erwin Data Modeler by Quest Reviews

We used this solution to upload and document our database models from the legacy systems.

The principal feature that I liked is that the solution has a very graphic interface.

I think the interface sometimes looks old-fashioned when compared to other solutions, so maybe that can be improved. 

Also, I would like the solution to be more user-friendly to deploy.

After those initial problems, the solution became stable.

The solution only works with one server and one database, so I don't think it's scalable enough.

The solution has a good support center. They provide responses quickly, in about a day. 

The solution was a little hard to set up. We had to request help from our provider because we had some technical problems with getting the solution to work. There were some problems with configuration, and it took about three months to get the solution working.

My advice to those considering this solution would be that they should first evaluate what they need. I suggest they maybe do a POC to evaluate their use cases and then work at finding a solution, and run all the necessary tests before starting to work with the solution.

I would rate this solution as a seven out of ten.

We used this solution for three to five projects that we had.

They have a lot of features and the most up-to-date technology integration, which I haven't seen in other products.

In terms of features, I believe they were doing very well in the latest technologies as well.

There are too many features. People find it extremely difficult to navigate. It's a great product, but there are too many features and no one knows exactly where things are. For example, the documentation is not always straightforward, which is why I use another competitor's product, which is simpler and easier to use. It has more features than the product I previously used.

This is a very complex product.

They have a lot of features, and that may be the reason why I'm not familiar with them and has made it more complicated for me. 

In comparison to other products I've used, such as ER studio, which is a competitor to erwin. It is simple and easy to code as well as other functions. Even the coding has become much simpler. I can see that this is a little more complicated. I'm not certain. Right now, I can explicitly state that no features are required because I still need to explore some areas. Maybe the reporting area will be interesting if it is more dynamic.

I have been working with erwin Data Modeler (DM) for approximately four years.

We are using version 9 or 9.1.

Pricing is very high compared to any other product.

I would rate erwin Data Modeler (DM) a nine out of ten. 

For the first 30 years of my career, I worked on many small projects. Since erwin was released, I used it to help develop projects up until about two years ago. At that time, I moved to a new company and I still use erwin in my current role.

When I moved to the new company, I recommended erwin and explained it to my colleagues and my clients. When the most recent version was released, I looked at the licensing and became familiar with its new features and benefits.

I have developed a couple of projects myself in the past two years, including one that had to do with mail, in Serbia, which was an interesting project. Another and the other to do with handling automotive equipment maintenance. One of the projects is something that I started from the beginning, whereas the other was reengineered with changes made and new features added.

I have also worked with erwin from a higher-level role. Rather than developing smaller projects, I have taken responsibility for a much larger project worth several million Euros.

In general, if you start using erwin from the beginning of a project then it provides a lot of benefits. You have to start with the process modeling, and then find data and create an entity, and the process continues. Essentially, you have to have something before you create the data model. However, if you're talking about reengineering a project that has existing data models or existing processes, then the benefits of using erwin are really big. You can save 50% of the time if you're working on reengineering existing processes or existing data models.

The visual data models are okay for helping to overcome data source complexity. If the project is started with erwin from the beginning then I can create the database, stored procedures, and everything that I need. However, when it comes to reengineering an existing product, and if the database changes then some of the stored procedures, as well as other things also need to change. For example, in one project, the original database was Informix and the new one is Microsoft SQL Server.

The erwin ETL functionality has room for improvement when it comes to mapping databases with a classic entity-relationship model to a data warehouse model. If you have a legacy database like Informix, Oracle, SQL Server, or something similar, then you need to create a data warehouse database. These use completely different logic and you need to create some procedures to map the tables.

The number of databases should be extended.

To have more documentation or available knowledge on how to connect is very important. This is probably the most important issue that I have experienced. Specifically, I would like more information on how to connect, how to transfer, and how to do the mapping from a legacy database.

If you try to open a file from an older version of erwin, you can only open files from one version back. This is all that they support, so they need to add the option of opening all older versions. As it is now, they push people to buy a new version every year.

We have been using erwin since the beginning when it was first released by Logic Works in 1993.

There is absolutely no problem with the stability.

In terms of scalability, there is not enough long-term support for each version of erwin. In the past, the extensions of some erwin models, or files were ER1. After that, the file extension was ERW and now it is ERAN, which created some confusion.

In my current company, I am the only person using erwin because we are not specialists in development. In my previous company, five or six people were using it.

The support is okay and I am satisfied with it. However, it's a little slower getting support for the role that I'm in now, as compared to when I was at my previous company.

In the past, the support was always okay. Within a few hours, I either had an answer or was at least speaking with them. We sent emails to discuss how to solve the problem.

Overall, I'm really satisfied with the support.

I have used several other modeling tools in the past, including SAP PowerDesigner and Bizagi. My experience with them has depended on what I needed to do. For example, Bizagi has a completely different way of developing a model. I am not satisfied with it because they don't follow the rules for relational modeling.

On the other hand, Power Designer is quite a good tool that works well. It's a complex tool that can be used for data modeling and process modeling. They use BPMN methodology and in terms of functionality, it has enough. From a cost perspective, it is cheaper than erwin.

The initial setup is straightforward, it was no problem.

The installation can be done in five minutes. The new version may take a little longer, but it is very fast.

When we have completed, we have erwin come to analyze the process.

We start with global entities, or how I can see it on a higher level without talking about the relationship model. I am looking for the relation, and foreign keys, then we search for the stored procedure and functions.

We look at the first creating the keys, the primary and alternative keys in the tables, entities, and at the end, we develop the indexing. The indexing requires daily analysis when you put the database in operation they look at the speed of everything. you can change the indexing to make your database faster.

In my previous company, there we had a really large return on investment from using erwin. In one of the systems that we re-engineered, there were more than 2,000 tables. If these had to be created from the beginning then it would have taken a really long time to collect all of the information. When it comes to reengineering, the database usually stays the same with perhaps 20% to 30% of the model being modified.

In my current company, we are trying to educate our clients on using erwin. Many of them are not using it in their everyday business. The problem is that bigger organizations, like government departments, usually want to have somebody from outside their own organization develop the solution.

The price of erwin Data Modeler is very expensive, in particular for this part of the world. I think that for the United States and Europe, the price is probably okay. However, in Serbia, the salary of an IT engineer is perhaps 50% of what it is in the United States. Because of this, erwin needs to have a different pricing model for different countries.

For example, you cannot sell products in places like Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania, and other places in this part of Europe at the same price as countries like Germany, Norway, or the United States. This is something that needs to change from a licensing perspective.

In terms of erwin's code generation and the accurate engineering of data sources, for some of the databases, it is quite okay. However, in others, it is not exactly following the rules of the database in the way that I want to generate the model.

There are two ways to generate a model. The first is to create a schema, which is a textual file that contains everything needed to create a complete database structure. The second is to have erwin connect to the databases directly. In this case, erwin installs and creates the database.

In some cases, it is better to first create a DB schema, which is an SQL file where you can look for syntax errors or other problems in the code. Once complete, you can create the database, including the tables and everything else.

When I start to use erwin in a project, it is normally right after I analyze the process. The second thing I do is look at the global entities, so I can view the system from a high level without dealing with the relationship model. After that, I start looking for relationships, creating the primary and alternative keys in the table. I then start looking for foreign keys. At that stage, I begin to look for stored procedures and functions. After this, I work on the creation of indexes.

The indexing needs to be analyzed daily, once the database is put into operation. This helps with database performance. When you change the indexing, the database gets faster.

My advice for anybody who is planning to use erwin is that sometimes, it should be used to develop models right from the beginning. It will depend on the project, as well as the organization and the experience that they have with erwin. It is also possible to have different people and different teams from the same company working on one model. For example, we have three development centers that are all working on the same model.

The biggest lesson that I have learned from using erwin DM is that it pushes you to use the notation and methodology exactly. You must follow the rules. Several years ago, they started adding tools and options that are used to verify a model, and this functionality helps to point out mistakes in the models. Once the model is correct, you can move on to working with the databases and the specifics of each one. You can move very easily between databases such as Informix, Oracle, and MySQL, without losing much time.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.

When I work from home, my use case for erwin is for when I get a request for a database upgrade. Usually, the request comes in with a whole bunch of tables and names so I'll go into the DM and I'll start building out what they're asking for. Once we actually get them to be able to view it and understand it, then we'll go back and forth with the developers and the requesters to make sure that it's exactly what they're looking for. We'll spend a few days making sure everything looks correct. Once that's finished, I'll send it out. 

Unfortunately, I can't do a PDF straight from erwin so I'll copy everything into Word and then save my Word as a PDF. With that PDF, I'll be able to send it off to all the stakeholders, not just the developers and the requesters, so that everybody can see it, even the ones that don't have erwin itself.

My office use case is pretty much the same, except with the office, we add in Model Mart. We have our entire network, all the databases, and everything in Model Mart and it's over 1,500 different tables, relationships, attributes, and things like that. It's a really large model. Then, we break down that model into individual subject areas and we work through those. We go back to any new requests, we'll build them in Data Modeler and we'll go back and forth with the requesters, making sure everything looks like what they're expecting it to. They'll usually just send us either a spreadsheet of names and data types and then we build from there.

erwin brings data to life. We're currently working with a requester at that moment, who provided us with a spreadsheet of their ideas of tables and attributes with the metadata associated with each. Then they provided us a rudimentary diagram with tables and keys. I was able to put it into erwin along with the metadata that they were asking for, and it really brought questions to life. The people said, "We didn't realize the relationships were going to bring in these extra keys." And they didn't realize there were a lot of extra pieces coming in as well. Once we did that, we were able to show them exactly what they were asking for and it brought much more conversation between us.

We don't use DM's modeling support for Snowflake cloud yet. I am interested in cloud technology and I just came across that support that erwin has. It made me even more interested in cloud technology. 

Its ability to generate database code from a model for a wide array of data helps another office in my company that uses it quite a bit. 

The automatic build to the physical is a really nice feature. I like the fact that it will bring the keys down from one table to the next, from a parent to child table. Those two things make erwin a very easy to use product. 

It's a safeguard for me because I'm always concerned that somebody is free handing it and will forget a key coming from the parent. The migrating keys are a great feature. Identifying relationships, non-identifying relationships, and being visually right there to understand the differences are great features.

erwin is key to being able to visually understand whatever the customer is requesting. They'll give you words on a paper, but once they can actually view it as a picture, it really comes to life. The data comes to life to where they understand exactly what they're asking for.

I'd really like to see the PDF function become available. It would make my life much easier than what it is at the moment because whenever I need to collaborate with people that do not have erwin, I have to go through the wonkiness of going to Word and then save it from Word into PDF. There's a lot of differences between erwin 4.4 and 2020. It's a learning curve for me. It could be easier to use, but it's not a Windows/Microsoft type of application. It's close to it but it's also not. Once I've used it enough and learned it, then I'll know where all the pieces are.

I've been a data modeler in my office for six years so I've been using erwin for six years. My office has been using erwin since the beginning of time. I'm not exactly sure when they started using it, but the office has been around for 20 years so they've probably been using it since erwin started.

It's on our secret network and I believe they've been going back and forth quite a bit with erwin's tech teams as far as getting it to work because I think our workstations are virtual workstations and there were some issues with the licensing and the license server. I've been watching that from the peripherals but not really getting in the weeds with them. I'm not sure exactly what they're doing.

I've only had it crash on me once. I can't remember what I was doing and when or how it crashed. It was one of those inconvenient times and so I started again. I don't think an auto-save was done. That happened three weeks ago.

I use it at home every day and there are days where I've used it almost an entire eight hour day. I'm using it quite heavily right now.

The only time I've had to use erwin technical support was when I requested an extension on my trial license. They were really quick and good about it.

The initial setup was straightforward. I was able to install it at home without a problem whatsoever. Within a few seconds, I was able to figure out how to start building a table. I had no problems whatsoever. I think my colleagues who are going into work might have a little bit of a different answer because of issues with service, license keys, and what have you.

The deployment took five to ten minutes. There wasn't a lot of customization necessary. It's been a couple of months now since I've started doing it. I can see from the tab that I'm on that I need to just click on the table, click the area there, and start building tables. I've also had experience with it, so that makes it easier as well. It's intuitive.

At the office, there's quite a bit of strategy on how they needed to deploy it and how they needed to have it totally set up in the virtual world. They were upgrading from an older version.

At our office, we have two or three different people that were truly involved, but we did have one main person doing the going back and forth with erwin as far as getting help and setting it up. That took a couple of weeks, if not longer, to actually get it set up working correctly.

We bought a total of 10 licenses, although I'm not so sure. It's less than 25.

I would definitely say that it's a time saver once you learn how to use the application. It takes a little while to teach people how to use it just like with any other application, but as far as time-saving afterward, it's invaluable. As far as taking the time to truly show a person the end result, we can show them exactly what we're talking about and that's really invaluable. I'm sure the deployment would say the same thing as far as being able to build the database off of it.

The accuracy and speed in transforming complex designs into well-aligned data sources make the cost of the tool worth it. At the same time, I don't do that.

It saves us a couple of hours of actually trying to build something. It's not something that my office does every day. However, when we do it, I could not imagine building tables or building a diagram from any other tools that are currently in the office. It's impossible to do it from PowerPoint or Word. 

I don't think that the pricing for my office is horrible. However, from my home, there's absolutely no way I could afford erwin on my own as far as doing my own work.

There have been discussions between my office and the actual company that I work for and trying to decide on who would actually pay the bill. I'm the person stuck in the middle saying that I can't do my work here and luckily, I've been able to get one or two extensions on my free trial license from erwin. However, I'm afraid that I won't be able to get my company to pay for it and fairly soon the trial license will end up expiring on me.

I decided to build physical only but later on that kind of bit me and so I will start building logical first and then the physical. It would be nice to be able to build out my own set of tables and maybe a Model Mart type of situation but I don't see me being able to afford a copy at home for myself. I won't be able to continue keeping a trial copy forever and until COVID is over.

When COVID started, I did start looking at home versions of other freeware because I had time to actually do some research. I found that most of the freeware wasn't really free. It was also still kind of clunky and one of the applications that I was using didn't automatically bring the keys down and for me, that was a killer right there. I would not suggest the application to anyone. From the trial copies of the other applications they use, I think that's where erwin really comes up ahead, above the other applications.

The biggest lesson I have learned from erwin is the old cliche, that a picture is worth a thousand words. It is truly erwin in itself. When a person asks for a set of tables and they actually see that diagram visually, it really assists in any meeting that you will have. It is key to any meeting you have.

I would rate Data Modeler an eight out of ten. The reason for this rating is because I did a couple of dumb attributes and it took me forever to find how to truly delete it. It was a parent-child relationship and I deleted the parent and did not answer the question from the next box that popped up correctly. So I had an attribute hanging out in a table and it took me forever to find the dangling relationships. Because of that, I knocked it down a rating because it did take me a long time to find that.

I'm quite happy with the modeling tool. It does just about everything that I need it to do. I can't really think of what it doesn't do that I would need other than the PDF. I'm really happy with it.

Our company is the solution's only partner and reseller in China. We use the solution to provide data lineage to our customers' production environments. Most of our customers are in the mid-sized range. 

The data lineage feature is very valuable. 

There is a lack of local support in the China region. 

The solution needs to be available in the Chinese language. 

I have been using the solution for 15 years. 

On occasion, we experience some issues with performance so the stability is rated a seven out of ten. 

The solution is scalable.

Local support is lacking in the China region. We try to seek support but also have to do our own research to resolve technical issues. 

The setup is easy and there are only a few steps. You just download the package and install it in the customer's environment. 

We implement the solution for customers and deployments take several days. We handle everything so the customer can just start using the solution. One person can handle setup and deployment. 

There are two license options and the pricing is reasonable.  

The solution is the best option in the market. I rate it a seven out of ten. 

We use the product for data modeling. 

The solution is good for organizing the data and the scripting part is very powerful. It's easy to create technical scripts for models. 

The solution's reporting side needs to be improved. 

I have been using the solution for three years. 

The solution breaks down sometimes. 

I think the solution's cloud version is better because things become slower when the model grows bigger. 

The product's technical support is fast. 

Though the solution is not cheap, it's worth the money. 

I would rate the product a seven-point five out of ten. 

We are a reseller and erwin Data Modeler is one of the products that we provide to our clients.

This product is the strongest data modeler on the market.

It has centralized storage so that a data model can be shared by different teams.

The erwin Data Modeler is quite complex to use. However, if you are using the desktop version then you can use a small subset of the features and still get along very well. In this regard, it is similar to Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word.

We have been working with the erwin Data Modeler for between two and three years.

erwin DM is very robust.

We are satisfied with the scalability.

The technical support is satisfactory.

Price-wise, erwin Data Modeler is okay. You can purchase a single license and it is not very expensive.

The erwin data model is a very good product. It has more than 20 years of history and has improved since it was acquired by erwin a few years ago. It was originally a desktop application and since erwin acquired it, it has been converted into a web application. They have been working hard to improve it and it is difficult to say what can be done to improve it further.

Overall, it has been quite good.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.