Product(s): Ardoq
Overall Comment:"I have never experienced the level of engagement with any vendor (post purchase) that is provided by Ardoq. Their chat support is the best ever. I usually get an engagement within two minutes. The support team is knowledgeable about the product - in the early days they walked me through different processes. They helped me with coding techniques for the reporting query language (gremlin). Glitches associated with new releases have been fixed within a week. At the customer success level, we have been provided with access to Ardoq leads in different areas to discuss proposed approaches to using the product that we were considering. Ardoq has a team that produces detailed and helpful white papers on recommended practices for maximizing value from the product. Finally, the development group provides substantial new functionality on a quarterly basis. The product update icon on the main screen is a little box with a bow. Ardoq is the only product where I regularly look forward to releases as new gifts, rather than something that has to be managed."
The deciding feature for acquiring Ardoq was their survey tool. Keeping information up-to-date on a 1000+ application inventory in a decentralized institution required the power of crowd sourcing. Ardoq surveys are targeted to the product owners and the apps they manage. The questions are limited to what we want to focus on. The survey is populated with data from Ardoq. The submitted survey automatically UPDATES ARDOQ - no data re-entry needed. A recent effort to collect disaster recovery information engaged 200 different product owners through the survey process with over 85% participation. Ardoq reporting and dashboards made it easy to monitor results and follow-up as needed. The Presentation functionality is very helpful. It allows you to bundle together reports and dashboards within a single object with a URL. This URL can be sent to users or embedded in an iframe to provide real-time data to users without having to login to Ardoq. Ardoq has created a series of downloadable Solution Packages addressing specific IT areas -- Application Lifecycle Management, Capability Modeling, Compliance Assurance, and a dozen more. Solutions have 2 or 3 white papers on the topic, the value proposition, and how to implement the recommended functionality in Ardoq. They also include new fields for components along with sample reports, dashboards, and surveys. This provides a substantial force multiplier in creating functionality.
As an architecture modeling tool, Ardoq provides a great deal of flexibility. They provide a lot of white papers with suggestions on what to do. But you need to make choices, the consequences of which may not be clear. You need to be prepared to try out different modeling approaches and start over if needed. The product has a high learning curve. Getting new teams engaged with Ardoq requires time and effort. Ardoq provides lots of ways to engage folks without knowing a lot - surveys, dashboards, and presentations. But bringing in the middle tier - IT teams who are not Ardoq experts - can be a challenge. The Ardoq data model is based on graph theory -- nodes and edges -- rather than set theory -- RDBs and SQL. You need to learn Gremlin - a language for working with graphs -- to do advanced stuff. Reporting across different workspaces, e.g. Apps, People, Orgs, that would be relatively easy in SQL can be a challenge in Gremlin.