Stratum

Benefits:

Once you build a report, your view data is automatically updated and there is no need to rebuild your report.

Drawbacks:

The formulas are a bit complicated. I would like to see more improvements to the view set up. Freeze panes would be helpful.

In sum:

Overall, the Stratum Viewer has great versatility for digesting large amounts of data. The multi-dimensional nature of the software makes it an efficient tool.

Benefits:

Ability for users to create their own reports

Drawbacks:

A bit difficult to create some templates

In sum:

Many of my end users are enjoying the power of information on their tips. In the past they had to wait for IT department to create reports and now they have the ability to create their own

In sum:

Our sales staff loves the software and the reports they can generate. They use this day in and day out to run reports on sales data as well as running trends for determining input products to purchase.

Benefits:

User friendliness, ability to build custom views on the fly and regoranize data quickly. This allows my team to get down to identify problem areas of the business.

Drawbacks:

Would like a multi sorting ability for columns like excel has.

In sum:

I am a financial analyst and monitor sales and GP daily for our business. Without Silvon my job would be very difficult to do efficiently. I have seen the capabilities of competitive software and I am very pleased that we have Silvon. Silvon is one of the most useful and user friendly tools on the market, I highly recommend it.

Benefits:

I'd have to say that I like the flexibility of the software the most. Insight to Sales, Inventory, Production, Receivables, Payables, General Ledger etc. can be gained by importing data from these applications into Stratum. The software handles 100+ concurrent users.

Drawbacks:

I frequently export to MS Office tools for better graphics and annotation capability.

In sum:

Silvon Software has been providing Business Intelligence software before BI became a buzz word!They provide a robust, scalable solution to deliver business insights against any data set.

Benefits:

Once learned, the product can provide the kind of reporting needed and functions without fail. As I state below, there is a fairly steep learning curve.

Drawbacks:

There is a fairly steep learning curve to get to a point where it is easy to use and can be frustrating for the new user.

Benefits:

Ability to drill to several levels and change the hierarchy of the fields.

Drawbacks:

The filter and search functions is not user friendly. As I drill down to a certain level, I expect to use the filter and only see values that are in the field I pick. Instead, I see all original values . I would to see the filter function perform similar to Excel.

In sum:

Overall, I find Stratum easy to use and exceptional to use as I review data at several levels. However, I struggle with the use of filters. As I drill down to several levels , it still pulls all original data in the fields instead of narrowing the list. I would like to see the filter function replicate the functionality of Excel.

Benefits:

I like that you can splice and dice data and look at it various ways. If the report set up is done, you can access it quickly at a moments notice in near real time, within a days worth of updates.

Drawbacks:

My least favorite aspect of the program is that it does not inform you when you are outside of your authorized limits and cannot perform a function. It needs something else. It just lets you spin and try until you give up or determine it is not in the cards. It's a waste of time and disincentive to exploration. In fairness to Silvon, it it is hard to determine where Silvon's limitations are vs those dictated by administrators.

Benefits:

No software loads on PCs

Drawbacks:

Amount of time to reload cube

In sum:

Stratum.Viewer provides the data analysis tools that our business needs to run successfully. Most users are happy with the product, and our user base is constantly growing.