The Ellucian Ethos Framework is a data integration platform designed for higher education institutions and their business structures. The Ethos Framework can be extended to include other Ellucian products for greater analytics, workflow, and mobile capacities.
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IFTTT
Score 6.7 out of 10
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IFTTT is a marketing automation software solution offered by IFTTT. It is scaled for non-technical
users and less complex, generally two-step connectors and API’s.
Ethos Integration is a work in progress. Some API's are still not available under this framework. However, it has the advantage of being an abstraction layer on top of the database, supports the publish-subscribe model. Since some Banner 9 modules still do not support the direct SAML2 connection, Ethos Identity (EIS Server) is a necessity for SSO.
Because of the multitude of options with IFTTT, it is hard to describe the best use scenarios, but I will share how I use the platform at this time. I use IFTTT to check Craigslist for certain IT equipment postings and email me if that occurs, turning items on and off with geo-fencing and WiFi network presence, and linking my calendar to my to-do list
IFTTT manages a number of social media accounts quite well. Being able to login to one platform with access to all your accounts is great.
IFTTT is easy to set up. IFTTT has a number of crowd sourced and created formulas that you can use, or if you're looking for something specific you can create your own. This allows for an endless number of combinations and ways to engage with the program.
IFTTT doesn't require constant upkeep. Once you have things setup you can forget about it and it just works.
Operational reporting: This does not replace or provide an easy platform for operational reports or warehousing. It would be nice if they provided a full stack.
Learning curve: Training and documentation are minimal.
The website section "Activity" tends to get very crowded over time. It would benefit from some search and filter functionalities.
Some services lack ingredients. "Ingredients" are attributes passed from one service to another to enhance IFTTT's power. However, some services (like Evernote's notes, for example) currently have too few ingredients available.
It is not possible to link more than two services. It would be great, for example, to have an option to take a mail message and post in multiple social networks and blogs with the same applet.
There is no better alternative and although Integromat is new and the GUI is slick, they make you pay per push and IFTTT does not. The rest of the competition make you pay per integration or are just not as seamless in usage or have the depth of catalogue. If you use Zapier for instance, it is because they have an integration you have to use, not because Zapier does a better job.
For the most part, IFTTT is great but it does have its limitations. You may only do one thing at a time. If you want branching logic it can be cumbersome and clunky. This it where something like Microsoft Flow does better. For simplicity, nothing can beat IFTTT for how easy it is to set up and use right out of the box
Support from Ellucian for Ethos Integration was generally good. The help in building Ethos was adequate, and resolving issues were handled professionally. However, for Ethos Identity module, the support in building the cluster failover architecture was lacking. After over a month of open engagement, the issue still has not been resolved.
I have had a few issues with apps over the years. Compared to other services, ITFFF is the best choice but no service is perfect unless you build it yourself for yourself. ITFFF needs more tutorials on how to create a custom platform, but overall I will recommend it as an easy to use, time-saving service.
We have not used any other product similar to this, but for us, it made sense that the first product we tried was made by the company who developed our ERP system because they know the system inside/out. Solutions made by other companies that only look into documentation does not mean they would be able to create a product that could do such integration well.
I haven't used Zapier extensively, but it seems that IFTTT is much simpler to set up. However, Zapier appears to be a much deeper integration where you can sync a variety of fields of data and customize the sync more than you can with IFTTT. Zapier may be more valuable for someone with a complex need and IFTTT is built for simple solutions for more basic apps.
