TIBCO Spotfire Reviews

• Data engine: numerous methods to load load, transform, and merge data from every major data source.
• Web player: out of the box ability to share analysis through web browser. Advanced web functionality to customize with portals.
• Analytics: basic stats functionality out of the box and ability to connect to all major analytics vendors/languages (SAS, MatLab, R, etc.).
• Visualizations: equally suited for data discovery and reports.

• Tibco Spotfire analysts from building Excel and PowerPoint reports and allows them to start analyzing information.
• Standardizes metrics and flow of information within organizations.
• Simple enough for non-tech users to use, but powerful enough for power users to produce advanced analytics.

• Integration with a custom web portal is still challenging.
• Version control should be included to aide development processes.
• Further the out-of-the-box ability to customize visualizations.

I've been using it for over five years, starting with v3.

Initial deployments are normally issue-free. Spotfire supports numerous data sources, authentication methods, load balancers, and other IT environment configurations. Spotfire v7.5+ is a significant change in architecture and will require a different configuration and additional admin training.

Upgrades normally require minor adjustments to some Spotfire analyses. There are Spotfire tools to assess differences between files in each version and the change in performance.

The most common issue is insufficient resources on host servers or laptops. Most other issues arise from custom applications integrating with new versions of Spotfire.

I’ve worked with deployments and upgrades at small organizations and all the way up to 20,000+ user organizations. Spotfire can be scaledeasily, but requires planning and is dependent on the underlying technology (as with any software).

Improved dramatically in recent years with rapid releases of updated versions.

Professional and timely support. The Spotfire upgrade roadmap is a bit opaque though.

Previously I have used Tableau, Business Object, SAS JMP, MiniTab and Excel. Spotfire is most commonly compared against Tableau, Qlik and MicroStrategy. Spotfire is typically selected for its data engine, web player and advanced analytics capabilities.

It's generally straightforward except for when custom applications, e.g. in-house developed software, are to be configured with Spotfire.

Usually large scale implementations are done by a vendor, but small scale deployments are possible with an internal team. Beyond the basic requirements, the key is to understand scalability needs, community use cases, authentication needs, and data architecture needs. Upgrades can be handled in-house.

ROI can be measured by how much time is saved by your analysts no longer needing to build reports. Typically, a core group of users build the Spotfire templates and everyone else in the organization analyzes information in the templates. Other than upkeep, once a template is built in Spotfire, your organization can analyze information and take action. Also, the time and sanity saved in no longer sharing PowerPoint slides or Excel spreadsheets throughout the organization can be priceless.

ROI can also be measured by the fact that Spotfire can integrate with existing IT infrastructure and existing IT expertise. Eg. Spotfire can make use of your existing SAS environment to apply SAS models and SAS expertise to data in Spotfire (which is then visualized).

I recommend training a core group of analysts to build your Spotfire templates. The rest of your organization can use the less expensive Web Player licenses to analyze the data through their web browser.

I also recommend the Spotfire Automation Services component. It allows Spotfire to automate certain tasks like loading data at defined times, sending automated emails, sending alerts, etc.

The best features are its malleability; it can be manipulated using IronPython, JavaScript, HTML/CSS & jQuery, etc.

It is being used in a number of ways within the organisation, from internal financial analysis to products and services we sell to our clients.

I have used it for ~18 months.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

I have not had to use technical support that much, save for when I first started learning the software. The service I got then was very good/positive.

We have used a number of solutions (as the product is used in many areas of the company). In my previous role, we replaced Cognos with Spotfire and the benefits were plentiful, including but not limited to:

• Improved types of reporting/visualisations
• Significantly more malleable than Cognos
• Advanced analysis features

I believe the admin/installation was not as straightforward as other software. However, I wasn’t directly involved in that.

Many other software products were reviewed; the decision to proceed with Spotfire was made at executive level.

Find experts in Spotfire; perhaps get some consultancy to fast-track your knowledge. We are lucky enough to have internal expertise to fulfill that requirement.

• Embedded R scripts
• Mapserver

These features are key to separating BI tools from ETL tools. RDMS have ETL tools that run the transfer protocol. Some BI tools in the oil and gas industry have ETL features that take the place of accessing the database directly. In the big data ecosystem, the data cleansing process takes place before ETL processes are run to integrate the data. On the other hand, in RDMS, the data cleansing takes place after the data has been imported from disparate system into the database.

I used it in an academic setting as a resource to learn R scripting. I have found it an easy API to learn.

I encourage a seamless integration with Hadoop; a direct connection to Hadoop server from a session in Spotfire. This might exist for the Spotfire server connectivity, but I do not work with the server version.

I have infrequently used it for two years.

I have not encountered any stability issues.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

I haven't used technical support.

I have used several BI tools and still maintain this diversity in product usage.

Initial setup was somewhat complex on the client’s system. I am not familiar with the server installation.

It is economical to consider desktop client usage when possible.

I also use QlkView, Tableau and MicroStrategy.

Consider how you intend to use the product before investing in functionality that you might not need.

The ability to create different types of analyses with ease is the product’s most valuable feature.

It gave business insights by exploring their data.

Exporting to Excel, PDF, and PowerPoint should be easier.

I have used it for five years.

The server can become overloaded and cause it to crash.

I have not encountered any scalability issues.

Tibco is always helpful with problems.

I did not previously use a different solution.

The inital setup can be complex if you have to install and configure the server.

Spotfire might be expensive, but it brings many tools to the table.

TIBCO Spotfire can connect to many different data sources in order to acquire data, from many vendors such as SAP, Oracle, IBM, or even just local files.

It can work with data using in memory mode, this makes the loading process faster.

It is easy to customize, and extendable with custom functions.

A very useful API is provided in order to integrate it easily with any web application.

The developing and runtime environment are very stable. The TIBCO Spotfire architecture environment is not complex. However, not all the runtime components are multiplatform. To be exact, the component whose purpose is to render the data in a web browser can be installed only on Microsoft machines. This is a very big limitation from this point of view.

The first approach was in 2010. I have used TIBCO Spotfire in four or five different projects as of 2016.

The TIBCO Spotfire product is really stable. No relevant issues have been encountered.

Most of the time the TIBCO Spotfire dashboard is used by business users. It was very common for them to notify us regarding weird behavior in business data patterns that was always ending with a discovery of bugs on the backend applications.

Technical support was always very good and fast. Always leading to a resolution of the problem immediately.

Together with TIBCO, my previous company was a partner of SAS. Recently, SAS provided a BAM and BI solution, but personally I have found it not comparable to Spotfire: huge memory consumption, no API available, not customizable.

The initial setup is quite easy, a few steps to perform before the application is ready.

A little bit more complex is the configuration of SSO, but the documentation is covering all the scenarios in a very clear way.

Implementation with TIBCO Spotfire consists basically of understanding the business requirements, and transforming them into readable dashboards and diagrams. Most of the time, in my case, implementation was made by a one-man team.

TIBCO Spotfire is a new challenge, very different from any typical implementation a developer used to do. Most of the time, it consists of understanding the data. Very often, that requires direct contact with the business department of the customer.

• It has the best types of visualisations.
• We can do lot of scripting for better analysis.

I am giving an answer that considers one scenario. For example, we have health care client. They need their standards as high as possible all the time. For that reason, they want to know their drug risk level calculation for every time zone throughout the world. I developed one dashboard that can show them their drug risk level and calculate new risks, etc., whenever they required.

Room for improvement is in comparison with another tools. I need to see more options that do not require scripting in the tool, and I need more enhancements on the statistical server side. The reason is that for some every-day, simple things that are directly available as options in other tools, we need to script them in Spotfire.

I have been using this solution for the past two-and-a-half years.

I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

Technical support is really good. For every TIBCO product, there is a community where we can post our questions and get answers from experts from throughout the world.

I worked for three months on Cognos. Compared to it, Spotfire is easy to learn and we can develop wonderful visualisations.

In Cognos, it took too much time to run the reports. In Spotfire, it takes a lot less time.

The server setup and all remaining installations are very easy. There are many sources in Google to get solutions for our queries and also many docs exist from TIBCO.

I have implemented everything on my office machine. I would like to suggest that if we are not able to provide the exact solution for a user’s needs, then we have many options in this tool to provide the best solution.

Those who are willing to make analytics easier with better understanding, this is the best tool and it is the easiest tool to learn quickly.

The most valuable features of this product, for me, are:

• Applying transformations to data tables: With these transformations, I can make the structure of the data most suitable for answering the user's questions with the visualisations.
• The visualisations: They look very good, are easy to use and can answer almost any business question.

I would like to see the improvements in the following areas:

• The info designer feature: The user interface could be more graphical, it would make it more user friendly and flexible.
• The transformations and insertions of rows and columns: Tables can be created by using transformations and inserting rows and columns. I would like to have more ability to make changes to these transformation and insertions without having to recreate the complete table from scratch.

I have used this solution for three years.

I did not encounter any issues with deployment.

I rate technical support 9/10 (very quick and good response, good level of knowledge).

I previously used IBM Cognos products also as a consultant. I choose Cognos because I thought (and still think) that Cognos is a good product.

I am no real technical consultant, but I found the initial setup pretty straightforward. After installing the software, no enormous or complex configuration is needed.

We implement for our customers and also for customers of TIBCO.

Start small but think big. When you start using the product - regarding setting up authorisation and setting up the library, for instance - work structured and with a kind of policy that is scalable and flexible regarding maintenance.

• Easy data transformations before loading data into Spotfire e.g., pivoting, unpivoting, etc.
• Simplicity of customizing data expressions

Better UX/UI design to make the product look “sexier”. It’s somewhat difficult to add formatting to Spotfire dashboards to make them look nice (e.g. coloring backgrounds of charts, adding floating texts, etc.). This is a bit easier and more customizable in Tableau, and even more customizable in MicroStrategy.

I have been using it for two years.

I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

Personally, I have never had to use technical support.

I was not involved in the evaluation.

Compared to Tableau, it is much more powerful in terms of statistics and analytics, but Tableau is more popular, so there is more support for it online. Spotfire is easier to use for an advanced user, while Tableau is easier to use for a beginner user.