This is the next post in our pursuit of an Amazon Automation tool.
As mentioned in our prior post, during a build or buy assessment, there were two platforms reviewed for the "buy" side of the analysis; Openbridge and Saras Analytics Daton. See our review of Saras Analytics Daton.
During the evaluation, Openbridge released a new user interface for their SaaS data app. This caused us to have to redo our review given the new app was a big change from the old version. To put a finer point on the update, the new user interface was a significant improvement over the last version, for beginners and pros alike. While the old interface was clunky, the new one is simple, clean, and modern, with a "darker" theme which was a pleasant surprise. Setup was simple, guided, and without incident.
Unlike Saras, when asked Openbridge confirmed they only use official, approved Amazon APIs. No bots. This makes sense since they are a verified Amazon Selling Partner and Amazon Advertising developer. They even shared a "bot free promise" that highlights the integration philosophy they follow.
There is some data that Amazon does not make available via API, which means Openbridge will not offer it. Saras on the other hand uses bots, which allows them to screen scrape data from your account for these reports. Our guess is Saras made the decision to use bots to deliver access to data not available from Amazon's API given most customers would be unaware of the risks. Not very transparent.
Openbridge has been certified by Amazon for PII data, which reinforces the commitment to following Amazon's best practices. Saras Analytics Daton use of bots indicates a willingness to provide data not yet officially available via API. The desire to go beyond the API is a violation of the spirit and letter of the terms of service. It is not clear why Saras would take such commercial risks given Saras is not certified by Amazon and likely will not be if they continue to bypass Amazon terms with bots.
Overall, Openbridge produced consistent and reliable outputs. We used Snowflake, BigQuery, and Amazon Athena; all worked without incident. This is likely the result of each connector being uniquely pre-modeled to the best practices of the Amazon API, which means there is little configuration expected of the user. For example, Openbridge does not allow a user to configure an invalid schedule like Daton does. They simplified most of the process to simply selecting a source and they pointing it to a private destination.
As a team, they seem deeply rooted in the Amazon ecosystem, which was good to know. Amazon can be complex, so having a platform and data engineering expertise at hand is a plus. They do not offer any reporting templates or dashboards for tools like Tableau or Power BI. More on that in a bit.
Different from other platforms we have investigated was the new Openbridge pricing. The pricing is completely usage-based. Usage is based on how many accounts you want to collect data from. This makes predicting costs over the course of a year simple. There are no row costs, just total your accounts and connectors to know the costs. Also, they allow you to turn something off, which means you no longer incur usage charges. The finance team loves the ability to forecast a price with certainty for the fiscal year, so this is a plus.
Both Saras Analytics Daton and Openbridge offer solutions for Sellers and Vendors. Openbridge does not offer any BI or reports, just the "ETL" of data to a destination. They detail why in this support doc Analytics-Ready: Freedom to Connect Your Data Tools. However, Openbridge brings the proper balance of function of performance, cost, security, and reliability. Their commitment to adhering to the letter of their Amazon partner agreements makes them the right decision for Amazon automation efforts.
