Aras PLM vs. Higson

Aras PLM works for our company, yet I don't have experience with any other software system. The system does not refresh and update quickly. Often times users need to force a refresh or logout and logon to verify changes and updates. The Lock and Unlock feature needs getting used to.

Incentivized

Hyperon is less appropriate in smaller projects that do not contain a lot of business logic. However, if there are a lot of business rules to manage, many things that might be frequently changed, then Hyperon is a good tool to address it.

• Aras PLM definitely controls documents and provides the approval levels needed to be compliant.
• Aras PLM makes organizing and structuring libraries logical and intuitive.
• The search tools in Aras PLM provides quick and efficient access to documents

Incentivized

• Separation of business logic from the app's code
• Decision table performance
• Good GUI

• Aras PLM uses terms and labels that can be confusing like Subsystem / Subsystem Version, Project Record Number (PRN). Companies need to understand these terms and develop business processes to set user standards.
• I personally use Aras PLM to manage information technology project documents. In my opinion, Aras PLM is more geared to product and engineering. I would like to see a general project management Aras PLM version with terms and labels that I am familiar with.
• The description field should be made required. Many of our engineers have created records and left that blank because it was not required. This would help with the context or background of each record.

Incentivized

• Pretty high entry threshold
• A few bugs in GUI
• UX might be better in some places

Our company is moving from repositories like IBM Notes, MS Sharepoint, and plain network file share directories to a more controlled system of recordd like Aras PLM.

Incentivized

It's a very good tool to manage business rules. There are certain GUI bugs and a code boilerplate, but overall it does its job really well.

There is documentation on the site to help learn about the tool. There is also an email to ask for help or any other questions. The team responds quickly with a full answer.

Our company developed numerous IBM Lotus Notes databases to perform document control. Aras PLM is the better choice to IBM Notes databases and home grown databases.

Incentivized

Hyperon has got far better performance. It also has far better GUI to manage business rules. On the other hand, Drools has a bigger community to help you with your problems.

• Aras PLM has kept our company compliant and on the right side of audits with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Aras PLM keeps our project document history readily available and works well without stage gate review and approval processes.

Incentivized

• Shorter time to market with new features
• Business users might change things without the help of developers