Vena Solutions - Sizzle With Very Little Steak

Vena may be fine for a department or very small organizations. However, it is not an enterprise class tool. There is a reason they tend not to sell through IT or provide open access to their documentation and knowledge base (always a red flag in my opinion). A non-production tenant is not provided as part of the package. There is also only limited functionality for migrations between tenants. Migrating within a tenant is also challenging. There is no version control capability across the tool, and its own versioning is scattershot within it. Integrations have no version control at all, and some of the components code cannot even be copy-pasted to roll your own. I have resorted to copy-paste for scripts and accessible code, along with screenshots (yes, seriously) for other components with inaccessible code.

Additionally, integrations largely rely on the naming conventions of the objects. So even though there are folder structures, two objects in different folders cannot have the same names. This results in manual code changes when migrating from a non-production to a production model.

That said, the web interface isn't bad, and neither is the Excel add-in. The pieces your business users will see during the sales cycle. Excel-based reporting is robust. Web-based and ad-hoc reporting relies on Microsoft Power BI, licensed separately.

I will give Vena credit for at least trying and being initially responsive. However, it is clear that their attitude toward development is cavalier. We have engaged them both via helpdesk and on consulting engagements. The solutions provided are often given without proper testing, resulting in significant time spent on back-and-forth to get issues resolved, or fixing the code yourself. There does not seem to be much in the way of process or project management on their side for customer engagements.

This is split between usability from an end-user perspective and administrative.

Administrative - The tool is lacking in a cohesive way to administer the tool, both from more of a back-end perspective (ETL/Integrations, scripting, etc.) as well as from a business administrative (Processes, Models, etc.). On the more back-end IT related aspects, the tool is a mishmash of modules that were clearly developed in stovepipe fashion. Basic feature/functionality aspects such as version control, auto vs manual save, etc. differ between the code preparation components. It is also lacking in any sort of coherent version control. Not all pages display the context information, so extreme caution must be used. There is also no coherent migration strategy. The process and model navigation has been somewhat challenging for our business administrators, often requiring assistance from Vena when creating or altering templates. 2 of 10

End User - This is better. The Excel add-in generally functions well. Creating basic templates is straightforward, and there is a large degree of flexibility when creating reporting templates. Being part of Excel puts many users into a comfort zone. The toggle switch between template and data mode is not well conceived, and the add-in pop-ups occasionally have issues on multi-monitor displays. 6 of 10