Sparx Systems Recognized by Gartner for Fifth Consecutive Year

CRESWICK, AUSTRALIA--(Marketwired - Nov. 6, 2014) - Gartner Inc., the world's leading information technology research and advisory company, has recognized Sparx Systems in its 2014 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools report* for the fifth successive year. Gartner released the 2014 analysis at the end of September.

Magic Quadrant reports are used by corporate decision makers to keep up-to-date on vendors with a significant presence in the global market. Sparx Systems has been included for the past five years because of its flagship product Enterprise Architect.

Gartner reports are technology area specific, and the analysts evaluate vendors for their "completeness of vision" and their "ability to execute" against that vision. The current report defines enterprise architecture tools as:

"...software applications targeted primarily at supporting the direct participants and stakeholders of the EA discipline in their strategically driven planning through to execution. Support for strategic decision making is provided through capturing vital enterprise context, along with content development and analysis capabilities across the business, information, technology and solution architectures."

Sparx COO Tom O'Reilly said inclusion in Gartner for the fifth time reflects their commitment to provide full lifecycle modeling support for a variety of roles involved in design, modeling, analysis and decision making.

"We have made our mark on the marketplace by maximizing both the roles we serve and the practical support we provide to each of those roles," he said.

"We've deliberately created a tool that pulls everyone into a shared, collaborative environment for planning and development: CEOs, CIOs, COOs, enterprise architects, business analysts, project managers, coders, testers, software developers, software architects, software engineers, project managers, support personnel, database administrators, deployment and rollout teams and technology developers."

O'Reilly said the Sparx business model builds on the versatility of the tool with pricing that makes widespread deployment practical - even in large organizations that may have dozens or even hundreds of people involved in software development or enterprise architecture all working on the same common repository.

These strengths have earned Sparx a worldwide installed base that exceeds a third of a million. Three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies use Sparx software. O'Reilly said the client base is growing at 15 per cent annually. Sparx software has made strong inroads in a number of vertical sectors globally, including aerospace, insurance, geospatial, software, entertainment, banking, automotive and industrial.

"Enterprise Architect is an essential part of the architecture-based solutions APG provides to our clients," said Chris Armstrong, President of APG, Sparx Systems Global Partner in the United States. "End-users find the flexibility, versatility, and affordability of Enterprise Architect key in removing the roadblocks they encounter as they mature their model-based development communities."

*Gartner "Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools" by Saul Brand. September 30, 2014

About Sparx Systems

Sparx Systems is a global software company specializing in high performance visual modeling tools for planning, designing and constructing software-intensive corporate systems. Sparx tools are used by systems developers, enterprise architects, business analysts, corporate planners, project managers, standards developers and software engineers.

Sparx modeling software is widely used in finance, defense, government, aerospace, automotive engineering, geospatial, entertainment, health, smart grid, aviation, retail and telecommunications. Sparx' flagship modeling tool Enterprise Architect is now licensed by three quarters of the companies on the Fortune 100 list.

Sparx tools are based on the Unified Modeling Language (UML), an open standard developed by the Object Management Group (OMG), where Sparx Systems is active as a Contributing Member. Sparx Enterprise Architect software provides robust support for team-wide collaboration, and can scale up from single-user deployment to teams with dozens or even hundreds of collaborators - including remote collaborators.

Sparx software is price competitive even when deployed across the entire development team. Sparx Systems has won five consecutive SD Times Top 100 awards and two Readers Choice Merit Awards from Visual Studio Magazine and Jolt. Now at version 11, Enterprise Architect is available directly from Sparx or bundled with expert support and comprehensive training services - from a network of more than 300 technology partners active in North America, Europe, Australia, India, China, Japan, southeast Asia and Latin America.

First developed in 1998, Sparx' Enterprise Architect modeling tool was commercially released in 2000, and has enjoyed more than 15 years continuous development and growth.

About the Magic Quadrant

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