The free version of the Financial Industry Business Data Model has been downloaded many times – it’s managed using the SAP PowerDesigner modelling tool, and users of other data modelling tools need to import the PowerDesigner Logical Data Model that is supplied. There are two concerns here:
- FIB-DM is a very big model with some deep super/subtype hierarchies
- even if your tool can import a PowerDesigner model, the chances are that the import doesn’t work perfectly
If your tool of choice is Idera ER/Studio Data Architect, you can use the built-in metadata import feature to import the PowerDesigner model, but I know that you won’t be happy with the result, so I’m building a new service to help you make the transition a happy one! In addition I’ll be providing some useful features for ER/Studio, similar to those in The CDM LDM Productivity model extension.
The left-hand side of the following image is the model created when you import the FIB-DM PowerDesigner model into ER/Studio Data Architect; the right-hand side is the model after it has been improved. Use the slider to see the difference!


You can see a couple of key differences here.
- the PowerDesigner package hierarchy is flattened by the ER/Studio import, and all the package names have been changed. This is a big deal in a model with over 260 packages.
- the fonts and line styles in the diagram need to be changed to make the diagram more readable. This is also a big deal, as there are over 260 diagrams.
There’s much more below the surface that needs to be fixed, such as:
- the attachment names in the Data Dictionary
- incorrect conversion of data types
I suspect that I have an advantage over most organisations that need an ER/Studio version of the FIB-DM model – I also have access to PowerDesigner. I can make changes to the FIB-DM model before importing it, such as renaming the packages using a bespoke model extension, then use a macro in ER/Studio to rename the resulting submodels. I can export details of the Attributes from PowerDesigner, and use that information to correct the data types in ER/Studio.
If you’re interested in finding out more about this new conversion service, please go to the contact page and get in touch.