Entrinsik Informer Reviews

• Informer is or has become our standard reporting tool for all systems.
• Finding links to data items within the file that one is reporting on.

Has allowed users to create their own reports and to make changes to reports. I.E: Custom when needed or wanted.

• Better on line/within product help maybe a e-Learning session for users.
• Can you get stats on report usage by users who are running the reports - would help to find reports that were created for a one time use and are no longer needed. Like a listing of who was the last run by and date - across all who logged in to Informer.

Almost 3 years

No, Once in a while I heare that the server will need to be re-booted to re-set connections to all data bases.

Have not had the need to do so yet.

Have not relied on support yet.

Have not relied on support yet, a colleague reports no problems dealing with support.

Not here, This was installed when I came here. I have used other reporting tools and Informer is a better product that what I have at another job site.

As I stated was not here for the setup/start up. My Initial learning was a little rough.

I think we used a vendor team.

I support this product and only deal with it a few hours a month or so.

Before me.

I would like to have a report version tool - to log what reports are run and by who. This wou;d be helpful.

The ability to let the end users get data and to customize reports.

Informer allowed the IT department to focus on other systems instead of retrieving the data.

The big issue for us is that there is no way to cancel a report from the browser. If an end user creates an incorrect report and runs it, they have to contact the IT department to kill that SQL thread/process.

2 years

None.

None.

None.

Very good customer service.

Very good technical support.

None

Straightforward.

In-house.

More time for both IT department and end users.

Minimal.

SRSS

Informer did a great job helping end users.

The user friendly aspect of the interface and flexibility of usage. Security is robust but simple to implement.

Now we have users who can edit and create their own reports. We can automate reporting, including emailing reports.

More integration with MS Office, better description of the fields and where and how they are used.

4 years

None

None

Not so far

Excellent

Excellent

No, we didn't previously use a different solution.

The installation is straightforward, deciding how to map your data is complex because the data is complex.

In-house team

1 year

$25k, $7k annually

Yes, Ellucian's CROA.

No

• Using links between files
• Using save list for communication management and mailing and more

We are using it for reporting purposes which is working much better than selecting from column prompt.

Reporting for a wide range of information. Different department base by their requirement.

I would like to be able to use fields from third file links which is right now limited and difficult.

More than 5 years.

I would like to be able to use fields from third file links which is right now limited and difficult.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

9 out of 10.

9 out of 10.

We were using Unidata and Unibasic at column prompt to create reports.

Setup was straightforward.

Like I said in my previous comment, accessing fields using third links between files.

I think the analytics are great. I enjoy creating reports using scripts to get to exactly the data I need.

I can now run reports and use them in conjunction with some of my other audits for a full picture of a given time period. Especially great for for payroll audits.

I wish there was a cron expression for bi-weekly. This becomes problematic with payroll audits. Even using a 15 day solution doesn't always work especially for months like February.

2 years

Some of our reports didn't convert as expected but most of those reports needed to be re-written.

None that I remember.

I did notice some result parameters had to be expanded but that was a quick resolution.

8/10, I've never had an issue.

9/10, I think the tech team really know their product and offer great support.

Yes. Moving over was a college wide decision.

It's been a good experience so far. I'm looking to learning about more functionality that we haven't really tapped into such as dashboards.

Prior to licensing Informer, trained report writers were executing queries at the database level. This required custom programs to secure files/fields and left gaping holes where ens-users could overwrite Vocabulary records for files and directories with the name of a report. By moving our end-users into a reporting tool solution, we were able to secure files and fields, allow users to make copies of report without changing the original version and schedule reports to key decision making on a regular basis. My IT staff was relieved of having to create links to files through computed or calculated fields to get from file to file as it iq quite easy do make the links right within Informer itself. The export features provide the flexibility of using varying formats - the .pdf totals, subtotals and detail data is the absolute bomb! The Excel exports still satisfy the Finance folks. I would also like to add that Tech Support has been nothing but stellar since implementation. If we can' figure out a way to do or execute something, we call, get a real person and its usually resolved quickly. If it needs escalation, we can expect to see an enhancement available next release. It is one of the best investments Barry University has ever made.

The most valuable aspect is being able to provide Ad-Hoc reporting at the fingertips of our end-users without having to wait on IT to handle a request. My IT staff was relieved of having to create links to files through computed or calculated fields to get from file to file as it iq quite easy do make the links right within Informer itself. The export features provide the flexibility of using varying formats - the .pdf totals, subtotals and detail data is the absolute bomb! The Excel exports still satisfy the Finance folks. I would also like to add that Tech Support has been nothing but stellar since implementation. If we can' figure out a way to do or execute something, we call, get a real person and its usually resolved quickly. If it needs escalation, we can expect to see an enhancement available next release. It is one of the best investments Barry University has ever made.

More reporting available in the hands of end-users and key decision makers. More secure features around sensitive and confidential data.

We have used Informer since August of 2007 within our IT department. Loaded our Colleague database, did some quick file/field level clean-up and deployed to the Superusers with reporting knowledge. With the latest version, we were able to separate out the report writers from the launchers and now it is deployed to 85% of our system users.

None what-so-ever

No.

No.

Extremely satisfying.

Extremely satisfying.

We originally purchased Safari but it was overall too complex for the standard end-user and report building by IT was not intuitive and very complex.

Entrinsik provided a detailed implementation plan. They came on-site for 3 days working with IT Tech administration, super-users and actually developing the needed reports.

Vendor team and the experience was excellent.

Priceless.

Informer for up to 225 UniData users @ $17,500. Included:

• One year of warranty support
• One year of phone support
• One year of free product upgrades
• One web training session

Annual maintenance thereafter $3,500 with minor increases. Well worth the price compared to some reporting tools costing $50-60K

This solution fit the best as we are a Colleague/Unidata Client - Ellucian was not providing the reporting tools needed by the clients. We attend SEDUG and was convinced it was the solution we needed after attending a vendor session.

We have signed a contract with Workday and will be moving off the Colleague product over the next 3-4 years. Get in with Workday as an alternative reporting tool. It would make the transition a much smoother one for our end-users.

I work in the Budgeting office and am a financial report writer. I have been able to write transactional reports as well as budget to actual summary reports. I have them set up in a way that when someone asks me for something, I can pull the data out quickly and easily to match their purposes. Once the reports are written it can be molded for many different scenarios. Once I became more familiar with the data and Java Script, I was able to build very nice reports. This saves valuable time building the reports in Excel from pieces of data. I can get the data in one sheet and work from there.

I can provide more timely reports for all levels of the college.

You have to know Java scripting for getting over hurdles. I wish it was more user friendly out of the box. It is geared towards Student Data. It took awhile to build a good Financial Reporting tool.

Since 2010

Not that I was aware of.

None.

Always available for questions. The blog is very helpful.

Good. I get answers quickly.

I used a combination of downloads with Excel. It was very time consuming and error prone. I still used Excel for many things, but my data behind it is much more solid.

The ability to create run time computed columns is one of the best features in informer. Being able to manipulate data ad hoc as necessary without making changes to our ERP database is incredibly helpful.

Our organization uses Informer extensively. Because of the easily understandable UI, end users are able to retrieve their own data with little or no IT support. The ability to schedule and deliver reports has also helped to streamline processes by eliminating the need for users to pass information along manually.

I would like to see further development on customizability options in the dashboard module. Geomapping and color selection parameters are two areas that lack at the moment.

10 years

Not that I am aware of.

Not that I am aware of.

Not that I am aware of.

I have not had a need to contact Entrinsik service directly. I do wish that there was a better response to questions raised on the user forum.

I have not had a need to contact Entrinsik support directly. I do wish that there was a better response to questions raised on the user forum.

Previous reporting was handled at the database level via a terminal emulator. Informer was a much easier tool for end users to work with.

I was not involved in the initial set up of the product.

We implemented in house.

In my experience Informer is a powerful tool that can be used in a variety of ways to allow end users to get easy access to their data.