LeanIX

and
Sparx Systems Enterprise
Architect
Buyer's Guide and Reviews
September 2021
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Contents

Advice From Real Users 4-8

Top Review by Topic of LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect 9-10

Overview 11

Reviews From Real Users 12-21

Reviews By Users Who Have Researched Both Solutions 23-25

Vendor Directory 26

Top Architecture Management Vendors 27-28

Top 5 Solutions by Ranking Factor 29

About This Report and IT Central Station 30

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3
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Advice From Real Users

LeanIX

PROS

"Among the most valuable features are the easy-to-use interface and the ability to get quick results...Many tools that I have seen are
great for technical people and for giving technical and business information as well, but they're not as friendly and easy as
LeanIX...It works well for both technical and business users." "It provides a good combination, enabling you to quickly put valuable
MichaelSuka information in for both technical and non-technical people and derive results." [Full Review]
chev

"The most valuable features are that it's user-friendly and the user experience." "It's easy to map the fact sheets." [Full Review]

reviewer138
3426

"The usability is very high." "It almost looks like a Facebook for Enterprise architecture, it's pretty nice." "It's HTML5 based." "The
repository is very easy." "It has 10 different ways of sorting the objects you have in your architecture repository." "Maintaining new
data or to add data to your repository is very easy." [Full Review]
reviewer1321
518

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4
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Advice From Real Users

LeanIX

CONS

"Another area for improvement is that when you're starting to look into more advanced information, using the solution's APIs and its
customizations, documentation for that specific aspect is not very good." "There is not too much support built into the offering for
that aspect, for a developer." [Full Review]
MichaelSuka
chev

"They should improve the out of the box connectors that they provide." "They should see if clients are really ready to adapt them."
[Full Review]

reviewer138
3426

"Not a ten because you always have that gap between complexity and easy to use." "And the more complex the tool becomes, the
more difficult it is to get the usability." [Full Review]

reviewer1321
518

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5
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Advice From Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

PROS

"Its traversability is most valuable." "I can use ArchiMate, and I can create a UML model." "ArchiMate is for logical enterprise
architecture, UML is for software engineering, and BPMN is for business processes." "I can build it to have multiple models, and they
are also traversable, which is not something that every tool allows." "If there is a huge organization, you can segment it and have
Igor Malik separate models for business technology or internal resource management system." "You don't need to keep them in one model,
and you can decide to segregate them... [Full Review]

"There are a couple of things." "Price is one thing, but we also like the scriptability of it." "We got into scripting it and automating
tasks with it, and it is super duper easy to do and helpful." "The API has improved over the years." "We automate everything, and I
love the automation aspects of it." [Full Review]
reviewer163
2210

"A feature I like most about Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect is its ease of use." [Full Review]

reviewer159
9021

"The solution is easy to use, supports SysML and UML, and is able to connect to MATLAB." "This is very important for us." [Full
Review]

reviewer151
6407

"It's a very practical solution." "You don't need to do an advanced course to start using this tool." [Full Review]

reviewer159
5268

"Features good reporting facilities coupled with a concrete database." [Full Review]

reviewer158
2014

"The profiles and ready-made templates are an extremely helpful feature." "This is one of the biggest features that I find very useful
in Sparx." [Full Review]

reviewer147
9141

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6
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Advice From Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

CONS

"From a practical point of view, we need speed and reliability for creating a model and doing some really meaningful tasks such as
application landscape, refactoring, etc." "These are two primary criteria." "Sometimes, when you import something, it creates the
object duplicates, or it allows you to do something that you're not supposed to do." "For example, validation is missing." "This could
Igor Malik be frustrating because when you work at a high speed, you need to come back and start fixing things that the tool allowed you to
go with, which is not quite go... [Full Review]

"It took me a while to figure out how to use the report generation features effectively." "So, it would be really nice if they had a way
to make that a little bit more interactive and a little bit more straightforward." [Full Review]

reviewer163
2210

"What should be improved are the integration capabilities of the solution with Bizagi." [Full Review]

reviewer159
9021

"There should be a MATLAB-specific toolbox added to the solution with better compatibility." "The connections currently are good
but in the future, it needs a huge improvement." [Full Review]

reviewer151
6407

"Sparx can be a bit slow." "If you are trying to design software architecture, sometimes we run into issues and need to refresh." [Full
Review]

reviewer159
5268

"This solution is quite complex to use." "It would be nice if the learning curve wasn't so steep." [Full Review]

reviewer158
2014

"The UI is a little bit outdated." "It should be more fresh and clean." [Full Review]

reviewer147
9141

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7
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Advice From Real Users

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

PRICING AND LICENSING ADVICE

"I use my own license." "So, I just bought the professional version, which costs $800 or something like that." "In the company where
I am working, we have floating licenses." "They are probably more expensive." "Its licensing is affordable, but we are talking about a
large organization, and there could be modelers or viewers of the models." "We don't know how much that would cost us." [Full
Igor Malik Review]

"It is cheap." [Full Review]

reviewer163
2210

"There is a license for this solution." "When comparing this solution to others it is priced well." [Full Review]

reviewer151
6407

"I think our license costs roughly $1,000 a year, but I could be wrong." [Full Review]

reviewer158
2014

"We have an annual license, and it's very affordable." [Full Review]

reviewer147
9141

"It is cheaper than other solutions." "Its cost is around $686 per year." "There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing
fees." [Full Review]

reviewer153
9018

"The licence has a costly upfront fee which gets you access." "You have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is less." [Full
Review]

Edward
Nicholson

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8
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Top Reviews by Topic

LeanIX Sparx Systems Enterprise
Architect

VALUABLE
FEATURES MichaelSukachev Joshua Shoresh

Among the most valuable features are the easy-to- For us, the solution is evolving still. I find it
use interface and the ability to get quick results. performs as well as other solutions that I've used,
Setting up an enterprise architecture practice, in like QualiWare's Rational System Architect. It
general, is a lengthy process, and it's a learning performs quite well. For the most part, we find that
process in many ways. A tool that is very open it is remarkable how inexpensive it is. Overall, the
with a lot of capabilities can sometimes look solution offers very good packages. The initial
intimidating. This tool doesn't look intimidating. EA setup is easy. [Full Review]
practice is not only for technical people and that
makes the usability of an EA tool like this very
important. We do talk a lot and engage with many
b... [Full Review]
Igor Malik

reviewer1321518 Its traversability is most valuable. I can use

ArchiMate, and I can create a UML model.
ArchiMate is for logical enterprise architecture,
UML is for software engineering, and BPMN is for
The usability is very high. It almost looks like a business processes. I can build it to have multiple
Facebook for Enterprise architecture, it's pretty models, and they are also traversable, which is not
nice. It's HTML5 based. The repository is very something that every tool allows. If there is a huge
easy. It has 10 different ways of sorting the objects organization, you can segment it and have
you have in your architecture repository. separate models for business technology or
Maintaining new data or to add data to your internal resource management system. You don't
repository is very easy. The whole repository itself need to keep them in one... [Full Review]
is very easy to be maintained. The reporting
capability allows you to develop custom reports in
JavaScript and just upload it to your LeanIX
solution so that y... [Full Review]
Terry Watts

* Mind mapping as a top-level tool for conceptual

brainstorming and identification of key concepts in
the conceptual model. * Use cases / scenarios /
activity diagram generation * The fact that it’s very
easy to create child diagrams in diagrams and so
keep each diagram clear, focussed, and not
bloated. This is very important and a powerful aid
in clarifying the model * Easy forward and reverse
engineering - to code and DB
design/implementation is an iterative process so
there is a real use case... [Full Review]

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9
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Top Reviews by Topic

LeanIX Sparx Systems Enterprise
Architect

ROOM FOR
IMPROVEMENT MichaelSukachev Joshua Shoresh

It provides diagramming, but it is not the best The presentation graphics need to be improved in
diagramming tool that I've ever used. It's there. It future builds. It's primarily an architecture tool.
can use all the linkages you already have, which is Therefore, it's using certain formulas, and they
very handy. But it's not the best tool. Even though aren't really very useful in terms of presentation
that feature is not the best, for diagramming graphics for executives. It's an ongoing issue. You
purposes it integrates with Lucidchart. That brings do some kind of diagram, you then have to
together the power of Lucidchart and all the convert it into a Microsoft PowerPoint in order to
information in LeanIX. From a visual perspective, get a certain look and feel. Otherwise, the design
it's great. We use that to make the diagramming is just too obscure for executives to understand.
better. I don't think LeanIX will try to create a The product needs better tools for defining report
grea... [Full Review] te... [Full Review]

reviewer1383426 Igor Malik

They should improve the right adoption in native From a practical point of view, we need speed and
connectors that they provide with clients. They reliability for creating a model and doing some
should see if clients are really ready to adapt them really meaningful tasks such as application
during evaluation and it will help client to take landscape, refactoring, etc. These are two primary
informed call to purchase those connectors to criteria. Sometimes, when you import something, it
other products. We also use ServiceNow and creates the object duplicates, or it allows you to
during our LeanIX evaluation phase, the native do something that you're not supposed to do. For
connector from LeanIX and Service now was example, validation is missing. This could be
looked into it. But we didn't realize that it would frustrating because when you work at a high
cost almost half of Core LeanIX subscription, it is speed, you need to come back and start fixing
considerable amoun... [Full Review] things that the tool... [Full Review]

Terry Watts

It is a good affordable that is actively evolving, I

think the modeling of activity diagrams could be
optimized - currently, they insist on you specifying
whether a connector is a control flow or an object
flow for instance. It is a minor point, but since this
sort of diagram is popular in that it affords both the
chance to effectively constrain the model whilst
leaving freedom for the next stage in the dev
process - which key in good design then it should
a high priority to optimize this rather... [Full
Review]

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10
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Overview
SOLUTION LeanIX Sparx Systems Enterprise
Architect

OVERVIEW LeanIX delivers collaborative Enterprise Sparx Enterprise Architect is a platform that
Architecture designed for modern IT. Our open, accelerates and integrates software, business and
data-driven architecture management model helps systems development. Twice winner of Jolt and
organizations adapt to the evolving demands of multiple SD Times Awards with an installed base
digital. From agile to multi-cloud and beyond, of 580,000 + licenses, supported by 230 partners
architecture teams using LeanIX have the power in 160 countries. From requirements to
to strategically support the business and report implementation and beyond, Sparx Systems'
45% reduction in time to value delivery. More than Enterprise Architect is a fully featured tool suite
90,000 users across enterprises worldwide rely that lets you model, design, simulate, prototype,
on LeanIX to manage their IT landscape, including build, test, manage and trace from vision to
adidas, Bosch, 7Eleven,... solution.

SAMPLE adidas, Bosch, Chico's, Haworth, Helvetia, KuKa, OmniLink

CUSTOMERS
Osram, Telekom, TUI, Santander, Swarovski,
Vaillant, 7Eleven, and Zalando.

TOP Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect vs. LeanIX Visual Paradigm vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise
COMPARISONS Compared 32% of the time Architect
Compared 17% of the time
MEGA HOPEX vs. LeanIX
Compared 9% of the time IBM Rational System Architect vs. Sparx Systems
Enterprise Architect
iServer vs. LeanIX Compared 11% of the time
Compared 8% of the time
Visio vs. Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect
Compared 11% of the time

TOP INDUSTRIES, Computer Software Company ... 9%

BASED ON Energy/Utilities Company ... 12%
REVIEWERS*
Financial Services Firm ... 12%
Government ... 16%
TOP INDUSTRIES, Government ... 7% Manufacturing Company ... 8%
BASED ON Financial Services Firm ... 8% Government ... 11%
COMPANIES
READING REVIEWS* Comms Service Provider ... 16% Comms Service Provider ... 19%
Computer Software Company ... 23% Computer Software Company ... 23%
COMPANY SIZE, 201-1000 Employees ... 15%
BASED ON 1-200 Employees ... 34%
REVIEWERS*
1001+ Employees ... 51%
COMPANY SIZE, 1-200 Employees ... 10%
BASED ON 201-1000 Employees ... 18%
COMPANIES
READING REVIEWS* 1001+ Employees ... 73%

* Data is based on the aggregate profiles of IT Central Station Users researching this solution.

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11
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

LeanIX review by a real user

Saves us significant time when analyzing potential mergers and

acquisitions and how our technologies match up

Enterprise Architect at Teranet, INC.

MichaelSukachev

WHAT IS OUR PRIMARY USE CASE?

LeanIX is an enterprise architecture management tool. In general, enterprise architecture is a comprehensive practice and this
tool can be used for many aspects of the practice. 

Primarily, the tool manages  Business Capabilities, Application, Technology and  Data catalogues and linkages between them. The
base package also includes the following catalogues that can be linked as well:

User Groups - as the name suggests, user groups definition with different attributes

Projects/Initiatives - very helpful for roadmapping exercises

Interfaces - useful for various integrations modelling

Technical Stack/Domains - for technologies/software/tools categorization

Providers - providers of the items in the IT Components list 

In addition, there are add-on tools for the lifecycles of third-party tools  - useful for technology/software currency management on
the corporate level.

HOW HAS IT HELPED MY ORGANIZATION?

Before LeanIX was implemented in our company, there might have been a scenario where we had a security project and needed
to know all our APIs, corporate-wide, because we wanted to set corporate standards. If we wanted to know all our API's from all
our product lines, it would have taken a couple of days to connect to the departmental or line-of-business lead architects and ask
them, "Okay guys, can you list me all the APIs that you're exposing?" Now, it's a matter of spending a couple of minutes and we
have our list. We just do a search.

It's used extensively for analysis of mergers and acquisitions. In that scenario, the users include infrastructure people,
infrastructure directors, enterprise architects, and plenty of other architects as well. They work at combining the overall footprint
and view of technologies and the way we're doing things at Teranet, and how they match with the other company. That is one of
the major use cases for this kind of system, and we have seen significant time savings when it comes to mergers and acquisitions.

LeanIX is a tool for larger companies that need to manage a larger application portfolio, in addition to inventory. Our company has
12
a number of lines of business. When we're working on a strategy at the corporate level, we need the kind of comprehensive
analysis and global view that it provides. That's what it's really good at quick artifacts for global analysis. 

Usually, companies maintain lists of applications and technologies in different tools; sometimes just in Excel files. It takes the same
amount of time to put the information into LeanIX, but the output is much more comprehensive through the reports it
provides. You don't even need to build them because they come with the product.

Once you have an inventory of your platforms and third-party tools, you can show them through the LeanIX Self-Service Portal.
You can use it to filter based on whatever you'd like. We use it for building our approved-software list, just from the entries that
were already there, without spending even one more second on it.

WHAT IS MOST VALUABLE?

Among the most valuable features are the easy-to-use interface and the ability to get quick results. Setting up an enterprise
architecture practice, in general, is a lengthy process, and it's a learning process in many ways. A tool that is very open with a lot
of capabilities can sometimes look intimidating. This tool doesn't look intimidating. EA practice is not only for technical people and
that makes the usability of an EA tool like this very important.

We do talk a lot and engage with many business users and they need a little bit different approach than technical people. From
that point of view, many tools that I have seen are great for technical people and for giving business information as well, but
they're not as friendly and easy as LeanIX.

From an adoption perspective, it's much easier than Sparx Systems or Orbis. Those tools are more open but, at the same time,
they are more sophisticated and more intimidating for non-technical people. LeanIX is built with a non-technical audience in mind
as well. It works well for both technical and business users. It provides a good combination, enabling you to quickly put valuable
information in for both technical and non-technical people and derive results. The results may be a bit more predefined, but you
can configure it as well.

It also has very good tagging abilities and a good search so you can segment your inventory based on your own preferences, not
only according to something predefined by the vendor.

LeanIX is different from most of the other enterprise architecture tools. On the one hand, it's not as open as other tools, but from
another perspective, it gives you a number of predefined ways to organize your inventory and your linkages. 

It has a number of configurable reports or artifacts that are created based on the information that you input. The tools for
creating automatic artifacts are pretty good, including diagrams and reports. At the end of the day, when it comes to
inventory, you need to be able to report on it, provide an artifact, and show how many of each item you have.

And if you need to build something that is customized, it provides a very comprehensive API so you can build your own reports
and tools, and configure the system as you wish. It opens up views from every angle. It does take a little bit of technical
knowledge, specifically Node.js, to build it, but it's not too complicated. It provides a GraphQL API, which means it's not too
difficult to build your own reports.

The visualization of your information is a very good aspect of the solution as well, the way you can share the information with
others. It has multiple ways of doing so.

There are also integrations, as add-ons, with ServiceNow. It has the ability to go through all your environments and find everything
you have installed. That can help you automate the gathering of the inventory list of your technologies. ServiceNow can use the
definitions of the products you have defined in LeanIX. One important caveat here is that the CMDB and the ServiceNow part
need to be managed well to make it happen.

There is another very useful add-on that connects your technology list with Technopedia. When you link to an item in
Technopedia, it will bring all the information about the vendor's platform. And if there are changes, it will change yours as well,
such as life cycles or when the product is going to be sunset. Valuable information can be taken from Technopedia in a very easy
way.

There are other add-ons that we don't use. One of them is with Signavio, which is a BPM tool. If you have it, I think that add-
13
on would be very valuable. 

LeanIX has another offering that we are just looking at, to do the same type of discovery for cloud platforms. That means that with
the correct configuration, you can monitor what kinds of cloud services you are using and have that information as building-blocks
for your enterprise architecture.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT?

It provides diagramming, but it is not the best diagramming tool that I've ever used. It's there. It can use all the linkages you
already have, which is very handy. But it's not the best tool.

Even though that feature is not the best, for diagramming purposes it integrates with Lucidchart. That brings together the power of
Lucidchart and all the information in LeanIX. From a visual perspective, it's great. We use that to make the diagramming better.

I don't think LeanIX will try to create a great diagramming tool. It's a basic tool that could definitely be improved, but it looks like
they took a little bit of a different approach, by integrating with a leading diagramming tool.

Another area for improvement is that when you're starting to look into more advanced information, using the solution's APIs and its
customizations, documentation for that specific aspect is not very good. There is not too much support built into the offering for
that aspect, for a developer. As a simple example, I wanted to create a custom report. Using the documentation that was provided,
I was not able to do that, and I have been a developer for more than 25 years, in addition to being an enterprise architect.

After I talked to a representative, they did bring some technical people into the discussion. They could even make that a service
where I could say to them, "I would like to have your support for one day to set up the environment, to give me a couple of
examples, and go over this." They acknowledge that they're looking into this, but they don't have it. It would be a great service,
even a paid service. I would be willing to pay for it. It's not a matter of the complexity of the development part, it was more the
complexity of the setup.

So they lack good information in that area, but it looks like they're working on it. And they are very open. I work with two success
managers from LeanIX, and both of them are very responsive to our requirements.

FOR HOW LONG HAVE I USED THE SOLUTION?

I have been using LeanIX for about half a year, but very extensively.

It was a new implementation when I was hired as enterprise architect at Teranet. One of the first tasks I had was to implement the
enterprise architecture framework, and this was a part of that. We are implementing a lot with LeanIX, from an enterprise
architecture perspective.

The selection of the tool was done before my time at the company, but I'm very versed in the tool now. I feel that we are
really pushing the limits of it, very much.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE STABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

Stability and uptime are good. 

Keep in mind that this kind of solution doesn't affect the runtime of any of your products. It's an information system only, with
information about metadata, and about your organization, and not about things you do. 

It's a browser-based solution, so sometimes it's a little bit slow, but that slowness goes away pretty quickly as well. They share the
monitoring of the uptime of their systems as well, so you are aware if something is happening. In the last half a year, there were no
alerts at all, but they will alert you on outages.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE SCALABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

It's a pretty scalable solution, even though there is a slight pre-built reports' performance degrade when the number of factsheets
involved comes close to 1000 

HOW ARE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT?

The technical support is very good.

Sometimes, when you're trying to make configuration changes or do customization that you think is included in your package,
those things are not included. But from a technical support perspective, what they provided me with were plenty of workarounds.
Even when I was asking a simple question, they could have just said, "It's not included in your package, sorry." But one time, the
guy did some custom development and said, "Try this. You will be able to do it." They give great support for it.

WHICH SOLUTION DID I USE PREVIOUSLY AND WHY DID I SWITCH?

Our company does use Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect, but that's more for application architecture. We didn't have much of an
enterprise architecture practice. I was hired to set it up. And that was the primary reason LeanIX was adapted. It was a strategic
initiative from the CIO and other C levels. The tool was purchased to promote the EA process in general.

15
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

HOW WAS THE INITIAL SETUP?

The initial setup was very straightforward. When you know the practice of enterprise architecture and you know what you're
building, it's very easy. There is no complication when setting it up. 

It would probably be very complicated if you don't know EA. You do need to know what your objectives are. But when you know it,
it's very one-to-one. All aspects of the implementation of this tool are mapped one-to-one. For someone who knows the subject,
it's easy to refer to it because it's built-in a very predictive way.

It's a cloud solution so there is not that much you need to do. Setting it up was easy. To get an agreement about the setup was
something else. We have almost 60 architects who had to come to an agreement. But the setup itself was very easy.

It has an export function from Excel spreadsheets, which is the usual place for maintaining lists, and that helps a lot with bulk
updates. That's one of the great tools that it has.

It also has some configurations available so you can at least change names and labels. You do need an add-on for that, but it's a
pretty cost-effective add-on. It's not that expensive and you can adapt labels to whatever meanings you have in your organization,
and how you prefer to label things. That was part of what made it a very quick setup and promoted better understanding and
adoption.

When I started to implement integrations with our internal systems, I didn't find it very difficult. The ServiceNow was one of the
most involved integrations, but we did it in one day with the help of their technical support. It started to work right away.

Because of the nature of our practice, we implemented it first for our IT departments. Now, there are a myriad of people working
with it, including all kinds of architects, lead architects, senior architects; there are some directors of development, directors,
managers, lead developers, and QA analysts as well. 

We haven't rolled it out that much yet for non-IT personnel, but that is the plan for the end of this year. They are already going
through the training for it. We are expecting to have plenty of sales and marketing people on it. 

It is used a lot for our CIO, and for presentations to our board of directors, for more strategic initiatives and plans.

WHAT WAS OUR ROI?

We haven't yet calculated a return on investment because it's only been half a year. We plan to look at it on a three-year basis.
You can't anticipate ROI right away, but we have seen the benefits I have mentioned.

I do anticipate that there will be a considerable ROI.

16
LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

WHAT'S MY EXPERIENCE WITH PRICING, SETUP COST, AND LICENSING?

There are two pricing models. One is based on the number of what they call Fact Sheets, which are a representation of the things
in your company, such as applications, technologies, and business capabilities. They are like a profile for each entity that you want
to bring in and pricing is based on the number of those entities that you bring in. That's what we purchased. 

They introduced another pricing model based only on the number of applications that you bring in.

In the first model, they give you fewer capabilities in the package, but you can use it for a larger number of entities. In the other
offering, they give you more capabilities, maybe even way more capabilities, but you need to form your information in a way that
you are conscious of how many applications you put in. 

The second way of doing things is very new. It was introduced a couple of months ago. When I looked at it for our use, it was not
going to give us too much benefit. First of all, we were set up, and all our agreements were made based on a different licensing
model. If we were to go back and remodel things, it would be a big effort so we decided not to go with it. We decided to stay with
the pricing model that they had originally, based on the number of building blocks, not just applications.

WHAT OTHER ADVICE DO I HAVE?

It all depends on how you put together the inventory. You need to be cognizant of what kinds of information you will need and
what kinds searches you foresee. It's a tool. There should be an enterprise architect who understands what outcome he is looking
for. You can then build that outcome using Lean IX.

It's a tool that has a specific way of working. You need to understand the tool very well and determine if it works for your use case,
for whatever you're trying to achieve. So first of all, you need to know what you want to achieve.

You will need to spend time to get an agreement, internally, on how you model your business architecture and your application
and infrastructure architecture, to build better expectations of outcomes of the system. There will definitely be internal work to get
to a collaborative agreement. Once you do have that agreement and you understand how LeanIX works — and it is not a very
complicated system — then it's easy to see how it will work for you, or at least how much it can bend.

When you look into it, your first impression might be, "Oh, it's a little bit more of a closed system." Understand that this aspect does
help you with adoption, and then look at the customization techniques and whether you can support them. Do you have the
skillset, someone who will be able to work with it if you want to expand the system? That will be someone who works in Node.js
and someone who knows GraphQL.

If you're just at the beginning, in addition to those questions, I would go a little bit more in-depth into what exactly is included in
the package, because sometimes that's not very intuitive. Ask questions about what is included and how much it will benefit you.
For example, the ServiceNow add-on is a little bit more expensive and you need to understand if you are ready for it. Otherwise,
you will be paying for nothing.

Its overall ease-of-use plays a big role in adoption. As usual, you need to sell this tool, and the practice of EA in general, to the
people who will contribute to it, and that's where LeanIX is really valuable. It helps you to drive the practice. They have put good
effort into making it very easy to automate things and that is a valuable part of establishing an EA practice and for the adoption of
it. It's not only the only part of that process. It cannot build the whole EA practice. You can't do that with one tool.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

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WHICH DEPLOYMENT MODEL ARE YOU USING FOR THIS SOLUTION?

Public Cloud

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect review by a real user

Great pricing with an easy initial setup and a comprehensive toolkit

Management Consultant & Architect at

Contextual Focus Limited

Joshua Shoresh

WHAT IS OUR PRIMARY USE CASE?

We're doing enterprise architecture work primarily. In one case we're looking at enterprise data modeling. In another case is
mostly business architecture.

HOW HAS IT HELPED MY ORGANIZATION?

We haven't used the solution long enough to make any observations in terms of the product improving our company's functions.
It's too soon to tell.

WHAT IS MOST VALUABLE?

For us, the solution is evolving still.

I find it performs as well as other solutions that I've used, like QualiWare's Rational System Architect. It performs quite well.

For the most part, we find that it is remarkable how inexpensive it is.

Overall, the solution offers very good packages.

The initial setup is easy.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT?

The presentation graphics need to be improved in future builds. It's primarily an architecture tool. Therefore, it's using certain
formulas, and they aren't really very useful in terms of presentation graphics for executives. It's an ongoing issue. You do some
kind of diagram, you then have to convert it into a Microsoft PowerPoint in order to get a certain look and feel. Otherwise, the
design is just too obscure for executives to understand.

The product needs better tools for defining report templates. Sparx will generate automated reports based on whatever you select
from the repository. It has this templating tool that's very flexible, however, I can't get the damn thing to work properly. It's just not
very user-friendly. It's almost like a programming language. That's the thing that we keep coming back to tech support with to say,
"What are we doing wrong?" If they offered a better report generating front end that will let someone quickly and easily configure
what they want in their reports, that would be very useful.

FOR HOW LONG HAVE I USED THE SOLUTION?

I'm pretty new to the solution. I've used the solution for a little under a year at this point. It's likely been ten or 11 months so far.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE STABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

While the solution has crashed a few times in the past year, I wouldn't describe it as unstable. There aren't really bugs or glitches
on it. Mostly, it's fine.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE SCALABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

I can't speak to the level of scalability of the product. The user community for our purposes is quite small. We haven't tested
scaling it with larger user groups. However, it's not the type of tool you would role out to a larger community anyway. Therefore,
from a performance scalability perspective, it's hard for me to comment.

That said, from a functional scalability perspective, it's packed with all kinds of features. Your enterprise architecture approach
could certainly scale up to accommodate more and more of the types of analysis you'd want to perform.

We have two teams that use the solution. In one case, there are three people using it, and in another case there are seven.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

HOW ARE CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT?

We've used technical support in the past.

We've needed them for a few little obscure things and things just that are quite annoying to figure out. They've always been there
and they're quite good.We're quite satisfied with the level of assistance we receive. I would rate them at a perfect ten out of ten.

WHICH SOLUTION DID I USE PREVIOUSLY AND WHY DID I SWITCH?

Personally, I've used a lot of different solutions, and a lot of different kinds of case tools. However, in both my client environments
that we are presently using, we presently implemented Sparx and they had nothing like this before. This is really an eye-opener to
them and a new kind of field for them to go into.

HOW WAS THE INITIAL SETUP?

We found the initial setup to be very straightforward and simple. It's not complex at all. A company shouldn't have any trouble with
the deployment process.

WHAT'S MY EXPERIENCE WITH PRICING, SETUP COST, AND LICENSING?

The pricing is excellent. It's very inexpensive.

WHAT OTHER ADVICE DO I HAVE?

We're just a customer and an end-user.

We're using the latest version of the solution.

We use different deployment models, including cloud and on-premises.

It's an excellent entry-level tool. I say entry level as case tools are typically a very expensive proposition to bring into a business,
and not necessarily because of their licensing costs or their implementation costs. It is more the training costs of the individuals to
start working and thinking in an architectural way and then using tools like this in a consistent and productive manner. You need a
methodology investment and you need training investment, and then you need a setup investment for the actual enterprise
architecture program or practice that you're going to work with.The tool itself is comparable to a bunch of others. However, it's not
as expensive as most. It's in fact so cheap that last year, due to delays related to the COVID lockdown, I ended up buying a
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license for myself. It's that inexpensive. It cost less than Microsoft Word. It's an excellent way for a company to start or an
organization to start using an enterprise architecture discipline. However, it's not an end-to-end solution. It could be an end-to-end
solution. It just involves training of resources and change management for different processes and for governance and all this. A
lot of companies just either don't realize that at all or aren't prepared to make the investment outside of the cheap license.

I would rate the solution eight out of ten.

It offers a comprehensive toolkit that it provides very good capabilities. The kinds of coverage that it gives to enterprise
architecture tasks are great. The diagrammatic flexibility that it has, the methodological flexibility, and diagrammatic flexibility are
also very helpful. It can support lots of different metamodels that will allow you to implement different enterprise architecture
methods. It'll diagram them all. It does a very good job of allowing you to structure your environment so that you can support lots
of different kinds of analysis across domains of enterprise architecture. It's very flexible in that sense. For these reasons, I give it
fairly high marks.

WHICH DEPLOYMENT MODEL ARE YOU USING FOR THIS SOLUTION?

Public Cloud

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Researched LeanIX But Chose Sparx Systems

Review by a real user:

Business Architect at a tech services

company with 10,001+ employees

Ivan Karev

WHAT IS OUR PRIMARY USE CASE?

We started to build an architecture based on this tool.

We use if for enterprise architecture with multiple domains.

WHAT IS MOST VALUABLE?

The most valuable feature is that it provides tuning for multiple layers of enterprise in the business application architecture. 

We can use the same tool for a different audience. It helps our enterprise architects in building their diagrams. It helps with the
handling of the application architect when it comes to the development team.

It provides good utilization and it's a convenient tool for building exact architectural work.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT?

One of the drawbacks is that it is oriented on architecture and not user-presented.

Also, one of the disadvantages is that it doesn't provide a better representation level for the readers. It is not integrated with
solutions such as Confluence or Jira. This is something that is missing in this solution.

Because it is oriented on architecture, it is not convenient to use this information for the presentations to our clients.

They also have a cloud-based deployment solution and it has a bit more capability to communicate to clients and to the sales
team.

I would like to see integration with Confluence or any other TRM, and the capability to integrate with the data storage, such as a
repository similar to GitHub.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

FOR HOW LONG HAVE I USED THE SOLUTION?

We have been using Sparx System Enterprise Architect for approximately 10 years.

We are using version 14 or 15.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE STABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

It is difficult for us to judge the stability because it is open for us in Europe and spread between two cities, Paris and Amsterdam.

WHAT DO I THINK ABOUT THE SCALABILITY OF THE SOLUTION?

We don't have a strong demand to have a highly scalable solution for building enterprise-related activities.

We have 50 users in our organization who are using this solution.

We may be increasing our usage, as we have had many acquisitions and have more people than we need.

WHICH SOLUTION DID I USE PREVIOUSLY AND WHY DID I SWITCH?

We are not acquainted with any other solution.

HOW WAS THE INITIAL SETUP?

If you are talking about Enterprise Architects, the initial setup is quite simple.

We want to keep all of the information inside our own infrastructure. We have our own data centers and for now, we would like for
it not to go into cloud deployment.

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Continued from previous page

WHAT ABOUT THE IMPLEMENTATION TEAM?

We had help from the vendor for the implementation.

WHAT'S MY EXPERIENCE WITH PRICING, SETUP COST, AND LICENSING?

Pricing is open information.

They have the price on their site for the enterprise version, and we do receive a small discount.

WHICH OTHER SOLUTIONS DID I EVALUATE?

We are doing some slow research in the direction of switching to another program. For this year, it's not in the roadmap, but I will
approve that for next year because we really want to consider some alternatives.

For example, solutions like LeanIX have more capabilities for integration between different levels of data representation. We can
integrate the system with Confluence, and it can integrate with Jira.

WHAT OTHER ADVICE DO I HAVE?

We have been quite happy for a number of years, but it has several drawbacks. We are considering an alternative. We are not
looking to get rid of this solution but use another product and use them both for a while.

I would rate Sparx System Enterprise Architects a seven out of ten.

WHICH DEPLOYMENT MODEL ARE YOU USING FOR THIS SOLUTION?

On-premises

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Vendor Directory
Adaptive Adaptive Enterprise Architecture Manager LeanIX LeanIX

Amazon AWS Well-Architected Tool MEGA International MEGA HOPEX

Ardoq Ardoq MID GmbH MID Innovator

Atoll Technologies Atoll Technologies System Architecture OpenText OpenText ProVision

Management Utility
Orbus Software iServer
Avolution Avolution ABACUS
Planview Planview Enterprise One
BiZZdesign BiZZdesign HoriZZon
Promis Promis [EOL]
BOC Group ADOIT
PTC PTC Windchill
capsifi capsifi
QualiWare QualiWare X
Changepoint ChangePoint EAM
Salamander Salamander MooD Business Architect
EOS Software EOS ITPM
SAP SAP PowerDesigner
erwin, Inc. Casewise Corporate Modeler Suite [EOL]
SAP SAP Enterprise Architecture Designer
erwin, Inc. erwin Evolve
Software AG Alfabet Enterprise Architecture
erwin, Inc. Corso Agile Enterprise Architecture [EOL] Management

erwin, Inc. erwin EA Agile [EOL] Software AG Alfabet FastLane

erwin, Inc. erwin Data Modeler (DM) Sparx Systems Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Future Tech Systems Future Tech Systems Envision VIP Sparx Systems Sparx Pro Cloud Server

IBM IBM Rational System Architect Sparx Systems Sparx Prolaborate

IDERA IDERA ER/Studio Unicom Systems UNICOM System Architect

Knoldus Inc Knoldus Digital Platform ValueBlue BlueDolphin

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Top Architecture Management Vendors

Over professionals have used IT Central Station research. Here are the top vendors based on product reviews, ratings, and comparisons.
All reviews and ratings are from real users, validated by our triple authentication process.

Chart Key

Views Comparisons Reviews Words/Review Average Rating

Number of views Number of times compared Total number of reviews on Average words per review Average rating based on
to another product IT Central Station on IT Central Station reviews

Bar length
The total ranking of a product, represented by the bar length, is based on a weighted aggregate score. The score is calculated as follows:

For each ranking factor of Reviews, Views, and Comparisons, the product with the highest count in each ranking factor gets a maximum 18
points. Every other product gets assigned points based on its total in proportion to the #1 product in that ranking factor. For example, if a product
has 80% of the number of reviews compared to the product with the most reviews then the product's points for reviews would be 18 * 80% = 14.4.

Both Rating and Words/Review are awarded on a fixed linear scale. For Rating, the maximum score is 28 points awarded linearly between 6-10
(e.g. 6 or below=0 points; 7.5=10.5 points; 9.0=21 points; 10=28 points). For Words/Review, the maximum score is 18 points awarded linearly
between 0-900 words (e.g. 600 words = 12 points; 750 words = 15 points; 900 or more words = 18 points). If a product has fewer than ten reviews,
the point contribution for Rating and Words/Review is reduced: 1/3 reduction in points for products with 5-9 reviews, two-thirds reduction for
products with fewer than five reviews.

Reviews that are more than 24 months old, as well as those written by resellers, are completely excluded from the ranking algorithm.

All products with 50+ points are designated as a Leader in their category.

1 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

20,596 views 15,078 comparisons 31 reviews 586 words/review 8.2 average rating

2 Planview Enterprise One

5,936 views 2,390 comparisons 46 reviews 1,153 words/review 8.0 average rating

3 erwin Data Modeler (DM)

4,302 views 1,906 comparisons 19 reviews 1,941 words/review 8.8 average rating

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

4 SAP PowerDesigner

5,711 views 3,560 comparisons 10 reviews 669 words/review 8.1 average rating

5 erwin Evolve

4,211 views 2,808 comparisons 7 reviews 1,777 words/review 7.9 average rating

6 Avolution ABACUS

3,276 views 1,538 comparisons 6 reviews 850 words/review 7.2 average rating

7 MEGA HOPEX

6,473 views 3,659 comparisons 6 reviews 359 words/review 7.3 average rating

8 LeanIX

3,621 views 1,735 comparisons 3 reviews 1,589 words/review 8.7 average rating

9 BiZZdesign HoriZZon

2,999 views 1,524 comparisons 3 reviews 907 words/review 8.3 average rating

10 iServer

4,074 views 2,084 comparisons 3 reviews 426 words/review 8.3 average rating

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

Top 5 Solutions by Ranking Factor

Views

VIEWS

1 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect 20,596

2 MEGA HOPEX 6,473

3 Planview Enterprise One 5,936

4 SAP PowerDesigner 5,711

5 erwin Data Modeler (DM) 4,302

Reviews

REVIEWS

1 Planview Enterprise One 46

2 Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect 31

3 erwin Data Modeler (DM) 19

4 SAP PowerDesigner 10

5 erwin Evolve 7

Words / Review

WORDS /
REVIEW

1 erwin Data Modeler (DM) 1,941

2 erwin Evolve 1,777

3 LeanIX 1,589

4 Planview Enterprise One 1,153

5 BiZZdesign HoriZZon 907

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LeanIX and Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect

About this report

This report is comprised of a list of enterprise level vendors. We have also included several real user reviews posted on ITCentralStation.com.
The reviewers of these products have been validated as real users based on their LinkedIn profiles to ensure that they provide reliable opinions
and not those of product vendors.

About IT Central Station

The Internet has completely changed the way we make buying decisions. We now use ratings and review sites to see what other real users think
before we buy electronics, book a hotel, visit a doctor or choose a restaurant. But in the world of enterprise technology, most of the information
online and in your inbox comes from vendors but what you really want is objective information from other users.

We created IT Central Station to provide technology professionals like you with a community platform to share information about enterprise
software, applications, hardware and services.

We commit to offering user-contributed information that is valuable, objective and relevant. We protect your privacy by providing an environment
where you can post anonymously and freely express your views. As a result, the community becomes a valuable resource, ensuring you get
access to the right information and connect to the right people, whenever you need it.

IT Central Station helps tech professionals by providing:

• A list of enterprise level vendors

• A sample of real user reviews from tech professionals
• Specific information to help you choose the best vendor for your needs

Use IT Central Station to:

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