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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Entrinsik Informer

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AEntrinsik Informer is a web-based reporting and business intelligence application popular in the higher education vertical market. It helps organizations transform real-time data into actionable information by delivering ad-hoc reporting, data analysis, and interactive dashboards.N/A
    Pricing
    Entrinsik Informer
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Entrinsik Informer
    Free Trial
    Yes
    Free/Freemium Version
    No
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    Yes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee
    Additional Details—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Entrinsik Informer
    Considered Both Products
    Entrinsik
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    N/A
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Our organization used to use the built in reporting tool for Datatel, but it required more knowledge about SQL so only a handful of users could actually use it. There was no customization of the output or ability to schedule the queries. If you wanted something more complex …
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    As an independent consultant, I've never been in a position to influence the actual selection of EI. I do, however, recommend it to all my clients primarily based on its price point and on its accessibility by a greater number of staff members.
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    I really liked using the Query Builder that was once part of our Colleague system; however, it really relied on power users to provide the information to the campus. As Query Builder was phased out, our campus moved to Informer. The switch over was very successful. For most end …
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Very cheap solution with 90% same features as top software solutions
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Informer is much better than the old QueryBuilder tool that was a part of the Colleague interface. Schools using SQL Server for the back end may want to weigh the pros and cons between Informer and SSRS (Sql Server Reporting Services) since SSRS comes with no extra costs in …
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    We needed to implement a new reporting tool due to Query Builder being eliminated. We went with Entrinsik Informer because it was already being used at some other Colleges that were also using Datatel/Ellucian Colleague, and the reviews from those Colleges were very positive. A …
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    I have experience with Advizor AnalystX, and it was just awful. It is advertised as an interactive reporting tool, in which you can use your mouse to select and segment constituents by where they live (by clicking on a map), how much they've given to your institution, when they …
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    As stated it works well for extractions, but lacks report design capability. One other thing it does well is query multiple database platforms at the same time. E.g. mysql and unidata.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Entrinsik Informer was chosen because of it's real-time reporting capability from Unidata.
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    My OIT office hasn't provided any other similar tool. Prior to Intrinsik, we typed script into the interface!

    Any reports were custom programmed by the programmers in OIT.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Easily Informer is one the most valuable reporting tools available in higher education.
    Incentivized
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    We use Informer with Ellucian Colleague instead of Ellucian's solutions which were substandard when we implemented Informer and remain unattractive for a variety of reasons with the standouts being cost and support. Informer is a fraction of the cost and the admin …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Informer is not as advanced as Business Objects or Tableau, and we have had to use Tableau at times with reports that used a lot of aggregation, but the simplicity is often a strong suit of Informer, allowing users without programming experience the ability to create simple …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    The closet thing we had to Informer before was something called Query Builder. However, unless you were really good at coding and technology, it was like reading greek to the basic user of our system. Informer provides such an easy user experience that most people who were …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Informer is more cost effective and easier to teach end users to write their own reports, but it still provides just as much functionality as the other products I've used. Informer is easy to manage and administer with a small number of IT employees per number of end users.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    We have not evaluated any other products. Previously we simply used Unidata to create report.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Informer does more and Informer is easier to use.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    I feel Informer is more user friendly and more easily adaptable for our needs in higher education.
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Before purchasing Entrinsik Informer we used Query Builder or Excel via an odbc driver to access and report of off Unidata. Both of these other products only allowed us to report off of one table at a time. If you wanted data from multiple tables that had to be done with some …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Crystal Reports with UniDATA ODBC. This works quite well but is cumbersome to set up and maintain. This required several steps outside the UniDATA database as well as setting up security views and a variety of processes that have to be monitored more closely. No other systems …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    We have implemented Blackboard for use by faculty with their students, for posting classroom materials and for interaction in many ways, but we have not used it for reporting purposes. We have allowed querying directly from Ellucian Colleague in the past, but that was not as …
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Query builder, and UniQuery
    Chose Entrinsik Informer
    Informer is a complete solution.
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    Entrinsik Informer
    BI Standard Reporting
    Comparison of BI Standard Reporting features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    7.3
    8 Ratings
    11% below category average
    Pixel Perfect reports5.51 Ratings
    Customizable dashboards9.17 Ratings
    Report Formatting Templates7.57 Ratings
    Ad-hoc Reporting
    Comparison of Ad-hoc Reporting features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    8.6
    11 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Drill-down analysis9.19 Ratings
    Formatting capabilities8.210 Ratings
    Integration with R or other statistical packages8.21 Ratings
    Report sharing and collaboration9.110 Ratings
    Report Output and Scheduling
    Comparison of Report Output and Scheduling features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    9.1
    11 Ratings
    10% above category average
    Publish to Web9.14 Ratings
    Publish to PDF9.19 Ratings
    Report Versioning9.13 Ratings
    Report Delivery Scheduling9.17 Ratings
    Delivery to Remote Servers9.11 Ratings
    Data Discovery and Visualization
    Comparison of Data Discovery and Visualization features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    7.3
    1 Ratings
    9% below category average
    Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)7.31 Ratings
    Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization7.31 Ratings
    Access Control and Security
    Comparison of Access Control and Security features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    9.1
    11 Ratings
    7% above category average
    Multi-User Support (named login)9.111 Ratings
    Role-Based Security Model9.19 Ratings
    Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)9.18 Ratings
    Report-Level Access Control9.11 Ratings
    Mobile Capabilities
    Comparison of Mobile Capabilities features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    9.1
    1 Ratings
    16% above category average
    Responsive Design for Web Access9.11 Ratings
    Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile9.11 Ratings
    Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
    Comparison of Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding features of Entrinsik Informer
    Feature
    Entrinsik Informer
    8.2
    1 Ratings
    6% above category average
    REST API8.21 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Entrinsik Informer
    Small Businesses
    Cyfe
    Score4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Qlik Cloud Analytics (Qlik Sense)
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Jaspersoft Community Edition
    Score7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Entrinsik Informer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (77 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.7
    (67 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (14 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    8.3
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Data Sharing and Collaboration
    8.0
    (12 ratings)
    Data Sources
    8.0
    (12 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.1
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Entrinsik Informer
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Entrinsik
    It makes creating queries very easy for end users so not only research or technicians can do it. The availability for creating Live reports that are accessible via Excel on the network has given many of our users the ability to get the information they need in a format they can use without needing someone to translate the raw data
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Entrinsik
    • Simple user-interface: Informer is relatively easy to learn and end users can begin running reports and creating new reports quickly.
    • Email "burst" functionality: This feature allows emails to be sent out based on data in the report. So for example, a report could be scheduled that would email all student employment managers listing out the specific employees that report to them that haven't submitted their time sheets. Each manager would only see the rows that correspond to their email address.
    • Analytics and grouping: Users can quickly drag columns to group and sub-total, and can use the analytics tab to get deeper insights into the data.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Entrinsik
    • There are a lot of reports that we have in Informer that say they have never been run, even though I know they have been run. So that makes it really difficult to determine which reports can be deleted to keep a tidy report list.
    • The only other complaint I have about Informer is that there doesn't seem to be a properly detailed error code/message when the student information system can't be accessed. For example, I am currently trying to move Informer to its own standalone server and I get an error message saying that our license isn't valid. Informer Support sent a new license, which prompted the same message, and the only explanation they have given me is that Informer can't reach the student information system. I would think that if that were the case, the error message would say that instead of an invalid license.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Entrinsik
    Informer has been handily meeting most of our reporting needs, and we've created a library of hundreds of reports that are used every day. They have a terrific support service to help when you have questions, and I've found them to be great at listening to what customers would like and adding new features. They are a small company that really listens and really cares, and I've been very pleased over the past few years getting to know them.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Entrinsik
    From the perspective of the new user and a seasoned user I would say eight would represent both parties. It presents a 'familiar' interface and easy to navigate display. Tagging is quite nice and allows for organization of reports based on those tags. These have to be monitored like anything else to keep them consistent but provides a better than average means of organizing reports.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Entrinsik
    We have 10 concurrent licenses and we average between 6-8 at any given time during the day; and we host the application.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Entrinsik
    Always able to get acceptable solutions in reasonable time from friendly support staff. Initial contact is always with knowledgeable person - not someone reading from a script trying to screen calls. Thanks Entrinsik for being in tune with my needs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Entrinsik
    We bought the product on a Thursday morning, and we were writing reports on Friday afternoon. We did take about a month to manage the Mapping, Linking and Security to allow us to open it up across campus. We are now mapping from as many third-party vendors as we can to enable the creation of more ad-hoc reporting.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Entrinsik
    I have experience with Advizor AnalystX, and it was just awful. It is advertised as an interactive reporting tool, in which you can use your mouse to select and segment constituents by where they live (by clicking on a map), how much they've given to your institution, when they last gave, etc. In practice, their map feature was unusable; it's a static map image (imagine a paper map hung on your wall), rather than draggable and zoomable Google Maps, and it required hours of work to configure one map region. As far as computing constituents' giving statistics, it required way too much back-end work to build simple giving totals.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Entrinsik
    • We have definitely improved customer service due to better reporting using Informer. All departments are better empowered to help our students in a more timely and accurate manner.
    • Using Informer has given us the ability to eliminate functionality within our ERP system and offload reporting to a data store instead of the transactional system. This has resulted in successfully upgrading our core systems and improved response times.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Entrinsik Informer Screenshots

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