Windward vs. Ecrion: Which Suits Your DocGen Needs The Most?

Windward and Ecrion are two major document automation solution providers that aim to make your document automation process even easier. Both cater to clients across various verticals with their own set of functionalities. Though Windward and Ecrion do have a lot in common, there are important differences between the two that make them better for different use cases.

While Ecrion lets you build templates only in Ecrion Editor, Windward endows you the capability to create templates in MS Office. This is easily the most significant difference between the two.

Here, we have compiled a comparison report of Windward and Ecrion so that you can make the most informed decision for your document automation needs.

Windward vs. Ecrion – A Detailed Comparison Report

1. Designing Templates

When it comes to building templates with Ecrion, it has a very intuitive template designer. Anything you want to have on your template—be it images, barcodes, charts, stylesheets, etc., all you need to do is drag and drop them from the datasource pane. Ecrion will incorporate it on your template quickly. Besides, it supports an array of datasources that you can leverage seamlessly for generating actionable reports.

Windward also offers all these features. But the only difference is Ecrion requires you to install its Publisher to utilize the above functionalities. In contrast, Windward comes as an add-in to your already-installed MS Office and enables you to operate effortlessly within a familiar environment, which is something huge you need to get hands-on with the new software.

2. Analyst

Let's say you have a number of transactions listed on a single document. Now, you want to sort these transactions by date or amount. Ecrion lets you do it in a fraction of the second with its Analyst. Hence, you can have valuable insights for your customers and design essential strategies. This is a peculiar functionality of Ecrion, which you would miss with other document generation tools.

3. Query Wizard

The foremost thing that you will require while creating your templates is writing queries to select the data. So, some of the leading document automation software comes with a Query Wizard, which lets you and your team build templates within no time.

Unfortunately, Ecrion does not come with any Query Wizard; thus, building templates is solely a developer’s task. But luckily, that’s not the case with Windward! It has got Query Wizards for SQL, Xpath, JSON, OData, and Salesforce. Thus, it makes it easy for business users as well as developers, to design templates. Moreover, it supports 'no code behind,' i.e., all you need to do is drag and drop your data fields, and Windward will automatically generate queries. With Ecrion, you do need to insert code for mapping data fields.

4. Document Locking

Legal documents require being compliant to the standards of the organization. So, it is essential to prevent unauthorized access or modifications by any user. With Windward, you have the ability of document locking, giving you the key to reducing legal liability. Ecrion doesn’t have the same feature.

5. Validation, Error & Warning Handling

Determining errors and warning before finalizing any document is of utmost importance. Windward excels its offerings by validating your templates, listing errors and warnings on test generation, and even by handling runtime errors. You don't need to waste your time looking out for a mistake.  On the contrary, Ecrion has no such functionality.

Windward vs. Ecrion At A Glance

Summing Up

Ecrion and Windward both empower businesses to create templates with no programming knowledge necessary. Moreover, they support multiple datasources to help you create the most stunning documents. However, Ecrion has certain limitations to its documentation and tutorial parts, making it difficult for beginners to learn about the product. On the other hand, Windward has so much to tell about its product, features, and functionalities; hence, anyone can get familiar with the tool.

One major drawback with Ecrion is that you can create templates only in the Word Processor that Ecrion offers, which is not the case with Windward. Nevertheless, if this is something you are ready to overlook, Ecrion and Windward are the best document automation tools.

You can dig deeper and gain more knowledge about Windward and Ecrion from their detailed reviews.

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