IntelliPRINT Analytics tool offers an attractive alternative to Microsoft Excel

By Doug Irvine, IBM Lotus Advisor, 1 Nov 2004

Excerpts from the review

November 1, 2004 - IBM Lotus Notes applications often become quite popular with users. Far-flung departments discover the database and begin using it. Soon, requests for new views start coming in. Each one adds to your storage and memory usage, not to mention your time and effort. Left unchecked, the application begins to slow, remote users complain about the replication time, and navigation becomes more cumbersome.

Other times, the data gathered in a Notes application is subject to heavy analysis and reporting. Expert analysts spend hours manipulating the data, often in spreadsheets where a single bad cell reference or formula error means lost data integrity or bad decisions.

Synaptris' IntelliPRINT Analytics can help solve these problems and more.

Synaptris' literature sums it up nicely: "[IntelliPRINT Analytics] let’s you move the tasks of analysis and reporting to business users." You can think of it as an add-on tool for dynamic querying, data mining, and analytics.

Working with IntelliPRINT Analytics
My Company has a Notes application called Alerts for tracking product failures and other issues. Management regularly analyzes this information, typically by exporting the data and creating tables, charts, and other reports in Microsoft Excel. To begin showing you IntelliPRINT Analytic's capabilities, I'll examine whether it makes this analysis process any easier.

After installing IntelliPRINT Analytics (a process so easy I won't delve into it), you have IntelliPRINT Analytics options on the Actions menu in all your databases. Selecting the data you want to work with is as simple as opening the database and selecting the view. If you can't find a view that has every data element you need, no problem. In Notes, you can add fields (as new columns) from the document after you're in the IntelliPRINT Analytics Grid (you can't do this in the Web version).

The common tasks are the same as designing views in Notes:

• Grouping
• Sorting
• Adding/Removing Columns
• Filtering Data (selection statement)

To handle grouping, you drag a column heading into the Group Frame above the data. Need a sub-grouping? Just drag another column. To sort, click on the column heading. Right-click on a heading, and, among other things, you can delete the column. A drop-down menu on each column heading displays a unique list of that column's data values (figure 2); you can filter data by selecting one of these values. Optionally, you can filter using comparison statements (greater than, equal to, etc.), as figure 3 shows.

Export

After just a few minutes, I have the filters in place, so I just have to send it to Carl. The export to Excel goes smoothly. Alternatively, you can export it as a PDF or text.

Charts

Creating a chart in IntelliPRINT Analytics isn't too much different from Excel.

Reuse

Reuse is where IntelliPRINT Analytics really shines in comparison to Excel. I don't care how good you are with macro writing and linking to separate data sheets-with IntelliPRINT Analytics, I get my report where I want it and then just save the format. Anytime I want to refresh the data, I just click on a button.

IntelliPRINT Analytics for the Web

Users who access Domino via the Web can use an IntelliPRINT program you install on the server. When the user submits the proper URL commands (which designers can code into actions or links on the Web page), the server launches the IntelliPRINT Analytics Grid in the browser. It's an ActiveX control, so you may have to adjust the browser security settings to ensure the user can download and use the program. Some features aren't supported on the Web, such as adding columns and advanced filtering. If the views in your database are well thought out, I don't think you'll miss these features.
How does it match up to your other options?

There are alternatives to using IntelliPRINT Analytics, such as Excel or creating a private view in Notes. Is IntelliPRINT Analytics easier than these two methods? Yes. Excel gurus might disagree, but I've never found grouping or filtering data to be easy tasks in spreadsheet programs. And even after years of designing Notes views, I can't say it's easier or more intuitive than using IntelliPRINT Analytics.

Compared to Excel, you lose the familiar interface (a lot of people spend their entire day in spreadsheets), some of the more powerful functions such as macros, and the ability to have multiple charts. So it won't replace Excel completely for complex data crunching and presentation.

Where it compares favorably to Excel is its ability to pull in new data. For reports users regenerate on a frequent basis that contains a lot of data, this is important. However, for Notes power-users who are proficient at creating private views, IntelliPRINT Analytics offers mainly speed.

I give credit to the Synaptris designers for keeping things simple. IntelliPRINT Analytics isn't weighed down by lots of infrequently used features that just intimidate users. For inexperienced users without a lot of Excel and Notes view design experience, IntelliPRINT Analytics is the easiest to learn by a long shot.

For companies that do a lot of analysis of Notes data, it's easy to recommend IntelliPRINT Analytics. It's a great user tool. I only wish I could create views in Domino Designer this easily.