Entrinsik Informer vs. Synoptix

Most schools that use Colleague (the Student Information System) have either UniData or SQL Server as the back-end database. If a school is currently a UniData school but has plans to move to SQL Server in the relatively near future then I'd advise against moving forward with Informer until after the conversion to SQL Server. There is a tool that will convert some reports, but there are many instances where the tool won't successfully convert the report and it will need to be re-written.

Incentivized

Synoptix has been great for us to allow end users access to the data and information they need to make informed decisions without letting them have full access to all ERP functions. It has also been very easy to create custom reports that meet our needs. It is also nimble enough to create quick reports that are needed with a small turnaround

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• Easy report building interface with an query interface that allows financial users the ability to conduct complex queries without difficulty.
• The ability to create reporting that allows us to review in-depth financial review by drilling down into accounts to find transnational data easily.
• Easily maintained and monitored with simple upgrade installations and end point installation.
• Great knowledge base for review and trouble-shooting.
• Highly knowledgeable and easy to work with staff.

Incentivized

• Informer needs more predefined date formats in its Column Display Editor. The existing 5 do not meet everyone's needs.
• It's a minor UI issue, but Informer's Edit Columns view stutters and displays empty space when scrolling left or right. It may be because I'm using Safari on Mac OS X, and Informer isn't designed for input devices that scroll with "momentum" (as Apple calls it).
• The Reports Listing takes longer to load reports than I believe it should. At least a progress bar displays to tell you when it's complete.

Incentivized

• The web portal could be improved both in its presentation and organization of data and speed of delivery.
• It would be ideal to run and publish reports for multi-departmental users in one report. In other words, have a single report with multiple tabs representing each department and not have multiple reports (one for each department).
• When new production filters (under financial setup) are added these should automatically appear in order.

Informer has been handily meeting most of our reporting needs, and we've created a library of hundreds of reports that are used every day. They have a terrific support service to help when you have questions, and I've found them to be great at listening to what customers would like and adding new features. They are a small company that really listens and really cares, and I've been very pleased over the past few years getting to know them.

Great product and great support.

Since I don't know code, there are sometimes calculations that are beyond my knowledge to create. It would also be great to be able to format multiple columns at once (center, for instance), rather than having to format them individually.

Incentivized

It didn't take long to learn how it works and has always been easy to navigate and accomplish all that we have needed. Whenever there have been any issues Synopotix has been great to address them in a timely manner and have always been able to resolve the issues we have had

Incentivized

We have 10 concurrent licenses and we average between 6-8 at any given time during the day; and we host the application.

Always able to get acceptable solutions in reasonable time from friendly support staff. Initial contact is always with knowledgeable person - not someone reading from a script trying to screen calls. Thanks Entrinsik for being in tune with my needs.

Incentivized

Support does not know much about software solutions. As an example, I have struggled for weeks just to set up LDAP that should be fairly simple.

Incentivized

We bought the product on a Thursday morning, and we were writing reports on Friday afternoon. We did take about a month to manage the Mapping, Linking and Security to allow us to open it up across campus. We are now mapping from as many third-party vendors as we can to enable the creation of more ad-hoc reporting.

Good guidance of what steps will halppen.

Our organization used to use the built in reporting tool for Datatel, but it required more knowledge about SQL so only a handful of users could actually use it. There was no customization of the output or ability to schedule the queries. If you wanted something more complex than what was available, then the programmers needed to write an extraction program to pull the data you needed

Incentivized

Synoptix is more oriented to users as their own developers. You do not need to understand any sort of coding or languages. If you are working in financials you just need to know your trial balance. The menus and programing are so user friendly the programming is "kinda obvious"

Incentivized

• We have definitely improved customer service due to better reporting using Informer. All departments are better empowered to help our students in a more timely and accurate manner.
• Using Informer has given us the ability to eliminate functionality within our ERP system and offload reporting to a data store instead of the transactional system. This has resulted in successfully upgrading our core systems and improved response times.

• The cost of Synoptix is fairly minimal compared to what it's used for. I would say that strictly from a cost perspective it is a very good value.
• It does save a decent amount of time when pulling financial data, so there are some labor cost savings there.

Incentivized