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Entrinsik Informer

Entrinsik Informer

Overview

What is Entrinsik Informer?

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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Entrinsik Informer is a versatile reporting tool that has transformed the way data is accessed and analyzed on campus. Users find Informer …
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Popular Features

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  • Multi-User Support (named login) (11)
    9.0
    90%
  • Report sharing and collaboration (10)
    9.0
    90%
  • Drill-down analysis (9)
    9.0
    90%
  • Formatting capabilities (10)
    8.1
    81%

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Pricing

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Unavailable

What is Entrinsik Informer?

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.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Features

BI Standard Reporting

Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.

7.7
Avg 8.2

Ad-hoc Reporting

Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.

8.6
Avg 8.1

Report Output and Scheduling

Ability to schedule and manager report output.

9.1
Avg 8.4

Data Discovery and Visualization

Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.

7.3
Avg 8.1

Access Control and Security

Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.

9.1
Avg 8.6

Mobile Capabilities

Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

9.1
Avg 7.9

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding

APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another

8.2
Avg 7.9
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Product Details

What is Entrinsik Informer?

Informer 5 from Entrinsik is a data discovery and analytics tool that aims to simplify the process of accessing, cleansing, blending, and analyzing data from multiple sources. According to the vendor, with Informer, companies can aggregate all their disparate data into a single platform using an intuitive, 100% web-based interface that replaces outdated query tools and complicated reporting systems.

The tool aims to eliminate the need for data warehouses and cubes, and eliminate complicated “views” and limited functionality. With extensible architecture, collaborative environment, and enterprise-level performance, Informer aims to deliver actionable insights and better, data-driven decisions for its customers.

Entrinsik Informer Features

BI Platform Features

  • Supported: Administration via Web Interface
  • Supported: Live Connection to External Data
  • Supported: Snapshot of External Data
  • Supported: In-memory data model
  • Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)

Supported Data Sources Features

  • Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
  • Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
  • Supported: Oracle
  • Supported: MS SQL Server
  • Supported: IBM DB2
  • Supported: Postgres
  • Supported: MySQL
  • Supported: ODBC
  • Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
  • Supported: Hortonworks Hadoop
  • Supported: SAP Hana

BI Standard Reporting Features

  • Supported: Customizable dashboards
  • Supported: Report Formatting Templates

Ad-hoc Reporting Features

  • Supported: Drill-down analysis
  • Supported: Formatting capabilities
  • Supported: Report sharing and collaboration

Report Output and Scheduling Features

  • Supported: Publish to Web
  • Supported: Publish to PDF
  • Supported: Report Versioning
  • Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
  • Supported: Delivery to Remote Servers

Data Discovery and Visualization Features

  • Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
  • Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization

Access Control and Security Features

  • Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
  • Supported: Role-Based Security Model
  • Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
  • Supported: Report-Level Access Control
  • Supported: Table-Level Access Control (BI-layer)
  • Supported: Field-Level Access Control (BI-layer)

Mobile Capabilities Features

  • Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
  • Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile

Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features

  • Supported: REST API

Entrinsik Informer Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of

Entrinsik Informer Videos

Customers Talk About Informer
Introduction to Informer 5 BI & Data Analytics

Entrinsik Informer Competitors

Entrinsik Informer Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Infor Birst, Tableau Server, and Microsoft Power BI are common alternatives for Entrinsik Informer.

Reviewers rate Publish to Web and Report Versioning and Role-Based Security Model highest, with a score of 9.1.

The most common users of Entrinsik Informer are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(86)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Entrinsik Informer is a versatile reporting tool that has transformed the way data is accessed and analyzed on campus. Users find Informer easy to grasp and use, making training a breeze. With its seamless integration with multiple systems, Informer allows users to create and manipulate data as needed, eliminating the need for manual gathering of report data and saving hours of time. The software empowers end users to govern their own data and find the information they need with minimal support. IT departments have control over access, limiting what each user sees based on their access level. Additionally, the scheduling feature in Informer has been a game changer for users by allowing reports to run automatically and be delivered via email, streamlining workflows and processes. Informer's ability to provide accurate and timely reports from multiple databases has increased usage campus-wide, with different groups of users running created reports. It serves as a single point for querying multiple systems and databases, allowing users to create their own reports and reducing the burden on IT programmers. Overall, Informer has solved a multitude of problems for colleges and universities by addressing quick and complex reporting needs across various departments and empowering users to make informed decisions based on up-to-date information.

Users have made several recommendations for Entrinsik Informer based on their experiences. Many users find Informer to be a useful tool for reporting that is easy to use for end users. Furthermore, users highly recommend Informer for its ability to create various data gathering options and its outstanding customer service. Additionally, users have found that Informer is a tremendous time saver as it decreases report development time and enables users to create their own reports. Users also suggest using Informer when a database or CRM lacks a strong built-in reporting feature and recommend using external software like Excel for any necessary alterations.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 77)
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Florante Roa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Having Informer is like having EXTRA staff for each departments. It takes care of all reporting needs - for monitoring, mandatory, state, periodic reports - Reports are scheduled and thus, emailed or posted on website automatically.
  • Reports for Positive Pay, Financial Aid, A/R, Payment Plans
  • Waitlist, DREG, REG Priority, Positive Attendance, Rosters
  • LDAP, Blackboard upload files, Library Systems, Bookstore, @mycod.us
  • Counseling/Advising, SEP, Degree Audit
  • EMS, CFAR, Grades First,
  • Live Excels - Room Schedules, Pre-Req Roster, Grading Requirements (PE)
  • MIS Reports
  • IT Security Reports, Electronic Foot prints
  • Automatic Reports - posted directly to websites
  • Dashboard Functionality
  • Delivered Reports & Sample Reports, Subroutines, Functionality Repository of Know-How
  • Data Schema - to read and establish Relational Database Relationships automatically
In a nutshell, Informer help us access our Unidata DB to create virtual fields & reports that helps our bottom-line analysis needs at an affordable solution price. The flexible input for criteria & output definition and delivery - makes it easy for everyone to appreciate and benefit from its powerful and versatile architecture - from day 1 onwards. It's an "Auto-Magic" experience every school/business should have!
October 05, 2021

TOTAL GAME CHANGER!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I am in the title industry where we have countless reports needed. Before implementing Entrinsik Informer, we were having to manually gather report data and spent hours of time trying to determine whether the data was inclusive of everything needed. Informer was a game changer! By pulling data directly out of our software, we knew we were seeing everything and no longer had to use numerous spreadsheets and manual calculations for our reports. Better yet, being able to schedule reports to run automatically and deliver them to us by email was almost too good to be true. We use Informer every single day and I can't imagine running my company without the use of Informer!
  • Gathers live data
  • Automatic scheduled reports
  • Delivery of scheduled reports via email
  • Allows customization of reports and data
  • Making it easier to find the needed information within the mapped dataset (currently can be like a needle in a haystack)
  • Increase the number of individual reports that can be scheduled at the same time
  • A way to create reports with calculations that do not require the user to enter code
Informer is very well suited for retrieving any sort of data. We use it each day to pull reports on our income, transactions (opened to date, closed to date), the source of our business, the volume of business from individual clients, commission report calculations...the list is endless. If there is a field in our software where data is entered, we can create a report to retrieve it. The possibilities are endless!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Entrinsik Informer is available for use by the entire organization while only a few power users from the main departments actually create their own queries. The product allows a single point for querying multiple systems and databases. The UI allows users not familiar with SQL query commands to easily create complex queries and compile results from multiple files to one output.

  • Allows the creation of custom fields using JavaScript to provide end users with data directly without the need to do post calculations or cleanup. Many times the results required need a calculation based on the data or a field that is not available for query so being able to code the data into the results helps end users run their reports on their schedule without having to work with a technician.
  • The scheduling functionality allows different departments and users to plan ahead for their needs and either export or email the results. Scheduled reports comes in very handy when you need to export the data to third party companies or to a network location for batch processing. This allows us to provide current data with much more frequency.
  • LiveExcel functionality gives you the ability to connect your query to Microsoft Excel so users do not need to log into the product to run the results. This also allows the creation of VBA Macros to process the data and provide users with the final product on demand.
  • The product has had its growing pains as newer versions have come out. The transfer of old queries to the newer systems has caused some duplication of mapped files or fields and they have not come up with a tool yet to help merge these duplication.
  • Wish they had better internal reporting so I could easily find the different reports that are using links and the fields they are linking with.
  • I have noticed, being an admin, that the more connections and reports that are available the slower the system becomes when opening it. It would be nice to have nothing come up first and then show more once I drill into the area I want.
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Entrinsik Informer can be utilized by anyone with granted access at our institution. Access is granted when a specific need is expressed. At our institution, Enrinsik Informer serves to provide quick, detailed reports as it relates to our customer, or student, base. Additionally, users can create individual reports should our employer not already have one created to fit their specific need. I have yet to generate a report from scratch just yet, but with assistance from our IT department, who oversees the software, I have heard that it is pretty simple to do and allows users to get very specific with their queries.
  • Informer provides detailed, in-depth reports.
  • Reports can be exported and manipulated for individual use through Excel.
  • Allows organization/institution to work together and in a streamlined method. No need to continuously create the same report for different divisions.
  • Personally, I need continued practice with Informer to feel 100% confident when using it.
  • Reports can take several steps to complete, can be a little complicated should you use it infrequently.

Entrinsik Informer is very well-suited for generating specific data. Reports can be created on just about any query. The software has been very helpful at my institution, where different reports can either be created for one specific purpose, or shared with other users and departments, depending on the need.

Although I have sporadic usage of Informer, I have yet to encounter a scenario when using it is less appropriate than other options.

Todd Doster | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Simply and as succinctly as I can possibly make it - Informer is a great product that produces superior results right out of the box. It is a product we depend on every single day in our entire organization and it always produces great results and truly worth every last cent of investment. The enhancements over the years have taken an already great product and truly made it better and the company is always listening to their customers to better the product and add features that truly enhance the customer experience. We originally purchased Informer to report from a single U2 Data source, but it is now reporting from multiple data sources and solving more analytical problems than the simple reporting we originally purchased it to solve.
  • The ability to schedule using various methods of delivery or on-demand reporting to users in a secure way - Giving users access to the data source and selection and parameters that return what they need to see, but nothing more.
  • The ability to report and link on multiple data sources and types. This makes it far easier for use to link SQL Data with U2 Data and provide functional reporting and analytics without having to create a warehouse in between.
  • Support and Enhancements. They are always providing great things and the releases are far more stable than most other software that is released.
  • That is pretty difficult as we built the ROI on Informer solving a specific set of roles in the company. It has far exceeded the initial and current specifications, so we couldn't be happier.
  • If I had to pick one thing, it would be to have employees geared to a specific industry for deployment and integration, but they have done a far better job than the others playing in the same ballpark.
The documentation is simple and concise. Take the time to read it. No other vendor in this space provides a true try it before you buy it, and that is really huge in creating a partnership with these guys even before any checks are signed. They are not out to sell a lot of copies of software, they are out to keep you as a customer for the long-haul.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

As an independent consultant, I use Entrinsik Informer (EI) at any client site that has it implemented. At this point, I've used it only with clients who were still on Unidata; I have no experience with those operating through SQL.

I'm a huge fan for a number of reasons. Navigationally, it's intuitive for any user. It's flexible for in terms of file linkages and in terms of dictionary names (in plain English) for less-experienced users. It enables more experienced users to build complex reports quickly and produce them in multiple display formats. The copy feature is very helpful in enabling the construction of a new report without having to start at step one. Overall, it's simply an excellent product. For me, the only impediment is that I've never had any training in its use, so I'm confident that there are functionalities that I'm not leveraging. Finally, EI has a very attractive price point making it feasible for even the smallest institution.

  • Possible display of dictionary elements in 'plain' English
  • Multiple display formats for results
  • Intuitive navigation
  • Online availability of training
I see no scenarios where Entrinsik Informer (EI) is not an appropriate tool for those using Unidata; I have no experience with EI in SQL.
Karen Brenneman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized

We use Informer across campus. It changed the way we access information. In the past, power users ran reports for the rest of campus. Now, the entire campus has access to the information they need when they want it.

Our IT department writes most of the reports and controls access. For example, all budget managers have access to real-time information. What the budget manager sees is limited to the general ledger numbers they manage. One department can't see another department's numbers. We also have access to course information, demographics, etc. All the information seen depends on your access level. End users love it since all they have to do is fill in a few blanks!

  • Put information into the hands of those that need it for quick & easy access.
  • Allows security controls so the right people see the right information.
  • I wish it was easier to write reports on the fly.
  • I would love if I could save the report modifications I make for me to see each time (if I drag column somewhere, it does not stay that way when I open it again).
I think Informer is great when a lot of people need similar information from your CRM. Reports can be written where the end user fills in their specific request. It is as easy as fill in the blank!
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Entrinsik informer tool is used for delivering daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly and yearly reports. In addition to this it is used to export data in csv format and deliver it to other systems to be used. It is used by administrative offices for daily work. It helps users with no technical skills or knowledge to create reports on their own without necessarily knowing database relationships or how to write a query.
  • Easy to use - no technical skills required to understand how to get a report with basic data that user needs. It is simple drag and drop which is very useful for many users.
  • Easy to maintain - for IT administrators updating the system is super easy. Once it is set up very little to no maintenance is required.
  • Easy to set up - When connecting to databases it is easy define the connection and the username and password. It is a bit tricky with unidata databases as you have to set up one "additional" subroutine to be initialized once the informer connects.
  • Super cheap - compared to other reporting tools this is like fraction of that cost with the same functionality.
  • It can [eat] your resources - if your query is big or got into some endless loop which is possible) it will use all RAM you dedicated it to a jetty server and it will make your CPU go to 100% which is bad if you are running other applications as it would have serious impact.
  • It is bundled with Jetty server - and Jetty server is not a very nice web server to work with and can be complicated. I really don't understand if they have a Java application why .war file wouldn't run on Tomcat that we already have in use so it requires additional software.
  • If number of reports is big it becomes very slow when loading main page and reports.
  • It does not have a limit on number of columns which is bad for everyday user in two ways: They think they can put 30+ columns and use it as report - who is going to read 30+ column report? Having 30+ columns will slow down the application for all users and eat all of your server resources.
  • It will potentially have a performance impact on unidata database when executing a large report. Number of fields should be limited.
It can work well in small and large organizations but it has to grow a lot when it comes to dashboards and presentable reports. Yes you may use templates for PDF but you cannot really visualize data. So for "higher ups" visualizing data is what you want to present not plain text. For everyday work and for some IT data transfer between systems (CSV) it is really nice. I've heard the new version coming in Q3 2016 should fix some of those problems.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Entrinsik's Informer for the majority of our reporting from the Student Information System. Informer is used by virtually every department on campus for ad-hoc reporting and for scheduled reports. The types of reports include nightly audit reports, extracts that are then used to feed other systems, and traditional reports designed to track progress for the different business needs of the various offices across campus.
  • 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.
  • Performance is sometimes an issue. This can usually be overcome by re-designing the report - using fewer fields, using indexed fields etc.
  • The java script calculated fields are overall a good feature, but they can be difficult to work with as some true javascript syntax is not supported due to the architecture used.
Most schools that use Colleague (the Student Information System) have either UniData or SQL Server as the back-end database. If a school is currently a UniData school but has plans to move to SQL Server in the relatively near future then I'd advise against moving forward with Informer until after the conversion to SQL Server. There is a tool that will convert some reports, but there are many instances where the tool won't successfully convert the report and it will need to be re-written.
Brian Pollitt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Entrinsik Informer as our reporting tool for our student information system. Any employee may request to be a user for Informer, but we really only have a select group of employees that use it regularly (including myself). We migrated to Informer due to Datatel (now Ellucian) eliminating Query Builder for reporting. Now that we have Informer, it is easier for end-users to create their own reports, which reduces the need to involve IT and thus the end-users get the data they need in a more timely manner.
  • Informer is pretty user-friendly. When teaching other employees how to use Informer, I typically don't have to repeat any steps or further explain how to do certain tasks because of how user-friendly it is.
  • Reports in Informer are kept in a list that can be filtered by user, specific tags, or even by how recent the report was made or run. This makes it very quick and easy to find and run a specific report.
  • Informer has many options for downloading the report output, including text (txt), comma separated values (csv), and even PDF.
  • 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.
Entrinsik Informer is well suited for businesses that need the capability for end-users to create their own reports. It is easy to learn, and users have multiple output formats they could use, so IT would not need to be as involved. Setting up users is quick and simple, so end-users can be up and going in no time.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Our Registrar, Human Resources, and IT departments heavily rely on Informer, but almost every department has at least one user. Ellucian Colleague is used for crucial services like housing transcripts and course records and assigning student and employee ID numbers. Colleague has no useful way to report on this data, so Informer fills that need.
  • Informer's Calculation columns are extremely useful, particularly "Script" columns. They allow users to write Javascript snippets that analyze other columns and display complex calculations, so long as you can write the Javascript to do so.
  • Informer's Scheduler is full-featured and vital to automating its use. Avid Informer users like to schedule reports to write data directly to servers of ours (accessible while on-campus or through VPN), and non-users like to schedule reports to be emailed to them. Both replace the need for staff to remember to periodically run reports.
  • At a basic level, Informer is vital for Ellucian Colleague users simply because it can easily query records and display them as a spreadsheet. It's supremely disappointing that Colleague users suffered so long without this feature.
  • Informer needs more predefined date formats in its Column Display Editor. The existing 5 do not meet everyone's needs.
  • It's a minor UI issue, but Informer's Edit Columns view stutters and displays empty space when scrolling left or right. It may be because I'm using Safari on Mac OS X, and Informer isn't designed for input devices that scroll with "momentum" (as Apple calls it).
  • The Reports Listing takes longer to load reports than I believe it should. At least a progress bar displays to tell you when it's complete.
Entrinskik Informer is vital for Ellucian Colleague users. Entrinsik has clearly been filling the need left by Ellucian, in that their product cannot report on the data housed within it. The only reason not to use Informer is if your institution's database software already has capable reporting tools.
Jeffrey Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
The Informer product is used in a variety of ways across our whole university. The reports and dashboards provide up to date information in an easy to digest format. While a majority of the report and dashboard construction is housed in the Office of Systems Analysis, our users actively use and create reports to help with their operational and/or strategic decisions. From the ad hoc reports, to the scheduled reports to the automated processes, Informer is synonymous with efficiency and productivity on our campus.
  • Initially, Informer was chosen primarily because of how it handled our multi-valued database structure for our student information system. Since then it has expanded to a support a slew of database platforms.
  • Our institution uses informer for internal and Federal reporting as well as a host of other data requests that come to our institution.
  • Informer quietly and seamlessly drives several Business Intelligence initiative on our campus. The solutions provided range from supplying our online employee directory with accurate information to aiding the Financial Aid office in monitoring and projecting financial budgets.
  • Informer has room to grow in the dashboard delivered. While helpful and visually pleasing, they are not as robust as some of the other solutions that are more focused on the dashboards. The API leaves the opening for well-resourced organizations to enhance this area on their own.
  • We make it a point to show Informer as a list generator and not a fully fleshed out report writer. There is room to grow here as well. It just so happens our users are much more used to extracting the data than generating a publishable report directly out of the Informer product.
  • Over the years, Informer has expanded its capability to meet all of the needs initially. Some of the things I initially saw as weaknesses was because it didn't fit into the vision Entrinsik had set for its product.
Informer is uniquely positioned in my view to bridge the data gaps that exist in so many organizations. With Informer, we are able to join and return data from multiple servers and databases and even database platforms. Our institution, used to try to reign in these database islands, now we work to incorporate them into the larger system of data, and provide them with their missing information while simultaneously filling out the larger data picture on our campus.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer Web Reporting is being used by most departments at Juniata College. We currently have a few more departments to train and move to using Informer. It is unbelievably easy for end users to grasp, which makes our job of training end users very easy. One of our Vice Presidents is very excited about the dashboard feature. We have been able to create dashboards for him to know exactly where the college stands on budget vs. actual spending at a moments notice. In addition to other dashboards that show total deposited applicants along with their demographic and financial information which is one of the most important factors in determining the College's future budget.
  • Ease of Use - This product is almost self explanatory. Very little training is needed. The training videos developed by Entrinsik are wonderful.
  • Using javascript for calculated columns is a big plus as it's a language that many employees know, or can learn.
  • Dashboards - this product is the icing on the cake. No need to purchase and learn a different software package. It's all there with Entrinsik Informer.
  • I think the most difficult task in Informer was setting up the security. It's very flexible, which is both good and bad. I would like to see more detailed instructions or examples of different security settings.
  • Would love to have a feature on the dashboards that would allow a load "live" without having to "refresh". I would like to see this as a choice for refresh on opening or manually by user.
It is very well suited for any college that uses Ellucian's Colleague software. It is written to work fluently with Colleague.
Don Penrose | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Ohlone needed a flexible reporting tool that supported multiple database platforms and we chose Entrinsik's Informer in late 2011 and were up and running in January 2012. What was initially a limited roll-out to specific departments quickly turned into an enthusiastic campus-wide implementation: everyone wanted to use this new, easy-to-use reporting tool.

We have over 1000 reports, with some scheduled and others setup as quick links for individual users. Most of the reports are written by the Applications Team in Information Technology, but we engaged with tech-savvy and power-user employees around the campus, training and encouraging standards in writing their own reports for themselves and their departments. The Informer product has helped departments "own" their reports through the ability to quickly review, audit, and verify data specific to their area.
  • Files and fields can be mapped and linked in Informer without the need to create computed columns within the Colleague environment, alleviating ad hoc requests to the I.T. department.
  • Scheduled reports can be created that will run if a range of criteria are met: users are not receiving scheduled reports that contain null/empty/blank values.
  • Quick links and Live Excel reports give users instant access to their most used and favorite reports.
  • Dashboard views give instant aggregate information essential during peak times: registration headcount, outstanding receivables, payroll tax deposits, enrollment and financial aid verification, etc.
  • If the reporting dashboard included a column on reporting sharing, if the report is public or restricted, would be very helpful. One must detail into each report to see if there are restrictions, which is not efficient.
  • It would be helpful to be able to modify the columns that are displayed on the reporting dashboard: add a column for last modified, add a column for sharing (report is public, shared, private), etc, at the global level, and ideally, at the user level.
  • Help information could be expanded, particularly on mapping and auto suggest type.
  • Helpful option to be able to selecting/view specific multi-values without normalizing the report view.
  • Include a list of common script samples within the application versus posting them to Entrinsik's forums.
Informer is well suited for mass reporting of simple to complex data sets. Informer is less appropriate for specific employee, student, vendor, faculty, or record level validation. We use other case tools for specific file/field data verification. Granted, it would be simple to set up an Informer report for the instant ad hoc queries we use often in I.T.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is used across our whole organization for reporting and data analysis. We have created numerous reports that are scheduled and emailed to different offices on campus with information that is important for them as the evaluate the next steps in the processes that they manage. We have also created dashboards to provide a quick look at where we are today compared to previous years and to provide additional information regarding our current enrollment status. Informer has provided us a very clean and usable way to give our end-users access to the data that they find important in a quick and efficient manner. Offices on campus enjoy the ease of use, the ability to create reports without the need to be technical and the ability to create visualizations of their data. I highly recommend Entrinsik Informer for your data reporting needs.
  • Reporting is key. Easy access to the data that is important to each office through user developed reports is very important. Reporting was an issue in the past, IT would have to create reports for end users and build computed fields to get data from multiple files with Entrinsik Informer this goes away almost entirely.
  • Scheduling - Having the ability to schedule a report and have it available to a person when they come into work each morning has been extremely beneficial. there is no more waiting for a report to run unless you need information from a non-scheduled report. Even then, reports run quickly and efficiently.
  • Dashboarding/Visualizations - the ability to provide end users a visual representation of the data that is important to them is fantastic. We use these visualizations to compare multiple years of data and make good business decisions.
  • Price - A low cost big bang for the buck reporting solution.
  • Additional visualizations would be beneficial, I would like to see a Funnel visualization, bubble charts etc.
  • The ability to do multiple normalizations on records would be a nice add-on but there would be issues as the number of rows created would expand exponentially based on the amount of data needing normalization.
This product is well suited for reporting from Unidata databases especially for multivalued output. Entrinsik has been a pleasure to work with the product is easy to set up and any issues we have had have been addressed and resolved quickly.
Noelle Hurley | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is being used throughout the university as the primary reporting tool. It allows not only for ad-hoc reporting but also to assist in decision-making at management level. We are able to export data to outside entities to provide data for FMLA benefits, insurance benefits, and Alumni database population as well as others. The ease of the tool itself makes it relatively easy for end-users to create their own reports as well. It also allows mapping to a UniData database which is not common in the BI world.
  • Ease of use for end-users--drag and drop interface allows for users without database knowledge to create reports.
  • The ability to map Informer to multi-valued databases like Unidata/U2.
  • The ability to link multiple databases allows for endless opportunities for data integration.
  • Reliable, dependable, and extremely stable product that works seamlessly with upgrades.
  • Allows export of data in multiple formats to allow for external download of data.
  • The dashboard product (which we don't have but we have had a trial version in the past) allows for Google map plotting to view trends in applicant/student demographics.
  • While I don't think there is anything that is hard to use with Informer, additional functionality might be the ability to run multiple reports off of one query.
This product is well-suited with any type of underlying database but we were particularly impressed with its ability to be used with a multi-valued database (which our ERP is currently running off of).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is currently being used as a reporting tool across our entire college campus. I work in a admissions office where data needs are always changing for reports and Informer allows me to create advanced reports in a matter of minutes to fit those needs in a very user friendly way. I have used to create a work flow process with a series of reports that are scheduled and send based on specific conditions to other employees. The scheduling module allows me to create and schedule a report based on a select statement which means I can have one report that sends 60 emails to different people instead of having 60 individual reports where each one is "hard coded" with that select and emailed out. Entrinsik Informer really makes it easy for the end user, who might not be as technical, log in and run reports based on their needs or the reports they have access to on their security class.
  • Reporting: Entrinsik Informer makes report writing easy. I have had to train a few employees on how to write reports and it is much easier to teach them the logic of how to write reports rather than teach them the syntax of a reporting language like SQL. Because they can drag and drop statements as well as columns in a report to meet their needs I can focus more on the logic then anything else.
  • Security: Entrinsik Informer is a very powerful reporting tool that can allow someone to pull massive amounts of information at one time. Having security for reports and what tables you can report from is very important. You can give a user access to just run one report that is given to them, or give a user access to make their own reports, or any combination of times. Having groups of who can see this report is also very helpful when your company has many departments with in it and each one has their own data.
  • Multiple Data Sources: Being able to link between more then one data source and report information from both sources is huge when it comes to writing reports. You don't have to worry about anything but setting up the initial link between the data sources and writing some reports. You can pull columns in from both data sources with ease then.
  • Scheduling: Being able to make a schedule that can export in almost any format from CSV to PDF to TXT file is a great plus. If a person who has a scheduled report has a MAC that does not Microsoft Office you can send them a PDF of the same data for viewing. Being able to generate fixed width text files allows for the porting of that data for some type of other processing such as adding users into active directory.
  • Allowing to put code behind a column instead of creating a calculated column and calling upon that one.
  • I would like to see a way to be able to copy and paste selection statements from report to report do you do not have to re-drag each item onto the screen.
  • Being able to save the fixed with outputs for text files such that it does not have to be a scheduled report, it could be one that you can launch and chose the export to be fixed with text file with the widths populated.
I think you can use Entrinsik Informer in almost any scenario where you need data in any kind. It allows for a easy way for someone to write reports with out having to know complicated languages just to pull data. You can use the Dashboard module to make predictive models or see data in a different way where you no longer have to take it into a Microsoft Pivot table.
Joseph Riquelme | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I work in the Public Safety Software field. Reports and statistics play a key role in managing resources. However the problem in the past was to extract the data into a report was very difficult. The most amazing aspect of Entrinsik for me is the power of the application and easy of use.
  • Easy of Use
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Rapid deployment capabilities and ability to disseminate information on a wide scale
  • Entrinsik puts powerful tools in front of many users just not a selected few
  • The only item I saw in the past was the library used for gauges which I do believe has been fixed.
I find Informer a great product that will compliment any public safety agency by giving them the ability to create their own tactical reports with tools that are very user friendly. End users are now more educated regarding software applications. It just seems like sense to put the right tools in front of them to enhance their work environment.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Informer is a great reporting tool that we use across the entire College. We initially purchased it when our Student system, which is on Unidata, moved to a new user interface and created reporting challenges. Reporting tools for Unidata are a rare commodity. Informer addressed those issues and more. It allows us to report on Unidata as well as sql. Using Informer also allowed us to centralize report writing, where before, each workstation had to have separate reports. Furthermore, Informer allowed us to schedule and email reports using several formatting options, thus allowing us to not set up cron jobs to run them. What I really like about it is that I can create a report, notify the user that it exists and then if they wanted to make changes to it, I can troubleshoot it over the phone and have them look at the report and the results as I am working on it. I've set it up so that users can view the metadata so that they can see what files and fields are available.
  • Security is much more robust than what we had with the standard reporting tools we had. We can secure files, restrict users from certain actions.
  • Scheduling reports has been a god-send. Our users have set up more than 100 scheduled reports to reduce the amount of repetitive tasks they have to perform annually.
  • Having a centralized report storage area allows our users to share reports and work collaboratively.
  • Informer, like any other reporting tool, can be a resource hog. We are working to optimize performance. Some of it is us but I think we can do a better job with it.
  • In the newest release, they have sent better security functionality but I still have difficulty with reports not being tied to a specific session that I can kill manually.
  • If you are already an Informer user, I would like to be able to save the Analytics and schedule them. (See, every time they come out with something neat, we want more).
Go to the conferences. They are great. You can learn a lot from other users. If you are a Unidata shop, I don't know of a better reporting tool. Security is a pain to set up but it can't be rushed nor forced. Make sure you do it right for audit's sake. Make sure the policy making body takes their time to set standards and guidelines to ensure security, access and standardization. This will help your systems administrators create the security and will make it easier to maintain. After using Informer for a year, do a comprehensive review to see what standards and processes should be modified to maximize security and efficiency.
Theresa M. Frachalla | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer provides our University (across all departments) with an easy way to access real-time data from Colleague. Informer allows us to give power to our users who extract the data they need to make informed decisions. One approach we've taken is to deploy LiveExcel links to secured department folders for routine reports, so that end-users don't have to wait on the I.T. staff. We've also created complex reports using the Javascript to evaluate the data and output appropriate answers to business questions such as "What grade did the student get in Statistics?" or "Did this student take and pass their Basic Skills test?". Having the ability to put this type of specific information in a report makes life much easier for our end-users and creates efficiencies in our business processes.
  • Entrinsik has an plethora of supportive resources. They are always willing to listen and help develop a solution, if we cannot find one on our own. We've also taken advantage of their regional training classes and have attended the valuable ICON conferences.
  • Entrinsik Informer is the "best bang for your buck". It's cost effective for institutions, particularly those who have financial strains, and yet provides a thorough solution to meet most reporting needs.
  • Entrinsik is constantly adding functionality to the product, which is exciting. They are a truly innovative, professional company that I admire and think everyone should use.
  • The flexibility to connect Informer to multiple types of databases is another invaluable feature of this product. It helps to seamlessly integrate our systems.
  • Include more delivered functions with the product (which I believe Entrinsik is already planning for in future releases).
  • Improve the "Last Executed Date" to be accurate or display the "Date Created" instead. Most of the reports say "Never Executed" and that's not true. Nearly all of our reports have been executed at least once, because we test the reports once they are written.
, because it drags down system performance on the production ERP. However, with the ability to have multiple data sources, you could have Informer connected to a data warehouse and use that data source for the larger, higher level reporting.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have rolled Informer out across our campus. We went live with Informer in February 2011, coming from a dos-based reporting tool where we had 8 people writing reports. We now have 101 different staff members who have written their own reports. We have 211 users on our campus who have run reports on their own. Most of them received one 2-hour training class to run and manipulate their reports. This has certainly de-centralized the functions away from our IT office running all of the reports. Additionally, this is allowing the end-users to manage their own data on their own timeline. I have been a data analyst for the University for over 20 years, and this tool is by far the easiest to manage.
We recently rolled out dynamic dashboards and 43 report-writers attended the training session.
  • The terms are easily understood. Our report writers and users have an easy time plotting the data to make sure they are receiving the information they need.
  • The ability to schedule on-going reports has been a tremendous time saver. We currently have 260 reports running in a "hands off" mode so they can be delivered to upper management for their needs. Included in this list is a pool of "audit" reports where supervisors can receive a report if there are issues with common data entry standards.
  • Security is easy to manage. We are able to allow all of the appropriate granular security with each user group.
  • The ability to use LiveExcel interaction with our database allows some of our administrative assistants to use their Windows Office skills rather than having to login to the tool itself.
  • While we do like the new Dashboards, the scale-ability of the graphical representation would be helpful.
  • We had developed a list of "wishes" and submitted them to the Entrinsik forum... and lo and behold, when release 4.4.1 came out, the issues were addressed! We particularly needed the ability to copy parts of the set up from one instance to another. We continue to be users of the Wiki and Forums available to clients.
Our Room Scheduling software has some canned reports that we are not able to replicate in Informer due to the inability to un-align columns of data for a multi-line report. Allowing the report to contain lengthy comments fields in a row under the basic data.
~~This is still true~~~jbowker 11/10/14
Kyle Rima | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Informer for almost all of our reporting and BI needs across the entire campus. We were struggling with reporting for many years and had not been able to find a good reporting solution until we found Entrinsik's Informer. It was easy to setup and easy to train our users how to run reports and write their own reports.
  • Informer was the best solution for reporting directly off of a multi-valued database. We researched other multi-valued reporting solutions and Informer was absolutely the best.
  • Entrinsik has been very responsive to product suggestions. In the early days of our adoption of Informer we had many suggestions and most of our suggestions have made it into the product.
  • When Entrinsik added the ability to report off of SQL based databases it opened up a whole new world for us. We have many different systems on campus and now most of them are connected to Informer. It is really nice to provide a single reporting solution for our end users.
  • The ability to schedule reports has been fantastic. Before we had Informer all reports were run manually. This has saved us a lot of time.
  • One of the more recent changes that we have really liked is the ability to write javascript in the report to further manipulate data. Sometimes it is easier to use javascript in the report than creating fields at the database level. This has been a great added feature.
  • Being able to report off of multiple data sources in one report is extremely helpful. As mentioned before, we have quite a few different systems and there are times we need data from multiple systems and Informer handles this well. As long as the systems have a common key it is very easy to get data from multiple systems onto the same report.
  • Informers dashboard module is really nice but I would like to see additional functionality and visualizations added. For instance, our admissions office uses funnel reports and it would be nice to be able to use a funnel visualization to represent their funnel data.
I found the Informer software relatively easy to setup. I would recommend taking time to evaluate what fields you want to "import" into the Informer mappings. Keeping the fields you import specific will help make sure that your end users are using the correct fields. It also helps to pay close attention to assigning validation tables to fields as you set things up.f

With Informer we are able to use it for most all of our reporting needs. There are a couple of instances when the report is complicated enough that Informer is not the best tool to use. Since the release of the dashboards we are able to move some of these more complicated reports to a dashboard but there are still a handful of reports that we use other tools for.

Overall we are very happy with Informer. It has absolutely changed our reporting capabilities for the better.
Bryan Horstman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We're using Entrinsik Informer here a Loras College pretty much across the whole organization. Before Informer we used Unidata paragraphs for reporting. These were nearly impossible for the end user to write so any time someone needed a report, they contacted us in Information Services. Now most of the reports can be written by end users. This saves a huge amount of time since most reports can be written by the end user now.
  • Informer is really easy to use. Simple drag and drop functionality helps the end user build their reports.
  • Entrinsik's support is exceptional. Any time I've ever called with a problem it was solved in a short amount of time.
  • Connecting to multiple databases is a breeze.
  • They need to bring back the functionality when searching for a report you just type in part of the name. That works great, but if you detail out of a report and then back out to the search results, the results are cleared and you have to re-type your search to get the results you had. This used to work before but with the newest update it does not.
It works great for simple queries and reports, however there are a few occasions where it doesn't and we need to write a unidata program or use SPSS to accomplish the report the users is asking for. I wouldn't call this a limitation of Informer, I believe that this is simply the way the data is organized in Colleague and we need to find another way to accomplish the task.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Informer is being used for reporting at the college by our student services departments. It is very user-friendly for our endusers.
  • Very user friendly for our endusers
  • Many ways to report the data, pdf, excel, savedlists, etc
  • Reports are easily changed to fit many needs of different departments
  • On occasion when we get errors, the explanation could be better.
Very well suited for our Admissions and Recruiting Department.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer was initially used by just some power users at our institution. But now with training we have increased the usage to campus wide. We have three major groups of users (those that just run created reports, then a group of staff that will take created reports and modify them to match what they need, and then the group that is made up of power users and those are the ones that will created reports from scratch. Our staff have found Informer to be a tool that can be used by all staff.
  • The layout of the interface is very intuitive, it makes it more simple to actually create great reports
  • Ease of use for all different types of users. Those that are new to reporting find Informer a great tool
  • Entinsik as a company will listen to the users and take comments to heart and try and find ways to make it better.
  • Entrinsik customer service has always been a great help and have gotten back to me in a very timely manner
  • With the newest update to the program we have found that it runs quite a bit slower
  • They need a way to quit "run away reports" we sometimes have users that will create huge reports and when the set them off they take the system down.
Entrinsik Informer is best suited for those institutions that have users that know their data and how it is laid out. They will find Informer is a tool that will fit their needs and will be a product that can be used by staff of different levels.
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