Looking for a Unicom System Architect alternative?

What is the best alternative to Unicom System Architect for modernizing your architecture practices? Discover the advantages of Boldo for organizations seeking agility and collaboration.


Modernity and Collaboration vs. Technical Legacy

Unicom System Architect

Description

Unicom System Architect (formerly IBM Rational) remains a historical benchmark for organizations requiring strict compliance with standard frameworks like TOGAF, DoDAF, or NAF. Its robustness makes it a preferred tool in the defense and government sectors for managing complex repositories. However, this power comes with a dated interface and structural complexity that limits its use to a handful of certified experts, creating an information bottleneck.


Boldo addresses this challenge by democratizing access to corporate knowledge. The platform offers a “Consumer Grade” user experience that requires no heavy technical training. By replacing academic rigor with a collaborative and visual approach, Boldo enables business and IT teams to unite around a shared vision, turning Enterprise Architecture into a strategic communication lever.

Key Features
TOGAF/DoDAF framework support
Complex data modeling
Static report generation
Legacy ERP integration
Pros
Compliance with defense standards
Deep technical repository
Long-term data history
Cons
Obsolete user experience
Steep learning curve
Lack of real-time collaborative features
Reason #1

Prioritize Adoption Through a Seamless User Experience

While Unicom System Architect offers impressive functional depth, its 2000s-era ergonomics are a major barrier to internal adoption. Navigating dense menus and technical logic intimidates non-expert stakeholders, confining Enterprise Architecture to an isolated ivory tower away from operational reality.


Boldo flips this paradigm by providing an intuitive interface inspired by the best consumer web standards. With an immediate learning curve and clean design, the platform allows any decision-maker to navigate the map without prior training. Architecture becomes accessible, readable, and usable by everyone, driving mass adoption across the organization.

Reason #2

Break Free from Rigid Methodological Frameworks

Unicom’s strength lies in its strict adherence to standard architecture frameworks, imposing a level of rigor that can become a methodological straightjacket. For a company looking to innovate quickly, the heavy configuration and difficulty in modifying the metamodel without expert intervention significantly slow down the Time-to-Market of architecture projects.


Conversely, Boldo offers a flexible approach based on an evolvable, No-Code metamodel. Architects can adapt objects and relationships in a few clicks to match the changing reality of the business without waiting for a software update. This structural agility allows you to start small and grow the repository organically based on actual needs.

Reason #3

Turn Architecture into a Continuous Conversation

Unicom System Architect's operating model traditionally relies on 'Check-in / Check-out' logic or static report publishing. This approach freezes information and prevents dynamic interaction, making it difficult to collect feedback or quickly validate hypotheses with data owners.


Boldo puts collaboration at its core. With real-time multi-user modeling, contextual comments, and @mentions, teams co-build the repository. The platform transforms technical documentation into a storytelling medium, allowing for scripted views that drive dialogue and facilitate collective decision-making.

Compare Boldo with 10+ other Enterprise Architecture modelling and mapping solutions.

partenaire_meeting

Designed for collaboration across all stakeholders

Architecture should not live in silos. With Boldo, business teams, IT and leadership work on the same views, in a shared and living workspace. Everyone explores, comments and aligns in real time. Architecture becomes a collective alignment tool, directly understood and adopted across the organization.

Boldo X Scaleway

Built on European data sovereignty

Boldo is a French platform, with data hosted in Europe on Scaleway, a trusted sovereign cloud infrastructure. Your architecture repository stays fully under your control, in an environment designed to meet regulatory requirements. No ambiguity, no hidden dependencies: clear hosting, clear rules, full transparency.

Page Metamodel

A flexible metamodel that adapts to your reality

Every organization has its own constraints and maturity. Boldo relies on a flexible and evolving metamodel that adapts to your context instead of forcing a rigid framework. Start simple, enrich progressively, and let your architecture evolve at your own pace.

Diagram

Visual storytelling at the core of the experience

In Boldo, diagramming is not an afterthought, it's the heart of the product. Views are intuitive, visually refined and immediately readable. Clear hierarchies, smooth navigation and embedded diagrams make architecture easy to grasp and easy to share, from executive committees to hands-on workshops.

Fair and transparent pricing

Boldo offers Pro and Team plans in self-service, with public and predictable per-user pricing. No opaque licenses, no hidden bundles, no constant renegotiation. From day one, you know what you pay, what you get, and how it scales.

We are here to drive adoption and value

Customer Success is central to our approach. We work closely with teams to build an architecture governance that is useful, alive and truly adopted. Responsive support, continuous exchanges and a long-term vision ensure architecture becomes a concrete decision-making asset, not a theoretical exercise.

See How Unicom System Architect Compares to Boldo

Unicom System Architect vs Boldo

Unicom System ArchitectBoldo
Pricing
Pricing modelQuote-based (Perpetual or Subscription)User and modelled asset packs
Price positioning$$$$$$$
Free trial
Self-service offering
Enterprise offering
User experience
Modern interface
Consistency across views
Time to implement~ 3 to 9 months~ 1 to 6 weeks
Learning curve for architectsVery SteepVery fast
Learning curve for business / C-level usersSteepVery fast
Collaboration
Access rights managementFine grained (asset level)Very fine grained (fields and relationships)
Real-time multi-user modelling
Comments linked to objects and views
Mentions and notifications
Object-level history and versioning
Modelling
Custom object type creation
Object hierarchies
Custom properties per object type
Custom relationships
Process modelling
ArchiMate metamodel support
Framework-agnostic modelling
Storytelling and visualisation
Dynamic views (auto-synchronised)
Nested maps and diagrams
Data visualisation
Auto-generated diagrams
Diagram in 'conception' mode
Bi-directional data ↔ visuals synchronisation
Storytelling mode and scripted views
Multi-dimensional impact analysis
Data and automation
Public API
Batch imports (CSV)
Native connectors
Data validation rules (Q4 2026)
Automatic triggers on changes (Q4 2026)
SaaS hosting
Sovereign hosting
On-premise hosting

Other alternatives

LeanIX

Description

LeanIX is an Enterprise Architecture and IT portfolio management platform designed to help large organizations document, analyze and govern their application landscape. Widely adopted by enterprises, LeanIX focuses on Application Portfolio Management (APM), technology risk, and transformation initiatives, often in close alignment with ERP programs such as SAP.

The platform is primarily used by architecture and transformation teams looking to structure, rationalize and govern complex IT environments at scale. LeanIX emphasizes data consistency, standardized reporting and integration with existing enterprise systems, making it a strong choice for mature, governance-driven organizations.

Key Features
Application Inventory (Fact Sheets)
Dependency Matrices
Survey Management
Compliance Reporting
SAP LeanIX Connector
Pros
Immediate standardisation
Large user community
SAP ecosystem integration
Cons
Rigid metamodel
Application-based pricing
Complex contractual structure

Ardoq

Description

Ardoq is a data-driven Enterprise Architecture platform designed to help organizations visualize, analyze and manage complex IT landscapes. By connecting applications, systems and processes into a living data repository, Ardoq replaces static diagrams with dynamic, actionable insights.

Key Features
Dynamic knowledge graph
Future-state (to-be) scenario modelling
API-driven automation
Intelligent data import
Ardoq Discover (collaborative portal)
Pros
Strong analytical power on complex relationships
High level of automation
Advanced future-state simulations
Cons
Very steep learning curve
Requires technical scripting skills
High total cost of ownership (TCO)

Bizzdesign Horizzon

Description

Bizzdesign Horizzon is a European business design and enterprise architecture platform that connects strategy, business capabilities, operating models and IT architecture within a single, unified environment.

The platform is primarily designed for large organizations looking to structure, govern and steer complex transformation initiatives at scale.

Key Features
Full ArchiMate and TOGAF support
Advanced lifecycle analysis
Strategic roadmapping
Governance and validation workflows
Advanced graphical design capabilities
Pros
Unmatched functional depth
Well suited for strict regulatory compliance
Extremely powerful for expert modellers
Cons
Usability tightly coupled with deep expertise (ArchiMate, TOGAF)
High implementation and training costs
Limited flexibility when evolving the metamodel

Bizzdesign HOPEX

Description

Bizzdesign HOPEX is a European enterprise architecture and governance platform originally developed by MEGA International, and acquired by Bizzdesign in 2024.

It is widely used in regulated industries and the public sector to formalize Enterprise Architecture, governance, risk and compliance through structured models and reference frameworks.

The platform is designed for organizations seeking exhaustive coverage, strong methodological discipline and long-term governance across IT, business processes and compliance domains.

Key Features
Unified EA, GRC, and process repository
Deep data modelling capabilities
Application Portfolio Management (APM)
Regulatory compliance analysis
Rigid validation and governance workflows
Pros
High robustness for very large organisations
Single multi-disciplinary repository (EA, GRC, GDPR, BPM), effectively an IT governance ERP
Powerful cross-domain impact analysis, from technical vulnerabilities to global financial impact
Cons
Technical configuration inertia
Degraded contributor experience
High complexity of metadata and metamodel configuration

BlueDolphin

Description

BlueDolphin is an Enterprise Architecture platform developed by ValueBlue. It helps organizations align strategy, business processes, information systems, and data within a shared repository, with strong capabilities for current and target state modeling, impact analysis, and stakeholder collaboration.

Key Features
Data collection questionnaires
Application Portfolio Management (APM)
Impact analysis
Process diagrams
Embedded BI dashboards
Pros
Strong collaborative approach
Easy data collection from contributors
Clear focus on business value
Cons
Limited visual engagement (spreadsheet-like experience)
Restricted metamodel customisation
Limited control over long-term data governance in highly regulated contexts
Unicom System Architect Alternative: Comparison