PeerSpot user
Systems Analyst at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Easy access to all of my data

What is most valuable?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

10 years

Buyer's Guide
Entrinsik Informer
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Entrinsik Informer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,886 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Not that I am aware of.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not that I am aware of.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not that I am aware of.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

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.

Technical Support:

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.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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

How was the initial setup?

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

What about the implementation team?

We implemented in house.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Consultant at a university with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Provides users with a uniform interface even when data sources are from different systems

What is most valuable?

  • 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.

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

  • 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.

For how long have I used the solution?

Almost 3 years

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Have not had the need to do so yet.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Have not relied on support yet.

Technical Support:

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

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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

What about the implementation team?

I think we used a vendor team.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Before me.

What other advice do I have?

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Entrinsik Informer
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Entrinsik Informer. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,886 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Sr. Donor Data Analyst at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Great Product. I have so much more to learn.

What is most valuable?

  • Mappings/Mapped Files. 
  • Scheduling. 
  • Saving Reports. 
  • Quick launch is great. 
  • Live Excel Reporting is great.

How has it helped my organization?

Allows me to schedule and share reports. Quick launch is great. Easy to share reports with campus partners. Live Excel has really benefited me by saving time.

What needs improvement?

More tutorials and free training. There is a lot to learn and having short cut learning tools would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

Six years

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Larger reports can hang up, but not sure if that is an Informer issue.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Used Query Builder in Datatel. It was time to advance.

What was our ROI?

I appreciate the scheduling, saving, quick launch and ease of sharing of reports. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Developer at a university with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Empower the end user

What is most valuable?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

2 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

None.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Very good customer service.

Technical Support:

Very good technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

None

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

In-house.

What was our ROI?

More time for both IT department and end users.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Minimal.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

SRSS

What other advice do I have?

Informer did a great job helping end users.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Financial Analyst at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Gives live feed for reporting, data is more accurate, once main report is written it can be used in various ways.

What is most valuable?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

Since 2010

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Not that I was aware of.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Always available for questions. The blog is very helpful.

Technical Support:

Good. I get answers quickly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Programmer Analyst at a manufacturing company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Great Tool for a busy IT department, easy to use and implement.

Valuable Features

The easy of use and implement with our MultiValue database (UniVerse) and our SQL servers.

Improvements to My Organization

  • Informer allowed the end-user to create, scheduled and emailed reports. The Live Excel reporting is a great function when you want to share the report among the user community.
  • Before Informer the end-users were relying on a busy IT department to create a process that generate needed request.

Room for Improvement

  • We would like the ability to generate a report using multiple datasources.
  • Presently we generate separate reports from our MultiValue database and our SQL server.

Use of Solution

We have used this utility for four years.

Customer Service and Technical Support

Customer Service:

The customer service is great any issue is resolved in a timely fashion.

Technical Support:

The customer support is excellent, with the knowledge of the product and ability to resolve any issue that we have encountered.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Programmer Analyst with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Great reporting tool.

What is most valuable?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than 5 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

9 out of 10.

Technical Support:

9 out of 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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

How was the initial setup?

Setup was straightforward.

What other advice do I have?

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

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
HRIS Analyst at a university with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Great for auditing purposes

What is most valuable?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

2 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

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

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None that I remember.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

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

Technical Support:

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

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes. Moving over was a college wide decision.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user