In the Informer 5 Dataset video, customers talk about how Informer 5’s Dataset features enable them to consolidate different data sources for better analysis and reporting. Their positive experience in consolidating multiple sources of data within Informer 5 is one of many reasons these customers recommend Informer to other organizations also wanting to streamline and improve operational efficiency.
Multi-system integration
Jessie Owsley, Project Manager at SME Electric Supply, a manufacturing and distribution company, frequently needs to generate status and management reports from the company ERP, CRM, and delivery systems. Before acquiring Informer 5, it was very time consuming to consolidate all the necessary information to create a meaningful view of the data for decision making. One of the major benefits that Jessie found using Informer 5 is that he can now pull data from these disparate systems into a consolidated Dataset within Informer 5 and report on any or all the information at the same time.
According to Owsley, “We have products delivered throughout the day and I need to see the status of the delivery. Keeping track of those deliveries involves both the delivery and ERP software. Informer has helped accomplish the task of keeping track of where those orders are throughout the day by providing the ability to schedule data queries and data refreshes as frequently as needed.”
Likewise, Delaware Valley University has data located in many different locations. These include, the Student Information System, health waivers, spreadsheets in a tutoring center, and student survey data. They pull all the data from these different data sources into Informer 5 where authorized users find it easy to query and interact with the data on their own. These users like seeing how the data sources, Datasets, and Reports are connected within Informer 5 because it makes them feel more self-reliant in doing self-service reporting.
Refreshing Datasets
Not only do customers applaud Informer 5’s agility in pulling together all their data sources into one curated Dataset, but they find tremendous value in the ability to refresh Datasets and queries based on the demands of the business for accurate, up-to-the-minute decision making. As well, customers talk about feeling more independent and empowered because they no longer need to rely on an ERP or CRM consultant, or anyone else, to produce custom reporting.
According to James Slizewski, Registrar at Delaware Valley University, “Informer enables us to operate not just more efficiently but better than we were before because we refresh our Datasets and data sources and bring user’s data in on demand as needed.”
Empowering users
A common theme mentioned by customers is the benefit of having more people access the data they own and without the need for technical training. This enables users to produce timely reports and share them with confidence and security.
“Informer 5’s Dataset functionality enables every department to have ownership of their data, to be able to join a bunch of our tables together, to be able to access what is needed, and to be able to limit access if needed for departments,” Melissa Sponseller, Business Intelligence Lead at Capital University.
Empowering users to do their own analysis and create their own reports using Informer 5 provides multiple benefits. They can see, filter and interact with their own data within Informer 5 instead of needing to transfer data into Excel or Access or relying on other staff members with report writing expertise.
Slizewski also mentioned, “Now, they can do that [self-service reporting] because we’ve allowed them to do it and trained them on how to do it. That’s helped us not only by saving us time as report writers but also it made the report better because they can see, ‘Oh wait I can bring in this other source of data which I thought I didn’t have the ability to do before’, and now they can add that in.”
Security – user access
Secure data is paramount to an organization’s business health. With Informer 5’s Dataset capability, a DBA-type person can create a very large set of data and compartmentalize it with separate views of the information that their end users can work with in a very simple and secure way. Not only does this eliminate the need to create separate sets of data for each person but it establishes strong data governance by creating a single Dataset with your rules that limit users to only see portions of the data depending on their role within the organization.
“Informer gives great control over who has access to which data sources and specific within each data source down to the table level or the column level, to say who can do what. The concepts of users within teams and permission sets are very granular, and they’re easy to manage, and that granularity allows us to have users directly access the data. I’ve got better control over the information than if I’m giving someone access to our CRM client or ERP client,” said Owsley.
To hear more from Informer 5 customers, watch the Informer 5 Dataset video
To learn more, call 888-703-0016, or informersales@entrinsik.com
