OUR BLOG

When data is abundant, finding actionable insights can be like finding a needle in a haystack. The key to extracting insights from big data is preparing the Dataset in a meaningful manner, and then being able to interact with it efficiently. If it is cumbersome or time-consuming to obtain results, it quickly diminishes the value of the Dataset.

The Web Datasource driver, an experimental feature in 5.4, connects Informer to web-based tool opening the door to many different types of datasources. The driver enables Informer to connect to a REST endpoint to retrieve data. This type of connection allows users to connect to data that is not installed internally in their environment. Users will be able to pull data from SaaS-based hosted solutions. For example, at Entrinsik, we have utilized the driver to connect Jira Software to Informer 5 to aid in the efficiency of our developmental process. Jira is where we keep track of all bugs and feature requests generated by customer use. See below on how we connected Infomer to Jira (Figure 1).

The key to reporting and extracting insights from data is being able to trust the data and its dissemination. It boils down to the essential aspects of Data Governance – the ability to access and consume data reliably while meeting the competing demands between IT security and business users. Good Data Governance answers questions like, ‘How can I trust the data?’, ‘How can I have traceability of key business decisions?’, ‘How do I keep my data from getting unwieldy and uncontrollable?’, and ‘How can I ensure that only authorized persons can see the data or parts of it?’. In Informer 5, we bolster our approach to the latter question, addressing data level, content level and functional level security.

It’s coming! Informer 5.4 is currently in release process mode and will be officially released in Q2. We have many new features that will bolster data governance and business workflows.

Spring is here and now is a great time to tidy up your Informer 4 instance. We recommend identifying inactive reports along with reports that can be consolidated into one with multiple filter prompts. There are also maintenance reports that help clean up links and field types along with preparing for a migration to Informer 5.

Location data can be critical when analyzing incident rates and concentrations, supply chains, and route optimization. Informer allows users to enhance reports and dashboards with Google Maps and has several methods in generating coordinates (geotags) with supplied address information.

With over 400 colleges and universities using Ellucian Colleague, we at Entrinsik know Colleague inside and out. Informer offers prebuilt meta data and content along with supporting native multi-value functionality.

Entrinsik is thrilled to announce Informer’s exceptional performance in the BI & Analytics Survey 21 from BARC. This is the world’s largest and...