Windward Core

Pros: Easy to start using
Very close to "you see, what you get"
You can work in office products , so it's a well known feel

Cons: The have a kind support, but mostly need access to the database to support a template. This can be very tedious as we don't want our database open. Thus we have to recreate the error in a new report, based on dummy data. This can be a long an tedious task if we don't know where the error is.

Overall: If I were to choose a tool for report creation in a Office tool, this would be my choice. The pro's long outway the con. We generate over 300 reports each month supporting many different variations.

Pros: We now get the documents we want. With Microsoft Office (we mostly use Word) as the template designer we can create visually stunning documents with exactly the layout we want. Windward (Office really) makes it incredibly simple to change complex design elements from layouts, effects, spacing, colors and more.

In addition the smart document logic makes it easy to incorporate our business logic right in the template. This functionality allows us to show or hide data based on specific conditions using logic built directly into the template.

Because our templates are designed in Office, our users already know how to design the templates they need. And because that is so easy, most template design work has been turned over to the business users. Not all, we still need to help at times, but most of it. This also means when someone needs a new report, they can create it immediately – no more waiting for someone in dev to do it.
I also love that there’s no longer any code that has to be written for a template. And I was able to embed Windward into our application in about 15 minutes.

Cons: I wish they had a document automation system. Windward makes designing and generating documents so easy – but that’s it. It would be nice if it then could be used to deliver the documents with a robust workflow system.

Aside from that – it's good. Windward is a well designed product.

Overall: Instead of having a group of programmers generating documents for the company and customers, each person can create his/her own templates on demand. Individual teams can create the templates that meet their requirements. This is a big savings, not just in lower cost but also quicker turn-around.

This has saved time and resources for us on a colossal scale, as we had issues with document creation (especially when it comes to automation). We now no longer have to do it manually.

And the #1 benefit is we now get the reports we want – exactly as we want them.