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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

View all 21 features
  • 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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N/A
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.

7.6
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 8.0

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 39)
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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!
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is used primarily by our administrative offices, including the Registrar, Accounting,Dean of Students, Residence Life, Human Resources, and others. It provides a user-friendly method for pulling information from our database. It has simplified the process for folks who are not as technically savvy as others. The reports provided cover budget, student, and staff information in easy-to-use formats.
  • Entrinsik Informer provides a way to pull information from several files within our database into a single report. This is far superior to having to query the database directly where you can only pull information from a single file at a time. It enables the end user to access information easily without having to involve technical staff.
  • It's possible to train power users to create their own reports in Entrinsik Informer, giving the users more flexibility in writing reports that are most appropriate to their work processes and without taking up technical staff time. We have done that here, and it works well. This only requires the occasional assist from technical staff, freeing our time to devote more time and support to users who are only interested in accessing reports written for them.
  • Some direct training on the advanced features of Entrinsik Informer would be helpful, e.g., more specific instructions on how to create computed columns within Informer reports.
  • Some more detailed instruction on how to use Analytics and Charting would be beneficial as well, with examples geared more to a college setting than to the business world. Often in the sessions at the Entrinsik conferences, for instance, the examples given don't translate well for me to our college experience. It's more along the lines of sales and things of that nature, that don't fit into our experience at all. So, sometimes it's hard for me to figure out how to apply the principles.
I have strongly promoted Entrinsik Informer since I began working with it. I found it to be a much more user-friendly product for providing accurate, timely information from the database to folks across campus, particularly the less technically savvy folks. It provides quick access without any serious technical skills required. But it also is great for those who want to learn more about it and create their own reports. The flexibility and ease of use are the biggest elements for me.
Ed McClusky | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Entrinsik Informer is a powerful web-based ERP db operational reporting tool and business intelligence solution. Informer is used here at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff across all administrative offices to report on data contained in Ellucian Colleague. Informer is our primary real time data extraction and administrative reporting solution. Here at UAPB we utilize Informer hourly – almost around the clock. Using Informer's easy to follow UI and Informer's Live Excel features, the power of launching/executing created reports is moved to the person that needs the information.
  • Informer easily can link tables from a variety of data sources. Reports can easily be created using both fields and JavaScript formulas using feature rich drag and drop column placement
  • Immediately Informer’s LIVE Excel feature is a time saver. Users no longer have to wait for someone else to provide them with real-time data.
  • Informer’s ability to link related Colleague tables together is what allows more data to be collected together on a single report.
  • Entrinsik should provide at least some usage reports, including a report on reports, report usage statistics including most used and least used.
Entrinsik Informer is not a what-you-see-is-what-you-get true free-form report designer like can be found in some other reporting solutions. However, Informer is the best data extraction and BI provider for Unidata ever. End users should not have to go to a technical report developer to just get a set of data. Informer provides the ability to deliver customized reports either scheduled or ad-hoc when and where they want utilizing widely accepted formats.
Sarah Gaither | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Our entire college uses Informer. It solves a multitude of problems for our college. In addition to select reporting functionality for a specific issue that arises, it also gives us the ability to email reports daily to review and correct various issues with registration, addresses, data inaccuracies, etc. Our college uses Colleague and Informer provides a seamless integration between the two systems.
  • Easy to create reports based on specific selection criteria
  • Reports can be delivered in a variety of ways- Excel, Live Excel, PDF, CSV, Saved Lists, etc.
  • Easy to schedule reports to have delivered via email to different people around our College at various times.
  • As technology advances, there is always room for improvements, but I think Informer does a very good job of staying up-to-date with the latest cutting edge technologies. One improvement I would like to see is an area specifically for report schedules that can be easily edited.
  • Another improvement would be speed. You can never have enough speed in processing reports.
Informer is well-suited for creating reports from Colleague in a variety of ways that are currently unavailable within the Colleague software itself. It allows you to combine different fields and values and data from multiple areas of the college within one report, and even use that report to create even more reports.
Kara Bosch | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Informer is being used throughout the college community. The Informer reporting tool allows users on-demand access to operational data in order to make effective business decisions.
  • The Informer reporting tool is easy to use for users of all levels of technical expertise.
  • The Informer reporting tool does not require IT support to create reports. Users can create, run and modify reports without requiring IT resources.
  • The flexibility of security administration allows us to grant users access to only the data sources, files, fields, and reports related to their specific jobs.
  • The Informer dashboards allow immediate access to statistics and key performance indicators. Charts and graphs can be designed in minutes to reflect various report results in graphic form.
  • Informer allows us the flexibility of reporting out of multiple databases.
  • Entrinsik is working to remedy issues related to server memory usage. They are very open to user feedback and consider the relationship with their clients to be priority.
Informer has the ability to work with a variety of data sources so is an effective solution for a variety of businesses.
Marjorie Williams | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
All departments are currently using Informer reporting to report on data, create saved lists for our ERP processes and to upload data to other database systems. Informer reports helps us to address data entry problems in our ERP system.
  • I love the mapping capabilities. Practically no more computed columns needed in Colleague.
  • Calculated columns help to get the desired result you need.
  • It is easy to use. Security set up is also straight forward
  • Functions are great, but knowing what fields you need in your report to populate the function with is difficult. I need to know what they are before I add the function. I actually listed the fields needed in the description of the function.
For Colleague clients, mapping the data and eliminating the creation of computed columns in Colleague is a big plus. It's a great product for unidata clients. I haven't had the chance to work with SQL. I am hoping to get Ellucian Recruiter added as a datasource.
November 04, 2014

Entrinsik Informer Review

Kris Hutchens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is used by Information Systems department, Finance Department and Human Resources. There are other departments across campus that have LIVE excel spreadsheets from Informer, but they do not have the access.
It is has helped with many reports that are needed for the different areas across campus. I've created many reports from queries that are no longer possible with Colleague.
  • Entrinsik makes Informer easy to use.
  • Informer Dashboards are easy to set up also.
  • Maintenance is easy
  • When creating reports, there is the ability to drag and drop
  • At this moment, I can't think of anything that can be improved. There are minor glitches that need to be fixed, but nothing major.
  • I truly enjoying working with this product.
It is great for reporting with dashboard capability. I like the fact that I can put our logo on the forms. When I need to output the form for another staff person, I like the fact that there are different ways to do this.
November 04, 2014

Informed about Informer!

Kate Goldberg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is a web-based reporting tool that connects to our Datatel (ellucian) Colleague database (Unidata). It is a transactional database that allows us to access live and real-time data. There are probably six departments using it at our organization. I am in the College Advancement department (alumni relations and fundraising). It utilizes a GUI user interface that makes it so much easier to write reports rather than having to write programming code. We have four staff in our department who are heavy users and about 15 staff who are running "self-service" reports (they can't change the files, fields, select statements, etc.). No matter who runs the reports, we can export to Excel, Adobe PDF, Saved lists, and other options. The most transformation feature was the ability to schedule reports to email to users. Now, my staff and I can send daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly reports that we used to have to remember to send previously!
  • Scheduling reports. We are able to easily schedule emails using many different recurring schedules. We are also able to email outside of our domain, so we can email to our volunteers who don't have an email from our institution.
  • Export choices. We use Excel and PDF predominantly, but have been experimenting with XML.
  • Drag and drop of columns. We are now able to move columns and rearrange easier than in previous versions.
  • User level permissions. Our OIT department controls our permissions, but we are able to have two levels-one for my staff who are the report writers and another for the staff who are the end users of the reports.
  • Performance-I don't know if it is a problem with Informer or the database, but sometimes it can take up to 45 minutes to run a report and I have to schedule it.
  • Search for email addresses- there is no way to search for a particular email in the scheduling section. So, when staff leave, I can't easily go find all the reports they were receiving.
  • Data analytics-they have a tab called "analytics", but I don't really think that is a fair term to use. It produces really basic pie and bar charts. It can be a little misleading.
I am unable to incorporate all of my data into "one place" - so Intrinsik is only connecting to Datatel- but I have a few other data sources that I would like to use.

Intrinsik is well suited for transactional level reporting. We often use it for data verification and data checking. For example, if we have 20 records that we are correcting, we can rerun the reports and be sure that we have fixed the problem.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Entrinsik Informer is our ERP reporting and data extraction tool used across two campuses. It allows users to get *their* data without relying on IT Services. There was a change made to the old method of retrieving data from our central ERP system so a replacement was sought out which turned out to be Entrinsik Informer. It's really good because you can export in a variety of formats. If there was one minor issue with it it would be the lack of an ability to format report output.
  • Setting up a report is quite easy for end users to manage
  • For the logging in process it interacts with our identity management system
  • It's very easy to download data into a PDF or spreadsheet/csv file.
  • Lack of customising a finished looking report
  • Doesn't work the same was as Crystal or Access reports ... the interface is different.
  • Customising a computed column is a little tricky.
Entrinsik Informer works well as a data extraction tool and the end user doesn't need to know anything about writing queries. One question would be if a person is looking for a solution that they can give to higher management that is formatted and easily understood. This tool is lacking in that regard.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Informer is available across the whole university and is currently being used to address end-users reporting/data needs.
  • Non-technical users are able to get the data they need easily.
  • Set-up was easy.
  • We are still new users but those with a higher level of technical knowledge can create advanced reports/dashboards easily.
  • More detailed documentation, specifically about calculated columns and JavaScript examples would be nice.
Being new users, we are still learning and limited to basic reports right now...
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Informer is used all over campus by numerous departments on a daily basis. It's used mostly to retrieve reports from Colleague, but we also use it on other databases such as our calendar database, to send out weekly and daily reminders to security and campus life employees about what's going on, and Slate, our admissions database. Informer has been a terrific reporting tool, easily retrieving data from different sources.
  • It's extremely easy to quickly put together a report to retrieve data you need. Filters and columns can be easily created, and code can be written in JavaScript to create additional columns. Custom JavaScript functions can be created and then easily used in the code.
  • Links between tables/files are easy to create, and can even be made to link together separate databases. The more advanced users can set up these links, and more basic users can then utilize them easily without understanding any background.
  • Reports can now be exported to share between institutions very easily. When importing a report, it will automatically add any mappings and links you don't have that are needed. Using this feature, you can even copy your entire database mapping to your test database, so all your mappings and links don't have to be manually created in your test database.
  • Filtering could be greatly improved. You cannot filter on columns linked from a secondary datasource, the calculated fields written in JavaScript, and computed columns from Colleague can also be tricky to filter on.
  • Loading of the report lists can be slow and glitchy (though I have been told this will be fixed soon)
  • When reporting on SQL databases, you cannot link a table with an outer join unless you write the entire report yourself in SQL code - a severe limitation that I hope will be fixed soon.
  • Defaults for report prompts would be great
  • When adding mappings and properties, it would be great if you could retrieve a sample of data from the DB to quickly see what the data looks like - helpful for knowing what you want to add.
  • Linking on composite keys in Unidata still seems to be impossible. And the ability to link to a non @ID field in Unidata would be great.
I have found Informer works far better reporting on transactional data than for things like trying to do lots of aggregation. I do find the need to just write native SQL reports, or create views within the DB and use them in Informer, because getting too advanced is just beyond the realm of a tool that tries to make report creation as easy as possible. It's not a miracle worker, and you still have to know what you're doing if things get even a little complex. But with the skills of our report writers, we've been able to create a terrific library of useful report for others who don't need to be able to create them.
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