SolarWinds Task Factory

RATING:

4.6

(37)

About SolarWinds Task Factory

Task Factory is an on-premise and cloud-based data integration tool, which offers various SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) components for businesses to enhance data warehouse management and extract, transform, load (ETL) processes. The File Gateway Source enables professionals to verify text files by separating valid/invalid rows and creating rules. Task Factory allows organizations to encrypt, decrypt, sign, verify, compress and decompress sent or received files. The SSIS Email Source Adapter filters emails based on sender, date, body, subject and priority, among other elements. Additionally, the Excel Source helps professionals connect with existing files and extract data according to requirements. Task Factory lets businesses extract data and connect to sever...

SolarWinds Task Factory Pricing

$1,245.00 per license, per server plus $359/year required maintenance fee

Starting price: 

$1,245.00 per year

Free trial: 

Available

Free version: 

Not Available

SolarWinds Task Factory Data Flow Nugget Transform
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SolarWinds Task Factory Reviews

Overall Rating

4.6

Ratings Breakdown

Secondary Ratings

Ease-of-use

4.5

Customer Support

4.5

Value for money

4.5

Functionality

4.5

Most Helpful Reviews for SolarWinds Task Factory

1 - 5 of 37 Reviews

User Profile

Jennyfer

Verified reviewer

Construction, 1,001-5,000 employees

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed November 2017

I frequently use Task Factory in the SSIS package I create for integration between system.

I am able to solve problems in a single SSIS package vs using SSIS and Linux scripts.

PROS

Task Factory really expands the types of tasks that are available in SSIS. We have used Secure FTP Task, PGP task, and Advanced Email to accomplish complex scenarios that we had to use custom scripts to accomplish before. This is helping us reduce our footprint because we are phasing out a Linux server we have that used to encrypt and move files back and forth between secure FTP sites. We are able to replace everything this Linux server was doing with script with a single SSIS package thanks to the Task Factory tasks. I especially like the "TF Error Output Description" and have used it many times in troubleshoot failures. I don't know what I did before this feature! There are so many more features that Task Factory has that I'm excited to explore. When I have a problem I'm trying to solve in SSIS, my new attitude is "I bet Task Factory can do that!"

CONS

Sometimes I have trouble finding which feature will accomplish what I need. For example, I needed to have a unique number generated for each row in a flow but use the last number as the new starting number. After some investigation I found that I can easily accomplish that with the "Surrogate Key Transform" it just took me a while to figure out that was the task I needed.

Jason

Information Technology and Services, 51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

5

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

5

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2017

As a heavy user of SSIS I have found Task Factory to be an essential add-on.

Enables me to implement a work load that would of taken much longer or required more developers.

PROS

Massively reduces development time. Reduces complexity of package design thus making packages easier to maintain. Replaces many script tasks jobs for which you would have to write substantial code. My favourite components are the Update/Upsert Tasks as they remove the need for writing a lot of SQL plumbing code.

CONS

None

Vendor Response

Thank you for the feedback, Jason. We really appreciate it. On the item you mention on Visual Studio upgrades, please note that the Visual Studio SSIS toolbox doesn't read it's information from the GAC, it uses folders under [YourSQLServerInstallFolder]\[version]\DTS. The Task Factory installer installs into this folder if it exists, but if you upgrade the version of SSIS installed, you need to reinstall TF afterward to ensure it puts the components in the newly created SSIS folders.

Replied September 2017

Floris Jan

Information Technology and Services, 11-50 employees

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

3

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

4

FUNCTIONALITY

5

Reviewed August 2017

With Task Factory we implemented the integration with Salesforce and other systems quick and easy.

PROS

The software is easy to use and has a lot of features. When creating SSIS flows, sometimes I am surprised to learn about a feature I didn't use before.

CONS

Sometimes the software 'thinks' a little bit too much. Changes in upstream columns trigger the automatic column matching process. Sometimes this breaks existing functionality.

Jason

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

5

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2017

Task Factory components have simplified and accelerated my SSIS development time

PROS

the components provide easier solutions for what I used to have to build based off the out of the box SSIS components or in a Script Task. The #1 benefit of Task Factory is time savings. I started using Task Factory about 7 years ago when it was version 1.x and they are of such value that I would not work for a company as an SSIS developer if they would not purchase BIxPress and Task Factory.

CONS

I have always been frustrated by the minimalist documentation for the components. This applies to all Pragmatic Works software actually. There are either no real world examples or just one. This is unfortunate because the Task Factory components are usually pretty powerful and feature rich. The documentation is usually along the lines of telling you what each tab or check box or drop down list in the component does but rarely how that component would fit into a larger data flow or control flow to accomplish a common business need. As much as I love Pragmatic Works I would say this is the #1 room for improvement.

Michael

Telecommunications, 10,000+ employees

Used daily for less than 12 months

Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.

OVERALL RATING:

4

EASE OF USE

4

VALUE FOR MONEY

4

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

5

FUNCTIONALITY

4

Reviewed August 2017

It gets the data I need from Salesforce. One of my peers is using it to do Secure FTP.

Am able to automate the loading of Salesforce Data

PROS

It works. I get the data I need using tools I am familiar with. Great Customer Service. The Secure FTP option did not work in the first version we installed. There was a patch released which fixed the problem. Once we installed the upgrade, everything worked as expected.

CONS

Not necessarily a problem with Task Factory, more a problem with SSIS. SQL Server converts certain fields to Boolean or Bit. These are not valid in Oracle. Also, using CHAR instead of VARCHAR is undesirable. We are an Oracle shop so this can be frustrating. SSIS data convert is not friendly so doing a conversion on a table with 600 columns requires too much effort. Some of the fields can be adjusted in the advanced editor but it sometimes forgets the settings if changes are made. Easiest method is to load data into a SQL Server table and then use CAST statements to convert the data for Oracle. A little bit of workaround but it can be done.