Entrinsik 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.
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 …
We are constantly looking at better ways to do things, including building our own internally. I don't think it is fair to compare the products we have evaluated and why we have continued with Informer as they all do some things well. I will say that Informer still meets or …
Contract Consultant for Advancement/Advancement Software
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Entrinsik Informer was really the only option. It handled our unique Database platform and provided our users with immediate cost and frustration savings. Since then, Informer has remained more than relevant, establishing itself in an ever changing database environment. We …
In the past we have used Query Builder and Crystal Reports. Query Builder was very difficult for end users to learn, and only created reports, there was no other features such as charting or dashboards. When we used Crystal Reports, it was version 8, and again it did not have …
We have used Unidata QB and Business Objects in the past. Our problems with Query Builder were that we did not have the ability to report from multiple files easily. A lot if IT time was spent on building computed columns to get data in one location. This went away with …
I don't really have much else to go on, there wasn't anything else that can connect to Unidata this easily and can be up and running without running a data warehouse. With Informer, we have the whole database at our fingertips in real time. A data warehouse has its own issues …
Query Builder is the tool delivered to Colleague clients before the UI 4.0 took over. Query builder was extremely limiting as it only allowed you to query from one file at a time. Informer allows you to grab data from multiple files and display them in one report! This is a …
Before using Informer, we used "Query Builder" and staff found that very difficult to manage and write reports. We do use Crystal Reports and while it contains some of the output functions we need, it is not end-user friendly and generally requires extensive training to be able …
Our need was to report off of a Multi-Valued database and at the time we found Informer there was not a viable other solution. We have been so happy with Informer we have not looked at other reporting tools since we bought it. We are very happy with the purchase of Informer.
Before Informer our institution was a unidata client and since our migration to SQL we have started to use Informer as our main reporting solution. So really the only thing we can relate it to is the Query Builder that was built into Colleague in the old unidata system. …
Verified User
Technician
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 …
We have used other BI tools and Informer is a good as both a supplement for those or in some cases as a stand-alone BI tool. Either way Informer has offered a simple way to do BI and reporting.
iStrategies, Blackboard Analytics, Synoptics (to name a few) & Entrinsik Informer far surpasses the others.
Verified User
Director
Chose Entrinsik Informer
Business Objects is a great tool but it's expensive and requires a lot of training to maintain. Safari was great when it worked but getting support for it was a nightmare. Informer is simple to manage and is a real bargain. When Entrinsik added the ability to report from SQL …
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I would have given 10 but no one and no system is perfect. The only issue with support is not the staff nor the response but the support Wiki and support pages in general run very slow at times. I believe this has been addressed by the company but the technical speed of the pages have been an issue.
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.
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.
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.