TIBCO Spotfire Reviews

• Best in class in visual and advanced analytics
• Enterprise scalability

• Massive process improvement and time savings in life science research, as well as clinical data analytics

Cloud infrastructure could be improved. The cloud market is rapidly evolving and TIBCO is at the forefront of development here. With Hadoop connectivity, there is also a link to data lake environments. I think that a turnkey offering with a smart data lake and analytics layer on top is where the market is heading.

I have used this for 15 years.

If you use recommended hardware sizing, you should not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

Technical support was excellent.

We did not previously use a different solution.

Initial setup was straightforward as you can start small and build the platform as you go.

You can choose between subscription and perpetual licenses based on your needs.

We did not evaluate alternatives.

I would recommend this product because it is intuitive with a fast learning curve and very powerful. In my opinion, it exceeds competitors' capabilities in enterprise scalability and advanced analytics support.

• Good data transformation tools.
• Excellent connectivity to different data sources.
• Good forecasting and statistical capabilities.
• Can be hosted or cloud based.

• It has enabled staff to easily create reports/dashboards without having to involve a developer in most cases.
• It has made it easier for users to create their own reusable visualizations/widgets.
• For more advanced users it facilitates better integration of the languages used (Python, Javascript, etc.) and the tools.

• Spotfire is poor at pixel perfect embedding in a website.
• It can be difficult to remove the Spotfire branding for embedded pages as well.
• It is a very expensive license model.
• DBA is still required for optimization of some report queries and their underlying SQL.

We used this solution for four years up to the beginning of 2016.

Ours was a hosted solution with two servers. The main Spotfire server required very few restarts and it was normally down to a user creating a crazy report for millions of rows of data.

We have not encountered any scalability issues. However, the cost is prohibitive.

The technical support is above average. Our Spotfire support was handled by a Spotfire partner who was quick to respond. TIBCO's website does also provide a wealth of information through a knowledge base, community forums, technical block articles etc. They provided a few licenses for a development system so we could test patches etc out before deploying to our production system.

We used Oracle Portal. We switched as the technology was becoming dated and our analysts wanted something they could use themselves with minimal development involvement and to be easy to deploy their dashboards/reports to their users.

I wasn't involved with the setup as our IT team did this. They didn't complain about it afterwards.

Tibco is an expensive product and although we purchased it initially for a small user group, as usage grew licencing costs meant we had to be very proactive with users who had licences but were not using them. There didn't appear to be any options to reduce the per user licencing costs by changing to a per processor model unless you were spending £1m+.

We looked at Tableau, Qlikview, Jaspersoft, Oracle.

• Tibco brought Jaspersoft recently which offers far better options for embedding/pixel perfect, however they are still in the process of integrating the two.
• Write your needs down as well as any specific requirements.
• Get the Tibco Partner to show you a demo against your data.
• If it's only for a small number of users look at their cloud solution rather than hosted.

Visualization is the most valuable feature. Visualizations help us dissect data more and spot outliers more easily.

We have a dashboard set up with Spotfire to show risk metrics across the firm for senior management.

Their mobile solution (i.e. to use on mobile devices) and export functions are relatively weak. Spotfire templates are typically designed and mocked up on PC and then got rolled out to users, who in most cases require the capabilities to view them on both PCs and mobile devices. Due to real estate issues, the PC versions wont’ fit well on the latter. Spotfire doesn’t offer easy solutions for the transition yet. Separate templates tailored to smaller screens have to be set up manually by users.

I have been using Tibco Spotfire for about four years.

We have not had any stability issues.

We have not had any scalability issues.

Technical support is medium. They don’t have a user hotline to call. Any technical issue will have to be either directed to consultants or logged in a ticket on the web.

Setup was straightforward. Users can use the product straight out of box.

I was not involved in pricing and licensing.

We evaluated MicroStrategy.

It is a great tool. Compared to other products on the market, Spotfire is designed for enterprise-level solutions. The key, however, to fully utilize the tool is to have an open/transparent data infrastructure to feed into the tool.

• 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.