Jitterbit Vinyl Valuable Features

LE
VP Strategic Technologies at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc

Their ability to connect to just about any data source has been really invaluable. We leverage it in our finance area to help facilitate the processing of purchase requisitions, so it can connect to SAP and our contracting system.

It really makes opportunities limitless because you can connect to just about any system and/or application. What is nice about VINYL is you can create an app and not even necessarily need to take the data out of the source system. If you are creating a business process improvement application that reads data from a variety of different data sources, you can create a front-end to it and write back to those authoritative sources or systems of record without even moving data around. You can facilitate the improved business process with VINYL's ability to connect to a lot of different things, not creating multiple copies of the data, which is also a real benefit of VINYL.

I believe that we are on the latest version. I think it is awesome. Anytime you go into applications, especially low-code development applications, you can sometimes be restricted on how creative you can get with the UI. I think their new design really brings a lot more interest into the applications, where the sizzle is always important. When people are using applications, they like it to have a sleek look and feel. I think that the constant improvement in this area is always great.

Most of the apps that we deploy on the VINYL platform, we try to make them as low-touch or low-training as possible. We try to make them intuitive from an end-user perspective. That is really the value proposition there. If you can build things quickly in a very intuitive interface that drives value for your customers, the value proposition tends to go up a lot. Between the UI and design principles that the Zudy BAs always bring to the table, they really make that not an issue at all.

It really is a big deal, especially the fact that VINYL can connect to just about any data source. We don't need to necessarily replicate data into a data warehouse to do reporting analytics on things. We can leave the data where it sits. Whatever the authoritative system is of record, we can read from it, then write back to it, leveraging a pre-built front-end that we would put together with VINYL. It really creates a lot of flexibility in an organization where you wouldn't just get off-the-shelf software. Those things only get you so far. Because of the fact that VINYL can connect to a lot of different data sources, and just about any API, it gives you a great deal of flexibility. You are almost limited by your imagination, more than anything else.

It is really the benefit of the low-code development frameworks. You don't really need to be a software developer. You can work in the app and do more configuring of the application. You don't need to be a heavy-duty developer. In fact, we don't really have a traditional development organization because of VINYL.

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CA
Mobile Dog Product Manager at BioPet Laboratories

The ZPM system enables us to organize projects and monitor their progress.  The ease of logging into the VINYL app to test new features makes testing smoother, and we feel more involved in the creation of the app and its functions at every step of the way.  

The data tracking and analysis capabilities within the admin portion of the app are also exciting. We are eager to begin using these features once our marketing campaigns begin in order to track user downloads, interactions, etc. 

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ER
Sr. Director, Business Area Solutions at Intra-Cellular Therapies, Inc

The most valuable feature within Zudy VINYL is just the ability to quickly, without having to worry about digging into code, put together user interfaces that match the business requirements and the user's expectation to do rapid deployment. A couple of the things that we really put to work in a lot of our applications are the use of structured communication and notification that is triggered by business events. So, when an activity is completed in the system, Zudy VINYL is able to integrate with our address book and Outlook to send the appropriate notices and deliverables to the people who need to use them next. Then, they can pick the task up without having to go back into the system to know that there is something on their plate.

Zudy is really easy to use. I am a non-developer myself, and I'm able to hang out in the conversations with our technical folks and Zudy consultants who drive a lot of the work development for us. The no-code/low-code platform is extremely intuitive. Our users are able to visualize solutioning. When we are working through an app, they are able to picture a way something would work. They are familiar with the ways Zudy might help them engage in the information that they want to work with. It has been a very easy conversation and easy development process, both within IT and with business customers.

The speed of development for custom applications has been incredibly rapid and really exceeded, not only IT's expectations, but the business users as well. Often, when we are bringing up or conceptualizing a new idea, two or three business days later, we have a conceptual prototype that we are able to put in front of our business users and start building from there. Many of our applications have only taken one to two weeks to stand up in a test environment and then have them deployed to production within about a week after that.

Zudy VINYL integrates really well through APIs and other data integrators. We have worked with about four or five other different systems that we have tied Zudy to, including Viva, ADP, and Oracle. I have yet to bring up a system where we have an idea for an interface, or an exchange of information, where we haven't figured out some way to make that connection, either through a direct API or by using a creative-like FTP process where we drop files someplace and have another system pick them up.

One of the features that they were able to add as part of a business need on the fly was the integration of DocuSign as well as an integration of an iPad touch signature pad. These were plugins that they were able to take, integrate with the tool as they built it, and we were able to create some cool stuff, like attestation forms or sign-off forms. Whereas, if we wanted to capture an official DocuSign signature, or just a scanned signature, we were able to take those tools, integrate them with a PDF presenter, and push electronic versions of forms out to people who they could then sign or acknowledge them right on their iPads. The system would save that as a final document that we could then archive. This wasn't an out-of-the-box feature that Zudy had, but by using the platform and pulling in other applications the way that we envisioned using them, we were able to create things that met our business needs.

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Buyer's Guide
Jitterbit Vinyl
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Jitterbit Vinyl. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.
JP
Director of National Promotion at Entercom Communications

Their integrations are terrific. We've had zero issues, a 100 percent success rate with integrations. In terms of Zudy's data source connectors and API integrations, we've been really pleased. We use some software that is very common in the media business, and then we also have some custom things that we built for a variety of different use cases within our company, and we've had zero integration issues, in terms of getting data into Zudy and getting data out of it. It's been great. I've been really pleased with the integrations from the simple to the more complex. We've done everything from financial planning and analysis to single sign-on. It's really been a great tool and it has really saved us a ton of time spent on things that were done manually.

The workflow, and the ability to add business intelligence tools into our platform, to make us work smarter, not harder, has been a lifesaver for us.

In terms of the speed of development of custom applications with Zudy, we've had no issues. I've been really happy with the speed. Whenever we've asked for something, they've been able to get it to us in a very reasonable timeframe, sometimes beating deadlines. Sometimes we're our own worst enemy in terms of some of the requests we make, but that's not a platform issue at all. They've been terrific, both their folks and the system itself, when we need something turned around really quickly. It has been able to solve for us.

For example, we moved all of our event P&Ls into the Zudy VINYL platform. What was happening on a variety of spreadsheets—Google Docs, some other financial planning tools, but not necessarily at the detail we needed—we were able to build as a custom, P&L for our events. They highlighted the various different ways we look at events, from before the event happens, to while the event is on sale or in its promotional flight, to after the event, and all the analysis that comes with that. It also gives us the workflows and approvals for stakeholders who need to sign off on events throughout the process. That custom application was built earlier this year.

Without using Zudy, I do not know how long it would have taken. It would not have been something I would have been able to do by myself. But we built it in about seven-and-a-half months.

Zudy also continues to improve the solution's features, that's a thousand percent [true]. Every time there's a new rollout or new development in their solutions and the things that they've been able to launch since we've been working together, it has just enhanced our business quite a bit. I'm very happy with the new enhancements, their ability to roll them out, and the functionality that comes with those rollouts. We've had no issues. With their improved rollouts, we've expanded our business with Zudy. What started as an events platform has grown into some other areas of the business. We now have three live platforms, with several more that are potentially in development for 2021. As the system has worked for us, we've continued to grow with them.

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JP
CFO of the Markets Group at a media company with 10,001+ employees

The Lite Integration is really the key thing. You're able to attach the VINYL software to a variety of different systems very easily and pull data together in a way that is really difficult to do using traditional technology. That's really the key, core functionality that really makes the software very useful.

Also, the fact that it's a no-code platform also makes it easier for people to understand and deal with internally, to continue to build applications and modify existing applications.

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MB
General Manager at lipstream Financial

The ability to connect easily to third-party APIs is critical in our business and is seamless in the Vinyl application. We are constantly adding new features by utilizing 3rd party providers, and Vinyl gives us a platform to easily make these connections. 

We also find making user interface changes based on customer feedback, and we can do these within a one-week turnaround. 

The biggest feature is that the support team is assigned to us. They really stand out. They understand our business in great detail, make recommendations, and helped build a great solution.

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SL
Head of Global Digital/Marketing Technology at a consumer goods company with 1,001-5,000 employees

The fact that it's no-code is one of the most important features because it allows us to deliver very quickly. We can get the value to the business delivered much more quickly than with other solutions.

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NM
Application Developer - Operations at Darn Tough Vermont

App development, database storage, and 3rd party app integrations are great. The low-code development makes data storage easy, and web-based apps are very customizable. The platform can connect to many third-party data sources.  

The training resources are also robust and allow for complete online training.  We have set up development, QA, and production environments to isolate our different processes safely.  

Vinyl makes it easy to push changes between the environments. So many out-of-the-box features work well with Vinyl. However, Zudy has also worked closely with us to create plugins and other features that meet our exact needs.

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GH
Application Support Analyst at Alvarez & Marsal

The ease of use moving around the platform cannot be understated. The main workbench page shows you the three layers you can work in (the 'Tables', the 'Business Rules', and the 'Pages') and it is very easy to see how data flows through the Tables to create the front-end panels and pages. The business rules are incredibly versatile and provide endless development tools as well. From any page on the front end, it is straightforward to click through the developer menu and see on the backend why specific data is/isn't appearing and why certain behaviors are occurring. From there, making adjustments to fit your needs is generally very easy.

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SH
Director of Application Development at Collette Travel Services

The feature that I find most valuable with Zudy VINYL is how flexible it is. There are so many ways that you can connect data to it and there are so many features that are out-of-the-box that make the product very flexible and easy and easy to work with.

It's got a great user interface which makes it a nice looking product that our employees are able to engage with quickly.

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SD
National Administrator at mPact Pro Client Management Systems

All of Zudy's features are valuable. In terms of the user interface, we have come upon solutions that make workflow easier with efficiencies in making things, from a process standpoint, easier for the agencies to utilize. We've taken all the guesswork out of the process for them.

In comparison to our previous platform, the speed of development of custom applications using Zudy is light years faster. We were able to deliver the first solution in less than three months. It would be a little bit less if you take out the unknowns, which I've found to be my best friend in terms of things occurring that we didn't know were happening. But even with that, it has been light years. By comparison, what took us a year-and-a-half to do on our previous platform, we did in three months with Zudy.

The low-code level of work that we can do on our own, once things are handed off to us, and the interaction that we've had throughout, with the account managers and the architectural design individuals—they have made a process that should be automated [a] friendly [process].

In terms of data migration and data connectors, they actually built a data transition table. I think it was through a platform called Magellan, that was customized for us to be able to take data out of the old platform, stage it into a staging area, and then move it into the new platform that was built on the Zudy VINYL platform. It was seamless from my standpoint, but I'm not the one who wrote the code or pushed the data in and out of the old platform into the new platform. But they made what was going to be what I called "Godzilla," in terms of it being a monumental monster of a project, easy, with the solution that they deliver.

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DH
Senior Director of IT at NXC Imaging

The most valuable features of Zudy VINYL are the abilities for us to rapidly develop applications, deploy them easily, and then make adjustments as we realize the things that we forgot to put in the first release or the second release. We've done eight releases in eleven months for our field management solution.

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DM
Founder/CTO at NG911 Services

The team is its most valuable feature. The people I work with are great. They can get the stuff done that I want done usually faster than I expect.

The product is super fast at getting things done. 

I had expected a portal that can be secure and handle data ingestion and visualization. It hits all those points and that is what it's doing.

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EP
Director, Technology Management at PGT Trucking Inc.

There are two most valuable features: one is the ability to pull data from a bunch of different places and put them together. The second is the speed at which you can get a new app developed. Instead of waiting months for this new app to come out, if you have an internal team putting it together, you can roll it out in weeks. I've even seen days. It's incredible how fast you can make changes.

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LE
VP Strategic Technologies at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals Inc
  • Ability to connect to disparate data sources
  • The workflow engine
  • Speed and agility in building apps
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NS
Founder at Quote Kong LTD

The features in Zudy VINYL that I've found to be most valuable have been the fact that we have tried to build out several versions of Quote Kong, and the problem has been that every time we start off with a new version we always have to go through this huge rigmarole of setting up all of these tables, and all these logics, and writing everything from scratch. I don't have to do that with Zudy VINYL. There are so many of those micro, early-stage things that are just done for you.

On top of that, it's unbelievably easy to have it work on any device. I have hardly had to do any tweaking from device to device. Whereas previously, it was very difficult. Those are the things that I like about Zudy VINYL.

Also, when it comes to the speed of development of the applications with Zudy VINYL it has been the fastest and most powerful that I've been able to do. We've tried building things from scratch. It takes an enormous amount of time. We've cut that time by probably a fifth, with more power. I've been very happy with the speed of doing things in Zudy VINYL.

The custom application we built with Zudy VINYL is Quote Kong, our entire process. We compress probably 60 hours' worth of manual paperwork, and we get it done for the contractor in about an hour. There are a lot of hoops that we have to go through to make that happen, and there were a lot of things that were not off-the-shelf that I needed. We actually attempted to build Quote Kong five other times with different platforms, and it failed. It did not work with other ones. We tried. We spent a lot of time, a lot of energy, and we could not make it come to completion. But with Zudy VINYL we were able to complete it.

Zudy's data connectors and the API integrations have been great so far. We've definitely had to integrate some older data that we brought over, and it's worked really well. It also has a lot of external things such as Babel, and it also has Google integration, which has been easy. Integrations aren't easy in general, but I would say that I'm very happy with how it has been, integrating with Zudy so far.

As for the ease of use for VINYL for non-developers, I like it. I do have some technical background, but I don't have the full-stack development abilities. Yet I'm able to go in and I love that I can make changes on-the-fly when a customer says to me, "Hey, this button in this place doesn't quite make sense." I can move it. I don't have to call up a developer. I don't have to try and find somebody to do it. I'm very excited about that. It's been amazing to have that control myself, and not have to try and explain to someone how I want to move the button; why I want to move the button; what that is supposed to look like. I've just been able to go in myself and do it, and I've found it to be relatively easy. It's a very complex thing that they're trying to accomplish, so it's not super-easy, but it's also not so difficult that a non-developer can't handle it. As long as you can follow some instructions, you should be able to do it yourself.

Zudy also handles the data encryption and the user identities and the data migration and the databases, and all of those authentication things, very well. I have been very happy with it. When you're having to build things from scratch, you have to build all of that out manually, and that is a difficult thing to do. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, and I just didn't have [to go through] that with this one. I feel confident with what they have. My research has said they've been doing it well. Security is very hard to do. You can do 9,998 things right, but if you do one or two things wrong, the bad guys will find it. From what I've seen, that hasn't happened. Breaches are probably somewhat inevitable in some ways, but I think it's certainly a lot less likely because you didn't have to set up all of these things and know all these best practices because it was done well for you ahead of time. That's been a comfort to me because, of course, I have a lot of data and a lot of security things that I am worried about, and I've been glad to be able to rely on Zudy.

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NP
Logistics Director of Planning and Projects at FreshDirect

The most valuable features are its flexibility and rapid development. We need to be able to find stuff quickly and produce solutions to our users. We are a quickly changing, rapidly integrating company. Therefore, this solution allows us to keep pushing forward and ensures our continuous improvement.

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SG
Manager of Retail Technology at Brooks Brothers

One of the most valuable features of VINYL is its flexibility. We've been able to change direction if needed, once we've learned lessons when we finally started using parts of the product. That flexibility and speed to get to market is really a strength, combined with its ability to connect to other data sources.

It doesn't need to house much data. It's really, really strong in connecting to your other systems or third parties that you might subscribe to and pull it all into one place where you can use it.

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NS
Senior Consultant at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

VINYL works across different data sources. It is very useful to be able to map the data across different data sources and different environments. It is also very easy to develop small applications within a short span of time.

In addition, it is easy to use. It took about a week for me to analyze how VINYL performs on different applications, how the logic is written inside. Its backend is .NET.

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BG
Executive Director of Management Process Automation at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

One of the most valuable features of the solution is how rapid we can implement it, going from a design to an operational concept in a very short period of time.

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SI
Programmer Analyst at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

As a programmer, I came from a programming world, so it was hard for me to use the tool because it was very foreign to a programmer, but it's very dynamic. So if I build one panel, it can go across to the different tools, phone, iPad, computer, and I don't have to worry about redesigning it for each platform.

Only because consultants can see places to use the tool where we're blind to that because we've just done it that way in the past. I don't know if I'm explaining myself right, but when they come in they can see a need for it, or a use case for it, that we would have never picked. So the consultants have provided places where the tool can benefit us that we would have never thought of.

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JR
Associate Director, Commercial Systems at a pharma/biotech company with 1,001-5,000 employees

VINYL's flexibility: We have been able to leverage the platform to rapidly build custom solutions, and tailor-make them to our needs. To date, the speed of app creation and extensibility of the product have allowed us to solve critical business problems in a timely manner.

From a front-end perspective, the apps which we have built are intuitive to use.

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SS
General IT Clerk with 501-1,000 employees

All the features are pretty valuable. One that stands out is the cross-platform integration, which helps us access the data we need to see.

It's pretty easy to learn. Sometimes the terminology can be a little tricky to get around, but it's just queries with no code so once you get the hang of it, it's pretty simple. It's extremely easy to use in getting into the IDE and then back down to your applications, and getting from your applications to your pages, and navigating through all your tables. That's very simple and pretty intuitive.

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PC
VP of IT at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees

It is flexible and versatile. You can connect to multiple data sources or databases concurrently, which is very useful. You don't have to extract and load or build a data warehouse, if you don't want to. You can attach to databases live and pull data live wherever it is. It can be in the cloud, on-premise, or on a subsidiary's premise. You can get at them all. You're not just stuck with doing redundant copies of data.

We find it is easy to learn and use, and the user interface is easy to pick up. We have trained some of our own people to be able to do apps with VINYL. Therefore, we can turn things around quickly.

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MM
Chief of Staff at a non-tech company with 51-200 employees
  • Ease of use
  • Easily accessible
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it_user877725 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Director at Cal-Maine Foods

The product has reduced the time that it takes us to produce apps.

Being an agriculture company, we are pretty mean and lean when it comes to spend. It really helps to produce applications in a faster period of time.

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SR
Sr. Team Manager - Tour Manager Department at a leisure / travel company with 501-1,000 employees

The way that they've done some of the reports, they've created really great data dumps. If I want to see a snapshot of something for a given timeframe, I can download it. From that download, I can create further analysis or do my own thing with it, which is really helpful. I'm even able to go back several years and get data. So when I'm doing a comparison of year over year, I am able to do it just from what they have done, what they have created for us.

In terms of it being easy to learn, it's logical so it makes sense of things. The steps are pretty logical and the display is very user-friendly. A "pencil" means "write," i.e. that you are able to write. So it's clear. It's not ambiguous, what you can and what you can't do on it. 

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JF
Finance Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees

It's customizable to whatever you might use it for, so I don't know about specific features. It's specific to our needs. But I've gone in and I've learned it myself a little bit, with their help. I've gone to some of the Zudy training for VINYL.

As far as features go, it's the ability for me to go in and see what's going on when I need to. And to be able to start to do some back-end programming of it myself. That's been nice too.

It's very user-friendly, and the front-end is exactly what we need to see, very simple. It can get more complicated too, if those are the needs.

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it_user877734 - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President Technology at Collette
  • You do not need to be a programmer to use it or build something in it. This is pretty important in our business.
  • You can unite data which lives in different sources without moving that data. This have been a real game changer for us.
  • Our partnership with Zudy has really worked out for us.
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DR
Scheduling Manager at a leisure / travel company with 501-1,000 employees

The fact it connects to all of our systems outside of Zudy. It connects with our internal systems and it makes things more productive and not manual.

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Buyer's Guide
Jitterbit Vinyl
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Jitterbit Vinyl. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,234 professionals have used our research since 2012.