Executive Summary

  • This is the Brightwork Research & Analysis software rating series.
  • We rate both the software and estimate the risk of implementing each application.

MUFI Rating & Risk for AspenTech AspenOne

MUFI: Maintainability, Usability, Functionality, Implement ability

Vendor: AspenTech AspenOne (Select For Vendor Profile)

Introduction

AspenTech is one of the most industry-focused enterprise software vendors that we cover (the other being ProcessPro, which is similarly focused on the process manufacturing industry). Here we are profiling AspenTech’s planning product, but they have quite a variety of manufacturing software that has been built up over decades.

Application Detail

AspenTech creates very detailed modeling software. The user interface of its software shows the actual resources of the production process, and it looks like traditional simulation software. The user builds a model, or takes existing template models and can change them. AspenTech has a template for just about any model in the process industry – and their many years of experience with so many clients are demonstrated by the specificity of these models. A few examples are shown below:

Aspen Models

AspenTech has some prebuilt model templates, which can be used as a starting point to model various process industry environments. The specificity of the models to be selected is impressive. If we take the first, it is producing methylchorate through a process of esterification of chloroacetic acid with methanol. Because the model is so specific to this process, the settings that are included means that there is minimal actual configuration required when compared to other applications. Most applications just provide software that can be configured and there are very few templates of this type used in any production planning and scheduling application – in fact; there are very few templates of this type used in supply chain planning applications overall. Instead, the predominant approach is to have the model developed from scratch during the implementation. As soon as a model is selected, the specifics of that model are brought up as shown below:

AspenTech Specific

This is a model for a three-phase reactive distillation application. This model is a particular configuration, which is designed for this manufacturing process. This is one of the real strengths of AspenTech – that for oil and gas industries it has such specific standards that can be applied and can control the model.

It is the detailed modeling with specific preset standards all customized for process industry manufacturing that is appealing to software buyers. AspenTech’s software encapsulates decades of implementations and knowledge of how various process manufacturing operations work. Not only are the processing rates for different process resources available within the application, but also the template models are based upon standardized process manufacturing operations, meaning even though the manufacturing process may be complicated, it can be modeled, and the system brought up quickly. There is not much like this on the discrete and repetitive manufacturing side where models tend to be setup from scratch.

AspenTech is an easy decision for heavy process industry manufacturing. AspenTech has the best software for a wide variety of process industry manufacturing environments that simply can’t be found anywhere else. AspenTech is one of the few vendors to achieve a perfect functionality score in our ratings. However, as our vendor profile indicates, we have some concerns about AspenTech’s management and their internal direction.

MUFI Scores

All scores out of a possible 10.

MUFI Scores

Search for the vendor in this table using the search bar in the upper right of the table. Shortening Key: 
  • Ma. = Maintainability
  • Us. = Usability
  • Fu. = Functionality
  • Im. = Implementability
AppMa.Us.Ft.Im.Cat.
Average Score for Big ERP5.14.85.25.4Big ERP
Average Score for CRM6.26.25.15.9CRM
Average Score for Small and Medium ERP8.386.78.5Small and Medium ERP
Average Score for Finance8.88.888.8Finance
Average Score for Demand Planning7.67.277.1Demand Planning
Average Score for Supply Planning6.76.976.8Supply Planning
Average Score for Production Planning6.86.976.9Production Planning
Average Score for BI Heavy5.55.36.95.3BI Heavy
Average Score for PLM77.26.87.3PLM
Average Score for BI Light7.78.798.3BI Light
Arena Solutions Arena PLM 10101010PLM
AspenTech AspenOne48107Production Planning
Birst 88.5108BI Light
ERPNext10107.510Small and Medium ERP
Delfoi Planner866.57Production Planning
Demand Works Smoothie SP910710Supply Planning
Hamilton Grant RM1098.59PLM
IBM Cognos2.731.53BI Heavy
Infor Epiphany7865CRM
Infor Lawson8767Big ERP
Intuit QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions9959Finance
JDA DM97.588Demand Planning
Microsoft Dynamics CRM2322CRM
NetSuite CRM6433CRM
Netsuite OneWorld7788Big ERP
OpenERP788.587
Oracle BI4436BI Heavy
Oracle CRM On Demand4535CRM
Oracle Demantra533.54.5Demand Planning
Oracle JD Edwards World4136Big ERP
Oracle RightNow6745CRM
PlanetTogether Galaxy APS10101010Production Planning
Preactor8737Production Planning
QlikTech QlikView99109BI Light
Rootstock9899Small and Medium ERP
Sage X38878Big ERP
Salesforce Enterprise88.597.5CRM
SAP APO DP3432Demand Planning
SAP APO PP/DS2243Production Planning
SAP APO SNP3484Supply Planning
SAP BI/BW1.5242BI Heavy
SAP Business Objects32.573BI Heavy
SAP CRM4364CRM
SAP ECC336.53Big ERP
SAP PLM12.523PLM
SAP SmartOps4475.5Supply Planning
SAS BI6.5796BI Heavy
SAS Demand Driven Forecasting7897Demand Planning
Tableau (BI)9101010BI Light
Tableau (Forecasting)10859Demand Planning
Teradata86.39.76BI Heavy
ToolsGroup SO99 (Forecasting)7897Demand Planning
ToolsGroup SO99 (Supply)56107Supply Planning

Vendor and Application Risk

An implementation of AspenOne combined the implementation of a highly specialized and functional application with a dysfunction software vendor. This means staffing the project heavy with buyer resources. AspenTech consulting resources tend to be of good quality, but organizational issues will prevent them from being as effective as they could be.

Likelihood of Implementation Success

This accounts for both the application and vendor-specific risk. In our formula, the total implementation risk is application + vendor + buyer risk. The buyer specific risk could increase or decrease this overall likelihood and adjust the values that you see below.

Likelihood of Application Implementation Success and Failure

Estimates are for a typical project. A specific implementation requires details from the project to make a project-specific estimate.

Search for the application in this table using the search bar in the upper right of the table.
ApplicationProb of Implementation SuccessProb of Implementation Failure
Actuate0.770.23
SAP Smartops0.390.61
NetSuite CRM0.460.54
Sugar CRM0.620.48
Base CRM0.910.09
SAP CRM0.350.65
Salesforce Enterprise0.720.28
QlikTech QlikView0.820.18
Tableau (BI)0.980.02
SAP Crystal Reports0.460.54
Brist0.830.17
MicroStrategy0.70.3
SAS BI0.760.24
Oracle BI0.350.65
IBM Cognos0.230.77
Infor Epiphany0.580.42
Microsoft Dynamics CRM0.260.74
Oracle RightNow CRM0.410.59
Oracle CRM On Demand0.360.64
Teradata0.760.24
SAP Business Objects0.320.68
SAP BI/BW0.250.75
SAP PLM0.290.71
Hamilton Grant RM0.890.11
Arena Solutions0.960.04
Delfoi Planner0.70.3
Preactor0.640.36
PlanetTogether Galaxy APS0.960.04
AspenTech AspenOne0.550.45
SAP APO PP/DS0.270.73
Demand Works Smoothie SP0.930.07
ToolsGroup SO99 (Supply)0.820.18
Demand Works Smoothie0.960.04
Tableau (Forecasting)0.90.1
SAS Demand Driven Forecasting0.820.18
ToolsGroup SO99 (Forecasting)0.860.14
JDA DM0.570.43
Oracle Demantra0.330.67
SAP APO DP0.280.72
FinancialForce0.920.08
Intacct0.980.02
Intuit QB Enterprise0.80.2
ERPNext0.90.1
OpenERP0.780.22
Rootstock0.910.09
ProcessPro0.930.07
Microsoft Dynamics AX0.40.6
SAP Business One0.490.51
Sage X30.620.38
Infor Lawson0.580.42
Epicor ERP0.40.6
Oracle JD Edwards World0.310.69
Oracle JD Edwards EnterpriseOne0.360.64
SAP ERP ECC/R/30.320.68
NetSuite OneWorld0.650.35

Risk Definition

See this link for more on our categorizations of risk. We also offer a Buyer Specific Risk Estimation as a service for those that want a comprehensive analysis.

Risk Management Approach

AspenOne is a skillful application and can perform production planning and scheduling of some process industry-manufacturing environment that no other application can. However, a risk with AspenOne implementations is that the implementation can develop a configuration that is difficult to maintain post go live. Slicing the overall implementation into mini-go lives can moderate this risk so that the buyer can become acclimated to running AspenOne in production sooner rather than later.

Finished With Your Analysis?

To go back to the Software Selection Package page for the Production Planning software category. Or go to this link to see other analytical products for AspenTech AspenOne.