Quadient Inspire Reviews

This solution is one that I use when working as a consultant or developer for the software users.

We are able to provide a complex end-to-end solution to any of our customers very easily.

The most valuable features are the easy-to-use document composition tool and the automatization tools.

The product would be improved with the inclusion of support for address cleansing in all of the EU countries.

We primarily use the Inspire suite for the production of print reporting for clients. Our primary fund management system produces XMLs of client data which is then manipulated and formatted for presentation. 

Inspire was already in place when I joined the organization, so I don't know how it was changed. I can, however, see how it makes us more flexible with regards to our client output. The reports we produce are customised to a wide range of client type with the optional pages and sections numbering in their hundreds.

Strict controls around development in our primary system mean that the ability to reformat data and rapidly make changes to the reports give us the flexibility that's required to meet regulatory requirements.

I love diving into data manipulation so the data transformer is one of my favourite places to play. Raw data is only so useful. Being able to reconfigure allows us to add relevance and clarity for customers.

The power and depth of the product mean that it can be quite difficult to see everything that is going on. Quite often we end up with 10 or more nested levels of tables and flows. I'm not sure how you make this easier to see but the right solutions would have huge benefits.

From data manipulation to page layout. This is truly a single solution for us. The tools included are more than capable of handling even our most complex versioning.

This solution does everything we need, plus so much more. We are constantly finding new uses for the software.

The most valuable feature is the fact that Quadient never sleeps; they are constantly adding new features and expanding the capabilities to keep us moving forward.

Documentation could always use some improvement, especially on something this complex and varied. That being said, the documentation has been steadily improving over the past 15 years that I've been using it.

• Consolidating our many letters
• Offering paperless communication.

It’s easier to maintain and edit communication, and it error-proofs our regulatory responsibility.

• External blocks
• Write once, use throughout multiple letters
• Huge time saver!

• More flexibility in editing
• Better bullets and number formatting.

We are a direct mail business producing advertising and marketing materials for a wide variety of different clients who require input and output in numerous formats and volumes. This often involves spreadsheets and text file sources or captures from documents such as PDFs. From there we may manipulate these records in any number of ways to fulfill the clients' requirements to produce leaflets, postcards, letters, invoices, statements, labels, flyers, etc., for despatch not only mainly in the UK but also around the world.

Previous solutions we have used for satisfying customer requirements have been much more cumbersome in their use with painfully slow processing speeds by comparison. In one example, a task which would have taken a couple of hours previously had been reduced to just a few minutes.

The intuitive way that workflows can be composed and organised goes a long way towards minimising the necessary complexity of tasks. While esoteric knowledge is essential to using the tool effectively, this structure makes it much easier to grasp than otherwise might have been the case. It also makes it much easier to label items clearly and introduce new options later without having to fundamentally alter what has been done previously.

The help system is quite thorough if you know where to look, but I find that its search facility is perhaps not as extensive as it might be and often returns fairly random results unless the search terms used are very specific. 

It would also be advantageous for more help with regards to scripting as I'm still something of a novice when it comes to that. But in fairness, it should be pointed out that the provider does have a very good support network in place with expert users proving most helpful. Quadient University is a valuable resource where experienced users are on hand to provide prompt solutions to even complex problems; even sometimes going to the lengths of creating example scripts and workflows to carry out the required task.

Our team has been using Inspire for over a year and has been enormously impressed with the consistency of performance. The sheer breadth of what it can do has necessarily caused us delays in acquainting ourselves with how things can be achieved, but these are limitations in our experience, rather than a fault of the package. In terms of the system itself, I cannot recall any major issues we have suffered regarding its stability.

The product has radically improved our setup and processing efficiency and has enabled us to offer clients options and turnaround schedules that would not have been possible previously. We have completed tasks of wide-ranging scales and complexities with a highly impressive performance from Inspire, including recently the two largest volume campaigns the business had ever been involved with. From what we've seen, there is still plenty of scope for growth and no consideration in looking for other solutions.

As we have widened our usage of Inspire, we have obviously been presented with more challenges that we have not faced before. The inherent help system is quite good, but I find it sometimes does not provide what I'm looking for clearly. However, the online support has proved invaluable many times with very helpful users not only on hand to expertly solve our problems, but occasionally even prepared to construct and supply example workflows guiding us through the process.

The previous tool we used was much too cumbersome to use and seemed not to be efficient in helping us meet our clients' requirements promptly and effectively. Processing times also proved to be a problem, especially when we began to appreciate the power of Inspire.

Given that this was a significant change in what we were doing then, it was inevitable that there would be a challenging period of transition. Thanks in part to the intuitive structure of the product itself, and also to the help we received from the provider, this process went much more smoothly than might have been expected. It is only to be expected that complexity will increase with time as we appreciate what the solution is capable of and that in turn will improve the level of service to our clients.

We had on-site support to help us with the implementation process as this was something we were completely new to. From my own experience, and in discussing with my colleagues, it is clear that we were collectively impressed with the expertise and assistance we received as we came to terms with the new system. We were able to make the transition surprisingly quickly and efficiently.

That is information that I'm not in a position to know within our organisation.

I am not privy to the costing and licensing details, but I have been made aware that due to the vastly improved performance and efficiency compared to previous methods, the product would effectively have returned its investment in a very short time and that the management of the business was delighted with it thus far.

I was not formally a part of the selection process, but I understand that more than one option was considered due to the limitations of our existing package.

From my own personal use of Inspire, I can wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone considering it as a solution for their business in the right circumstances. Although it is quite daunting to take on something as radical as this, the scope and power of what can be done makes it highly adaptable and effective.

• Replacing nine legacy composition tools with a single tool
• Streamlining customer solutions and enhancing customer's channel options
• Creating highly personalised communications.

Inspire has allowed us to provide better solutions to customer and reduce overheads of single-skilled resources. Timeframes to deliver solutions are greatly reduced.

• Single tool for both data and composition handling
• Multiple options in approach and dynamic content inclusion make for great flexibility and benefits internally and externally.

Many of the features that are problematic in the version that we use (R10.4) are resolved in later releases (R12 is current). The one area that Quadient (historically) has been weak in is in the licensing and cost for some modules. Quadient are aware of this and are being proactive in improving this aspect. They have a great roadmap and understanding of the ever-evolving CCM industry, actively seeking out feedback from users and insights on how they can continuously improve the product.

The stability is great for the core product, and following a standardised coding process will enable error logging for debugging and production support.

The scalability of the solution is solid; it requires an organisation to be flexible with resource allocation, understanding of peak times, and potential overheads created by poor execution of coding/deployment.

I've always found the customer service/technical support to be excellent. Folks are willing to provide support and go the extra mile to assist if the knowledge is not known directly.

xPression (and other platforms). The switch to Inspire was driven by reducing overheads in multiple legacy platforms, many of which were required to support a single function of a multi-function solution. The Inspire single solution was by far a better option.

Setup was complex from an internal perspective given disparates of legacy platforms and taking a 'like-for-like' approach to migration. Also, not taking the advice of the vendor contributed to complexity.

A mixture of both, vendor supplied a large team from differing locales. Knowledge was excellent from the core vendor team.

The reduction in legacy platforms and costs associated with licensing and resourcing has contributed positively to ROI.

The licensing and setup costs historically have been a roadblock, but there have been improvements on this over the years as things move into the cloud. The cost vs benefits argument often leads businesses to go with the 'cheaper' option that ends in buyer's remorse.

The business looked at other options including PReS but chose GMC Inspire.

Would suggest that having a talk with Quadient and actual users of the product is the best way to go when making a decision, and understanding longer-term benefits when factoring in costs.