SSIS Finance and Insurance Reviews & Insights

Score6.5 out of 10

259 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for SQL Server Integration Services are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Efficient Data Synchronization: Users have consistently praised SSIS for its ability to efficiently manage small-scale data synchronization tasks, enhancing productivity in data workflows. The tool's streamlined approach to syncing data has been noted as a time-saving benefit by many reviewers.

Rapid Data Transfer to SQL Server: Several reviewers have highlighted the tool's swift data transfer capabilities to SQL Server, particularly emphasizing its efficient handling of batch processes. This quick data movement feature not only accelerates tasks but also contributes to smoother operations within databases.

Real-Time Message-Based Functionality: Users highly value SSIS for its real-time message-based features and seamless integration with SQL Server and Visual Studio, facilitating agile data processing. The system's agility in handling real-time messages has been commended for improving responsiveness and connectivity across platforms.

SSIS Reviews

6 Reviews

Finance and InsuranceInsurance3Financial Services2Investment Management1

SSIS, free but not intuitive

Rating: 6 out of 10

Incentivized

June 23, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SQL Server Integration Services is an extremely powerful tool that we're using exclusively for SQL Server inventory and other jobs. While it is very powerful, it's also not exactly intuitive in my opinion. I had not used this before my current job, and it was already setup when I joined. I've had to edit some of those jobs a handful of times and I just have not yet been able to make it 'click' in how it works. I seem to think oppositely of how this was designed (potentially just the jobs I've had to interact with), but almost everything is counter-intuitive.

Pros

Runs flawlessly after setup properly
Powerful, as mentioned
Free

Cons

Confusing operation, even with its gui
Requires special install and setup
Requires the Visual studio integration services install (separate interface from SSMS)
Could be more easily integrated into SSMS, but may also be used for other products that I'm not aware of

Likelihood to Recommend

I'd give it a 6 because it's very useful functionality that isn't available elsewhere. My preference would be to use python or some other scripting to do the same thing where it makes sense to me, instead of how it forces you to think in a specific way.

GUI is nice and it's very cool to see your project actually running in real time.

Sean Ford

Database Engineer in Information Technology at Shelter Insurance (Insurance, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

SSIS fits perfectly in Microsoft environments

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 15, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SSIS is our main ETL tool since we are mostly a SQL Server shop. We use it to integrate data into all of our reporting environments, transforming and massaging data dynamically and connecting to many various sources along the way. It is also a quick way to move data out of other Microsoft environments such as Excel and Access Database.

Pros

Transform data
Issue Logging
Event Notification

Cons

Needs more connections to environments such as Hyperion
Not as robust as Informatica
No built in metadata management

Likelihood to Recommend

When dealing with Microsoft environments, it is the tool that is easiest to use and implement. When it comes to connecting to Oracle Hyperion or pushing data to non Microsoft environments there can be challenges.

SSIS allows for quick implementations where the flow and environment is not too complex or large.

Samir Patel, PMP

SQL Development Team Lead in Information Technology at Allianz Asset Management (Investment Management, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

9 years of experience

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SSIS- Mundane but Dependable

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

June 3, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SSIS is utilized as a systems and data integration tool, and for performing a variety of ETL tasks. It is utilized by the IT department to support business applications, particularly where two or more systems require data exchange. It is a mature product (stable and reliable) and comes as part of standard SQL Server implementations so its fairly simple to utilize.

Pros

SSIS Integrates very well with other Microsoft products including Excel and Access. Other ETL tools may have a difficult time integrating with Access, so we have observed SSIS to be superior in this regard.
SSIS has the capacity to do a fast bulk load (BCP) with transformations, within the bulk load itself. This feature is not available when utilizing the BCP utility outside of SSIS or from other ETL tools. To be clear, the transformation is occurring within the BCP component itself. Other ETL tools will have to utilize a non-BCP load (slower) or do the ETL after the load. This is a great feature I have not seen replicated in other tools.
SSIS integrates seamlessly with SQL Server RDBMS, including SQL Jobs and Stored Procedures.
SSIS has nice support, tools, and wizards for fixed length file processing.

Cons

SSIS IDE (SQL BIDS) is lacking, particularly when compared to Visual Studio for .NET development. It was carried over (at least in look and feel) from the legacy DTS tool. It could use a complete redesign from scratch. Considering how superior the VS .NET IDE is, the inferior SSIS BIDS IDE is unacceptable.
SSIS is very Microsoft centric. This is a strength when dealing with pure MS technologies, but becomes a weakness when dealing with disparate, distributed systems, including cloud computing. Other ETL tools for example easily integrate with everything from AWS to Google Drive to Sales Force.
SSIS deployment model is clunky and non-intuitive.

Likelihood to Recommend

SSIS is best suited for use in a pure Microsoft environment, or where interfaces to external systems are file based. It is not ideal for integration into disparate systems that are not interfaced via flat file. SSIS is also ideal when utilizing the job scheduler built into SQL Server, as it is seamlessly integrated with SSIS. In other words, it's very easy to schedule an SSIS package to run automated using the SQL job scheduler. Running SSIS packages from other job schedulers is more problematic, unless that tool has built in SSIS support.

Eugene LaRoche

.NET Team Lead in Information Technology at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group (Insurance, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

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SSIS - A great ETL solution!

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

April 28, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SSIS is used by a lot of people within our technology department, but it is used heavily by our developers. We utilize this tool to move data between servers as an alternative to using a linked server and also to migrate data into our production systems from third party databases.

Pros

We use SSIS as a tool to help convert and migrate data from third party systems into our internally developed CRM system.
We use SSIS to move data from server to server, where a linked server is not present.
SSIS allows us to import tables directly from other sources (Access, Excel, etc.) to our Microsoft SQL environments.
SSIS is utilized to export data from our SQL servers into Access database backups for our clients who request backups of their data.

Cons

Although it's better than the old DTS, I think some more default integrated data sources/targets would be beneficial.
Integration with MySQL would be great. Currently we have to use Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for MYSQL to get this done. If this was integrated into SSIS, it would alleviate the need for the other program.

Likelihood to Recommend

SSIS is great for ETL projects, for exporting/importing data into MS SQL, and for moving data between servers. It's an excellent tool for those types of projects and scenarios.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (Financial Services company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

SSIS is ETL's best buddy for skilled SQL Developers

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 23, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SSIS is a powerful tool to perform various ETL-like functions between homogenous and heterogeneous sources of data. It was widely used in all organizations I worked since it provides an easy way to create data transformations.

Pros

Easy connection configuration
Powerful wizard for data mapping
Native exception handling
User-friendly interface
Easy to learn
Package can be deployed via Visual Studio

Cons

Requires programming experience for custom tasks
Shell version of VS used for SSIS package development doesn't support C# as scripting language (needs at least professional edition)
Some tasks are hard to debug, aren't they?

Likelihood to Recommend

I definitely recommend it. The only thing is that you have to be skilled to design a good package architecture otherwise support may be hard especially during migrations to the newer versions of SSIS engine (had that problem in the past).

Elena Goryainova

DBA in Information Technology at Florida Family Insurance (Insurance, 51-200 employees)

Vetted Review

9 years of experience

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The Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

October 30, 2015

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is been used in the entire department to support enterprise analytics and reporting

Pros

User friendly
Compatible with windows
Cheap and good for mid size companies

Cons

Needs to be capable to hold large data

Likelihood to Recommend

How large is my data and how much can my company spend.

Shrikanth Mahale

Senior Portfolio Analyst in Information Technology at Caliber Home Loans (Financial Services, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

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SSIS- Mundane but Dependable

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

June 3, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

SSIS Integrates very well with other Microsoft products including Excel and Access. Other ETL tools may have a difficult time integrating with Access, so we have observed SSIS to be superior in this regard.
SSIS has the capacity to do a fast bulk load (BCP) with transformations, within the bulk load itself. This feature is not available when utilizing the BCP utility outside of SSIS or from other ETL tools. To be clear, the transformation is occurring within the BCP component itself. Other ETL tools will have to utilize a non-BCP load (slower) or do the ETL after the load. This is a great feature I have not seen replicated in other tools.
SSIS integrates seamlessly with SQL Server RDBMS, including SQL Jobs and Stored Procedures.
SSIS has nice support, tools, and wizards for fixed length file processing.

Cons

SSIS IDE (SQL BIDS) is lacking, particularly when compared to Visual Studio for .NET development. It was carried over (at least in look and feel) from the legacy DTS tool. It could use a complete redesign from scratch. Considering how superior the VS .NET IDE is, the inferior SSIS BIDS IDE is unacceptable.
SSIS is very Microsoft centric. This is a strength when dealing with pure MS technologies, but becomes a weakness when dealing with disparate, distributed systems, including cloud computing. Other ETL tools for example easily integrate with everything from AWS to Google Drive to Sales Force.
SSIS deployment model is clunky and non-intuitive.

Likelihood to Recommend

Eugene LaRoche

.NET Team Lead in Information Technology at Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Group (Insurance, 201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

7 years of experience

View profile