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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 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

(26-50 of 77)
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Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Christopher Kennedy | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
  • Informer allows our customer base to access their data and create their own reports.
  • Informer's interface is very simple to use. Our customers learn how to build reports in a very short amount of time.
  • Everyone wants to get the data out and Informer allows them to schedule reports via email or extract the data to a variety of different formats very easily.
  • We have had a few scalability issues as we have grown the number of customers using the tool quite rapidly, but Entrinsik has been a great partner with us working to overcome the challenges we have encountered along the way.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Ease of use
  • Ability to export analytics
  • Ability to join files with a common key, making reporting applicable to specific data questions
  • I'd like to see Entrinsik expand its menu of scripts that are provided for use.
  • I'd also appreciate an expanded how-to manual as a pdf on calculated columns and dashboarding.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • The Live Excel function allows you to create spreadsheets and send them to others. The recipient can add their own columns but refresh the original data at will which saves time and effort.
  • Client office staff can be trained to create their own reports, but if they don't have the time or interest it's easy to create reports for them. We can deliver the reports in a variety of ways and many people love the option of having reports sent to them by email at a scheduled time.
  • The ability to report from both SQL and Unidata on the same report is amazing! We use this feature all the time and it has greatly simplified our lives.
  • The software is slow to respond when you filter the list of reports on a tag or favorites. It's also slow when you try to add a report to your list of favorites.
Ed McClusky | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 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.
Sarah Gaither | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Kara Bosch | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
November 04, 2014

Client converting to SQL

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Mappings are easily created, but need to be careful on who you allow to added metadata to the mappings.
  • Reports are easily created and maintained.
  • Installation is relatively easy.
  • Security can be very cumbersome.
  • Like the file mapping suites in UNIDATA. Has saved us a lot of time not having to rebuild reports every year. The mapping suites don't work well at all in the SQL environment and feel that this needs to be resolved very quickly .
Marjorie Williams | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
November 04, 2014

Entrinsik Informer Review

Kris Hutchens | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • We can always depend on Informer to provide both on-demand and daily scheduled reports when needed.
  • Our users pretty much write their own reports: Informer makes it easy to create both simple and more complex reports.
  • One thing that some users miss (from Informer 3 functionality) is the ability of reports to provide two levels of subtotaling.
  • One area that I would like to see improvement would be in better Javascript support and instruction, when creating calculated columns and functions.
Verdon Vaillancourt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Very user-friendly for quick, one-off reports
  • Very manageable and granular permission for granting access to only the data required
  • Very easy to share reports and queries
  • Minimal training and support required for quick user adpotation
  • Copying of permissions from group to group, when creating new groups at a low level is cumbersome for the admins
  • The sharing and permissioning areas are the only difficult area to train users in, but it is complex
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Easy to use
  • Excellent support by vendor
  • Allows for multiple data sources
  • The migration from Unidata backend to SQL is messy, but tools are great and support is there.
November 04, 2014

Informed about Informer!

Kate Goldberg | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
September 12, 2014

Entrinsik Informer

Kristyn Lederer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Our users like that reports can include prompts. This allows different departments on campus to use the same report with their own specific criteria.
  • Informer is fairly easy to use. It has allowed some of our end users to create reports on their own. With some training and understanding of the data and design of the database, they have been able to get what they need out of our student information system.
  • Personally, I like the fact that I can write a t-sql query and just copy it to Informer. This is much easier for me as a DBA than having to use the user interface.
  • We have routinely had issues with Java on our Informer box which require us to reboot the server. Support has been helpful when this occurs but it would be nice if it was easier to troubleshoot the problems on our own.
June 27, 2014

Informed

Timothy Smalarz | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Makes creating reports straight forward
  • Emailed reporting capability
  • Making the work day easier
  • Since my experience with Informer was more than 12 months ago I can not comment about its current format
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Christopher Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Makes the reporting logic transparent to other report managers
  • Facilitates easy, ad hoc reporting
  • Enables users to export the data in a variety of formats so they can use it however they prefer
  • Not sure how to do it, but more prompts built into the tool to help keep the tool clean. When reports appear to be ad hoc, prompt the author to delete it when they are done for example.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • 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.
Steven McKinny | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Reseller
  • The system is rather intuitive. Most clients are able to pick up the application at an excelled pace.
  • Ease of implementation; with self-contained installer deploying multiple instances is easily done.
  • It is rather easy to “break” the system with what I call runaway reports. The way the system requests data is rather poor in that it’s an all or nothing deal.
  • Screen constancy is a little off. The option to drag or double click should be a valid input on any screen, but there is a mix of this feature working fully and partially.
  • There is no granular system administration; the application it is either on or off. At times it would be helpful to stop/kill individual user database requests from the system, rather than turning off the application for the entire company to resolve issues.
April 19, 2014

Informer works for us

Jennifer Coon, MBA | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Informer is an intuitive tool for end users. It is very easy to train all levels of a user population.
  • In addition to being a simple tool to use, Informer has very sophisticated capabilities for creating complicated reports as needed by our Power Users.
  • Informer provides reporting on itself, so as a service manager and administrator of Informer, I can easily gather metrics on how often and how our end users are using the tool.
  • Reporting on Informer itself can be very challenging. There is no dictionary resource on the tables provided about Informer, so a lot of report writing is trial and error on my part. And I can find myself making assumptions about what a data field means.
April 16, 2014

Great Reporting Tool

Score 6 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Report building in a convenient format.
  • Wonderful support. They are always helpful and solve the issue quickly.
  • Would like another option besides just Excel for report.
Amanda Curran | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • Entrinsik Informer has an easy to learn user interface. With limited knowledge of relational database concepts, our end users are able to develop their own reports with little training.
  • Entrinsik Informer also has the ability to create complex reporting using javascript and Native SQL statements. Although IT assistance is generally needed to write the more complex reports, I have found any reporting requirement can be met using these advanced tools.
  • With recent enhancements in version 4.4.1, I have a better appreciation of the security features within Entrinsik Informer. The security audit reporting is very helpful from an administrative perspective. From a users perspective, they can now better categorize reports for more effective sharing and scheduling across departments.
  • The most recent version 4.4.1 has some performance issues and functions much slower than prior versions. This is frustrating to the end users. I do know Entrinsik is aware of and working on fixing this issue.
  • It would be nice for Entrinsik to publish the schema of Informer's internal database. We have access to it and do report from it, but it takes longer to get the reporting correct than it would with a published schema to guide the way.
  • End users can write reports which pull enormous amounts of data "by accident". It would be nice to have built in functionality to stop these queries from running off and bringing the entire application down for all users. I have recently attended training which included writing a plug-in to do this but it would be better if it were built into the product.
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