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Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressions
By Andrew Pollack on 04/09/2009 at 04:28 PM EDTFollowing up from Lotusphere 2009, the folks over at Ytria have gone out of their way to make sure I could take a look at their tools. The demo was extremely impressive at Lotusphere and I've been very remiss in not taking advantage of the chance to try them out. Since the software version I run is almost always some kind of pre-beta or beta, I'm pretty cautious about installing any add-on tools -- that plus lack of time have really delayed me looking at this.
The suite consists of tools to manage many aspects of databases from access controls to view column formulas. I think it really shines if you're doing design work on many views and need to change column properties and colors across the board. It's also really nice to have instant access to design element information, acl settings, agent listings, and other design properties without having to launch designer to go looking for them.
Here's some first impressions:
1. Installation was easy, including accessing and installing the license keys. I did have a few quirks, but they're related to this beta software I'm using (not Ytria's) so I discount that as an issue.
2. Ease of use -- it doesn't take look to figure out the "zen" of the tools. Where you would want to click that icon and go to Ytria versus launching designer.
3. The UI, as an ADD-IN task, is non-modal. Meaning you can toggle back to your Notes client while its open.
4. It is expensive -- Probably that's the only negative I've run across so far. Still, if you live in your designer environment, the time savings could be well worth it.
Overall:
I'll need to live with it installed for a while. After a few weeks, I'll know if its something I turn to frequently or not. I'll let you know.
Try it your self here:
http://www.ytria.com
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Karl-Henry Martinsson on 04/09/2009 at 06:11 PM EDT
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Rob McDonagh on 04/09/2009 at 06:18 PM EDT
I agree that they're powerful. I also agree that they're expensive. Barring a
free license for writing a positive review (this is not something I have done,
I am throwing out a mere possibility), I wouldn't buy the whole suite.
Managing views so simply is really the killer feature. I don't find the other
aspects of the suite compelling enough to justify their price.
I also second the endorsement of MartinScott's NoteMan. I've been using it for
several years, and I wouldn't give it up for the proverbial "love or money."
free license for writing a positive review (this is not something I have done,
I am throwing out a mere possibility), I wouldn't buy the whole suite.
Managing views so simply is really the killer feature. I don't find the other
aspects of the suite compelling enough to justify their price.
I also second the endorsement of MartinScott's NoteMan. I've been using it for
several years, and I wouldn't give it up for the proverbial "love or money."
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Declan Lynch on 04/09/2009 at 07:50 PM EDT
I think I make the most use out of ScanEZ. It is a life saver and time saver
rolled into one.
Recently we had a user who's milfile was acting funky, I opened it in ScanEZ
and found about 20 profiles documents called 'Untitled', a quick delete and the
user was back up and running. Without ScanEZ i wouldn't have even thought of
looking for something like this.
rolled into one.
Recently we had a user who's milfile was acting funky, I opened it in ScanEZ
and found about 20 profiles documents called 'Untitled', a quick delete and the
user was back up and running. Without ScanEZ i wouldn't have even thought of
looking for something like this.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Rob McDonagh on 04/09/2009 at 08:47 PM EDT
Sure, that's exactly what NoteMan would have done for me. ScanEZ is redundant
to me, but if you don't have NoteMan then it's definitely the most useful tool
in the suite.
to me, but if you don't have NoteMan then it's definitely the most useful tool
in the suite.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Tomas Hanus on 04/16/2009 at 10:37 AM EDT
Before purchasing Ytria I was using openNtf.org tools, that are based on Lotus
Notes database UIs. After few months I must admit, that their UI is main
disadvantage and limitation. Completely notes-independent UI is esential for me
to arrange view columns, actions, comparisons, etc. Big advantage is also a
non-blocking application, so I can use Lotus Notes while using scanEZ.
Notes database UIs. After few months I must admit, that their UI is main
disadvantage and limitation. Completely notes-independent UI is esential for me
to arrange view columns, actions, comparisons, etc. Big advantage is also a
non-blocking application, so I can use Lotus Notes while using scanEZ.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Marie Scott on 04/10/2009 at 10:20 AM EDT
We use scanEZ on a daily basis...it's an essential in our Admin toolbox.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Andre H on 04/14/2009 at 11:42 AM EDT
Hi Andrew, thanks for using the tools and reporting on your progress.
I work for Ytria and wanted to respond to the price question. This is not an
official response.
About price. The question is what are you comparing them to?
At this years Lotusphere I was focusing a lot on price. We were one of the only
vendors to have the actual price displayed in the product catalog and next to
it there was a chart. This chart can be found here: http://bit.ly/2rP5mU The
chart says that as a Domino Admin or Developer you will save 40% of your time
by using Ytria while investing 10% of time. This makes a net saving of 30% If
you consider this then you will see that the price is in fact not heavy at all.
Also some of the tools have capabilities to scan multiple servers (aclEZ,
signEZ, designPropEZ and agentEZ) but you don't need to license per server but
per user which means the tools are A LOT less expensive than other server based
tools.
Ytria gathered the time savings by research across our customer base but I
wanted to hear it with my own ears. So at Lotusphere I asked my customers how
much they save. I showed them the chart. There was not one of them who said
less then 30% net savings on Domino related tasks. Some long time users told me
that it is usually more than 50% a day. These users though are also the very
technical ones that have pre written tons of agents and have previously used
other (sometimes freeware) tools.
When you click on the link I provided earlier and you scroll right down you
will find a quote from a successful German Notes Consultant and his take on
price.
My last question. If you can save 30% of your time not once but in average
every day in a working week. What is it worth? You can a) either take on more
work or b) spend more quality time with family and friends.
Sorry for taking up all this space and we do appreciate you sharing your
thoughts.
I work for Ytria and wanted to respond to the price question. This is not an
official response.
About price. The question is what are you comparing them to?
At this years Lotusphere I was focusing a lot on price. We were one of the only
vendors to have the actual price displayed in the product catalog and next to
it there was a chart. This chart can be found here: http://bit.ly/2rP5mU The
chart says that as a Domino Admin or Developer you will save 40% of your time
by using Ytria while investing 10% of time. This makes a net saving of 30% If
you consider this then you will see that the price is in fact not heavy at all.
Also some of the tools have capabilities to scan multiple servers (aclEZ,
signEZ, designPropEZ and agentEZ) but you don't need to license per server but
per user which means the tools are A LOT less expensive than other server based
tools.
Ytria gathered the time savings by research across our customer base but I
wanted to hear it with my own ears. So at Lotusphere I asked my customers how
much they save. I showed them the chart. There was not one of them who said
less then 30% net savings on Domino related tasks. Some long time users told me
that it is usually more than 50% a day. These users though are also the very
technical ones that have pre written tons of agents and have previously used
other (sometimes freeware) tools.
When you click on the link I provided earlier and you scroll right down you
will find a quote from a successful German Notes Consultant and his take on
price.
My last question. If you can save 30% of your time not once but in average
every day in a working week. What is it worth? You can a) either take on more
work or b) spend more quality time with family and friends.
Sorry for taking up all this space and we do appreciate you sharing your
thoughts.
Here's what I mean....By Andrew Pollack on 04/15/2009 at 07:59 AM EDT
... Andre -- its a solid product, and I mean no disrespect when I say it's
expensive; so let me clarify.
I define it as expensive, because the price is high enough that I'd have to pry
my wallet open and commit to it rather than other things if I were to buy it.
I can't compare its cost to other products, because there aren't any other
products to compare it to.
Also -- from this perspective, my products are also expensive.
The question about VALUE is different. Is it worth spending the money on the
products?
I'm grateful to Andre and Ytria for giving me the opportunity to find out.
I've already made very good use of their tool to correct a replication conflict
problem. Oddly, I've had to deal with a significant conflict problem like this
only very rarely -- once in several years. In this case, I knew I was going to
have the problem because of the way I had to do something, but it was
definitely easier to deal with thanks to Ytria's tools.
I do know already that if I lived in designer all the time, doing a lot of
views, agents, and so on that lived across a wide range of corporate
applications -- then it would be absolutely worth it.
Over time, I'll be able to decide how much time I spend using it rather than
using Designer. Based on that, I'll be able to decide if the expense is
overwhelmingly justified based on the time savings or the frustration savings
the software provides.
expensive; so let me clarify.
I define it as expensive, because the price is high enough that I'd have to pry
my wallet open and commit to it rather than other things if I were to buy it.
I can't compare its cost to other products, because there aren't any other
products to compare it to.
Also -- from this perspective, my products are also expensive.
The question about VALUE is different. Is it worth spending the money on the
products?
I'm grateful to Andre and Ytria for giving me the opportunity to find out.
I've already made very good use of their tool to correct a replication conflict
problem. Oddly, I've had to deal with a significant conflict problem like this
only very rarely -- once in several years. In this case, I knew I was going to
have the problem because of the way I had to do something, but it was
definitely easier to deal with thanks to Ytria's tools.
I do know already that if I lived in designer all the time, doing a lot of
views, agents, and so on that lived across a wide range of corporate
applications -- then it would be absolutely worth it.
Over time, I'll be able to decide how much time I spend using it rather than
using Designer. Based on that, I'll be able to decide if the expense is
overwhelmingly justified based on the time savings or the frustration savings
the software provides.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Andre H on 04/16/2009 at 10:39 AM EDT
clarification: when i say user I mean Ytria users (as in developer or admin)
and not end user
and not end user
re: Here's what I mean....By francie on 04/27/2009 at 10:43 AM EDT
Andrew - AFAIK, there are no other products yet to which one can compare
ViewEZ, AgentEZ, ActionBarEZ. DXL design roundtripping in 8.5 means such tools
are now much easier to build without the API, but nothing is released yet.
However, ScanEZ compares directly to MartinScott NoteMan, as was referenced
above by two NoteMan users.
Now in the spirit of full disclosure, I work for MartinScott and actually, both
NoteMan and ScanEZ are toolbars which let you quickly find and/or change any
Domino data in 5 clicks, without writing an agent. Most customers are
primarily -- and often, only -- seeking this exact feature. For this use, we
hear from our customers that NoteMan is advantageous because it's simpler,
doesn't require any DLLs (works on any future version of Notes), works on rich
text, works natively on Win/Mac/Linux, processes multiple documents much
faster, and mostly because it costs less than half what ScanEZ costs.
Realistically, I tend to believe that most 3rd party products that sell
successfully have a valid use case for specific circumstances, so I encourage
anyone that's managed to read this far to evaluate and compare any 3rd party
products (http://www.martinscott.com/8525725E0063505E/ID/NMCompare) and take
advantage of any free trials.
ViewEZ, AgentEZ, ActionBarEZ. DXL design roundtripping in 8.5 means such tools
are now much easier to build without the API, but nothing is released yet.
However, ScanEZ compares directly to MartinScott NoteMan, as was referenced
above by two NoteMan users.
Now in the spirit of full disclosure, I work for MartinScott and actually, both
NoteMan and ScanEZ are toolbars which let you quickly find and/or change any
Domino data in 5 clicks, without writing an agent. Most customers are
primarily -- and often, only -- seeking this exact feature. For this use, we
hear from our customers that NoteMan is advantageous because it's simpler,
doesn't require any DLLs (works on any future version of Notes), works on rich
text, works natively on Win/Mac/Linux, processes multiple documents much
faster, and mostly because it costs less than half what ScanEZ costs.
Realistically, I tend to believe that most 3rd party products that sell
successfully have a valid use case for specific circumstances, so I encourage
anyone that's managed to read this far to evaluate and compare any 3rd party
products (http://www.martinscott.com/8525725E0063505E/ID/NMCompare) and take
advantage of any free trials.
re: Installed YTria EZSuite Today -- Finally; Here's some first impressionsBy Fabrice Langlois on 05/14/2009 at 01:48 PM EDT
I don't think the tools compare directly--they're apples and oranges. I've
tried both and found that scanEZ does quite a bit more...I managed to find this
link on their web site...
http://www.ytria.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPageRequest/scanEZLitevsFullen?OpenDocument&
Lang=en
tried both and found that scanEZ does quite a bit more...I managed to find this
link on their web site...
http://www.ytria.com/WebSite.nsf/WebPageRequest/scanEZLitevsFullen?OpenDocument&
Lang=en
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useful set of tools.
I complement my tool set with TeamStudio Snapper, Profiler and Configurator, as
well with the competent and relative inexpensive NoteMan Suite from MartinScott.
Each tool have it's strengths, and I use them for different things. I don't use
the Ytria tools every day, but when I do, they are a real timesaver!