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Datawatch - Great Product, New (ouch) Pricing!
July 02, 2014

Datawatch - Great Product, New (ouch) Pricing!

Kim Shada | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Monarch Data Pump Version 10.5.0.2

Overall Satisfaction with Datawatch

Datawatch Monarch text editing software is utilized by hundreds of users across our organization. It is the best text editing solution for downloaded mainframe reports, and allows end users to quickly render their own data. The Monarch software is intuitive, flexible, and easy to use. Datawatch Data Pump solution was implemented over 8 years ago by our regional IT department as a logical extension of how we use Monarch. Data Pump is used to schedule and output hundreds of processes and reports we have created over the years to support departments across our supply chain, and links extremely well to data we maintain in SQL.
  • Monarch is very flexible, easy to use, and intuitive. It links well with other data sources, and has a wide array of calcs available for power users.
  • Data Pump is a logical conclusion for those who are familiar with Monarch xprj's. Once a project's model, data source, and data destination are established, it makes sense to want to automatically schedule it. Data Pump makes it easy to group, organize, schedule, track and trouble-shoot multiple projects in one place.
  • Recently, we had some major sticker-shock when we wanted to upgrade Data Pump. It is an exceptional product, but when the price jumped from $6,000 to over $60,000, it was impossible to get the funds approved internally for the upgrade.
  • We also paid for yearly maintenance contracts which included Professional Services, but rarely found those services beneficial. However, we did receive all software upgrades for Datapump as part of the contract which we found to be very beneficial. However, with the new pricing, that is not longer the case.
  • Data Pump reduces complexity of report solutions by offering a standardized approach for organizing and scheduling
  • 97% service level for past 5 years for all of our jobs going through Data Pump
Datawatch Monarch has been the standard text editing solution for Supervalu for over 10 years. Because it works so well and was already a well-known fixture in our organization, the benefits of Data Pump were immediately recognized. We did not look for other software solutions, as it was a natural progression of an existing solution.
Datawatch recently repositioned Data Pump and essentially priced us out of the market. The initial investment was very inexpensive, but the yearly maintenance contract was viewed as being a little pricey. The only value of the contract was that it included software upgrades. The Professional Services portion of the contract that was meant to provide support was not viewed as being very effective or beneficial.
If an organization's primary source of data is available in a report format, Monarch is an excellent solution. It works extremely well for parsing out data from downloaded text files, and can even be used to parse data out of scanned pdf documents. For power users, it works very well with databases and SQL. For soft users who just want to glean data out of a downloaded report, it's very easy to see how it works. For anyone who has ever tried to use Excel to open and parse a text file, Monarch is sure to provide lasting relief!

Should you find Monarch beneficial, the next logical step towards creating a great BI environment is Data Pump.