When is iServer a suitable EA tool choice for your organization?

If you are looking to purchase an EA tool and you answer "yes" to any of the following questions, you should be considering iServer.

Do you have a large number of Visio ® diagrams and Office ® documents?

Most organizations already have a large investment in Microsoft Office - skills (most people use the Office products on a daily basis) and content (Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Visio drawings and PowerPoint presentations).

Uniquely with iServer, customers have the option of remaining in the Microsoft Office and Visio environments whilst gaining access to the repository, modeling and analytical functionality of an EA tool.

Would you like to continue using Visio and Office?

If all of your users are already familiar with and happy using Microsoft Visio, then it makes sense to keep it that way. Rather than migrating everything into a new tool, with iServer, diagrams are still just Visio diagrams, which makes iServer a very low risk investment.

Is your organization in the early stages of Enterprise Architecture maturity?

It is estimated that 2/3 of all organizations are in the early phases of EA Maturity. Most start off using Microsoft Office and Visio, until they reach a point where they require a repository and greater modeling functionality. Transition to a "best of breed" EA tool can often be difficult in terms of cost (tool purchase, training and data migration), risk (one way trip, dependency on tool experts), and long term viability (cultural resistance).

iServer is deliberately targeted towards the early stages of enterprise architecture maturity, but fully scalable to provide the analytical functionality needed as the organization evolves.

Is cost a constraint in the acquisition of an EA tool?

iServer is normally no more than 40% of the cost of most other EA tools!

Are you conducting an EA proof of concept?

If you are conducting a proof of concept to gain buy-in for investment in a wider-scale EA initiative, iServer is a cost-effective solution.

Have you had trouble implementing other EA tools because of user resistance, lack of skills or tool complexity?

User acceptance is key to the success of an Enterprise Architecture tool - many projects fail simply because a tool proves too difficult for people to use - and if people leave the organization, they take the skills with them.

With iServer this is not a problem, because the key user interfaces are based upon Microsoft Visio and Office, making it very easy for anyone to learn how to use iServer in just a couple of hours.

Do you want to make EA information more accessible to the wider business?

iServer is not just for analysts, and the low cost and ease-of-use make it possible to federate the tool out to the wider business audience. This is not possible with other Enterprise Architecture tools because of the prohibitive cost, complexity and the fact that the rest of the business is using Microsoft Office and Visio.

To view EA content and collaborate with other users, you don't need to be an iServer user.

iServer Portal is a web interface to the repository, providing live browser access to all diagrams and documents, metadata and relationships. This product makes all EA information quickly available to the whole business at a very low cost per user.

iServer Publisher allows you to create picture-driven HTML presentations tailored to the stakeholder needs. This is a very effective way of making EA content accessible to business users who may not even be familiar with iServer. With an intuitive user interface, publications require no training and a simple feedback mechanism allow people to post comments or questions to the content owners.

Do you need a quick-start packaged solution for TOGAF or the Zachman framework?

Orbus provides pre-packaged solutions for TOGAF and the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture, complete with metamodel, templates and pre-configured repository. Find out more.