What is our primary use case?
The solution is mainly for bringing in a large amount of data. For example, let's say you have a retailer and they have various types of sales. They have stores both online and brick and mortar and they have sales happening in both places. What you're trying to do is decide all kinds of information based on the store versus online. Stores have different numbers of square feet and carry different types of merchandise depending on how they rank the store in different cities. If, for example, in Columbus, Ohio, if there are three stores, exactly the same store, they may be ranked differently based on the monetary intake that they have. Then there's the online information that they're pulling in, and data is being collected around who's ordering online and if they ordering versus going into the store, etc. All that data is pooled from the credit card information and it's cataloged. Trifacta allows you to write a code to bring that information together so that you can manipulate it at the end.
Once the information is collected, a data scientist can actually begin giving VPs in their departments the information that they need on the spot to make decisions about products. They can assess the information that the AI and machine learning is putting out and they can look at it and go, "Okay, you don't even need store C, so make store B larger, combine those two stores, give them different clothing in store B and they'll start to compete better in a market". It's amazing how much detail they can get in order to help make sales more efficient.
What is most valuable?
The solution is extremely robust.
It works well for data scientists and can really help them drill down on the information in order to give management tangible data points for larger business decisions.
The solution can execute and connect better to platforms that are actually non-platforms like Pega.
What needs improvement?
This product really needs to improve its ease of use.
The solution needs to do a better job of promoting and marketing itself. Alteryx is much better at this and as a consequence is more recognizable. Trifacta needs to showcase its technology better.
It truly should encompass the A to Z execution of how you execute business process modeling in an intelligent automation form.
A future release needs to be something that's easier to handle. I wouldn't say a layman should be able to use the solution as data wrangling is something that somebody has got to really be certified in. I have a friend who's worked at IBM for 30 years, and now he's just getting certified as a data scientist. However, if the solution was designed as something that really could assist a new data scientist or kids coming out of college, something that's easier for them to wrap their heads around, that would be helpful.
The interface on Trifacta is way too busy. I used to do UX and it's just awful. It looks a little bit like Excel. I can't stand it. The UI of Alteryx is much, much better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've worked with the product in the last 12 months or so.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is a very stable piece of software. It doesn't really have bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is very easy to scale. If a company needs to expand outwards they can do so very easily.
How are customer service and support?
I bever reached out to a help desk, per se, however, any time I ever needed someone that I could engage with at a much higher level, they were there immediately. That was nice of them, considering we never implemented an actual solution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Alteryx is simpler because it has more of a drop-and-drag and it's more business process-oriented. So, if you have a business process that's already to execute Alteryx is easier. Trifacta you really have to have a data scientist to be able to look at the data, but Alteryx is more citizen developed and ready to go as long as they can learn the product versus learning the science.
Basically, Alteryx does that faster. Alteryx truly does that faster in a simpler format. Trifacta is a much more robust tool that executes more information, however, it is way harder to learn.
How was the initial setup?
We never actually ended up implementing the solution for the client.
What was our ROI?
Finance is the biggest ROI advantage a client will get. It will help them make smarter financial decisions.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I was never part of the decision-making process when it came to pricing. I'm not sure of what the exact costs were.
As a partner, as a reseller, I don't know much about the Trifacta side as they were partners with them before I came on. Alteryx, for example, seems expensive to me, however, I came from RPA, which was not that expensive to implement. Once I got used to something like data wrangling it didn't seem too much for us.
The number one concern for us was to become a partner. The resell seemed like the ROI was going to benefit the customer. I felt, just like with RPA, once you can show the value, (and you can show the value almost immediately because this stuff can be run overnight), the cost isn't too big.
What other advice do I have?
We are resellers. We work with clients to implement solutions.
I personally never executed the Trifacta solution. We did propose one, however, the client did not accept the solution.
Overall, I would rate the solution at a nine out of ten. I've been pretty happy with it overall.
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
