenue through labor billing to customers.
Kopparapu Venkatesh Prasad - PeerSpot reviewer
Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Data modeling tool improves data management and decision-making efficiency
The lineage analysis helps my organization understand data dependencies at an enterprise level. As a SAP PowerDesigner developer, I monitor data across the organization, creating data models that reflect not just one data warehouse but comprehensive organizational information. If you have a small company, lineage helps track employee data across different areas such as finance and HR. Data governance prevents duplicate records, so when tracking employee details, SAP PowerDesigner highlights where data exists in various areas, helping ensure we only use the appropriate sources. This functionality allows us to assess the impact of data deletions effectively. I utilize the reverse engineering capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner. Reverse engineering is helpful, especially since I have colleagues new to SAP PowerDesigner. They often do not know which columns are available where. In SAP PowerDesigner, we can reverse engineer existing data from its source and identify errors in production. For instance, by using Ali's example, if an error arises, I can trace it back to the table and environment it originated from using the reverse engineering feature. The best features of SAP PowerDesigner, from my perspective, are its ability to keep the connectivity between the source database and the new system, data redundancy and availability, and impact analysis. The first feature acts as a bridge between systems. The second allows us to see what data is already available and what new data can be brought in. The third, impact analysis, helps determine how many tables will be affected if a specific table is deleted. This critical point allows us to capture how much data will be lost if any table is removed. Currently, these features shape my daily work. SAP PowerDesigner primarily benefits business management units by offering three types of data modeling structures: conceptual, logical, and physical models. The conceptual model communicates high-level insights to top executives, while logical and physical models address complex queries faced by developers in analytics. SAP PowerDesigner enhances the clarity of our data management significantly, as around 80% of data can be searched quickly and maintained in our SAP systems. The tool enables mapping from end to end, making my work faster and more efficient than using other ER data modeling solutions. The interface allows easy creation of data models and searching for existing data, ensuring I can complete my tasks significantly quicker. The importance of SAP PowerDesigner's collaboration capabilities lies in fostering a unified data management approach. It acts as a unified tool, preventing the duplication of existing data in analytical processes, thus saving both effort and storage costs, which is essential for effective data management. We utilize collaboration capabilities in SAP PowerDesigner with various source systems such as PG admin, Postgres, Oracle, and Snowflake. Recently, we have added Snowflake for cloud data modeling and POC work, streamlining the collaboration process across different systems.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Architecture Management solutions are best for your needs.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Marketing Services Firm
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
22%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business2
Midsize Enterprise4
Large Enterprise66
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise7
Large Enterprise17
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Planview Portfolios?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing has been that Planview Portfolios is one of the best and a very cost-effective tool.
What needs improvement with Planview Portfolios?
Planview Portfolios can be improved as the user interface defaults to the last opened portfolio, which can waste a lot of time loading a large portfolio if that is not what I need at that moment. J...
What is your primary use case for Planview Portfolios?
My main use case for Planview Portfolios is to ensure governance and decision auditability by incorporating embedded workflows, approval management, and key document retention supporting a single c...
What do you like most about SAP PowerDesigner?
It allows us to have proper documentation in terms of the databases.
What needs improvement with SAP PowerDesigner?
It was a long time back when my company purchased it, but I am now participating in upgrading it to the latest version. I found customer support to be tedious during the upgrade process to the late...
 

Also Known As

Planview Enterprise One, Troux
Sybase PowerDesigner
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

UPS, NatWest, Ingram Micro, Canadian Tire, Viessmann, Volvo, NASCO, UNESCO
Medtronic, Cirque du Soleil, Antarc, B&G Manufacturing, EarlySense, eBay, Ferrero, James Austin Company, Lenovo, Sagem, RAK Ceramics, Vodafone
Find out what your peers are saying about Planview Portfolios vs. SAP PowerDesigner and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.