D&B Lattice (formerly Lattice Engines) was a Predictive Lead Scoring solution that blended the contact profile and behavioral information from Marketing Automation systems with additional attributes that could contain hidden buying signals. The product has been discontinued.
It is well suited for projects that are more discovery related. If this is a one-time project that we create a visual for, this would definitely make sense to use. If this is an ongoing analysis (monthly for example), we might look to another software that we would be able to automate a little further in how the visualization comes together
Lattice has been difficult to work with in the past few months. We've struggled internally to try and improve their models, but it hasn't proven itself to offer substantial value. We're able to suppress low quality leads, but Lattice also promotes some questionable leads at times and also grades high potential leads as low scoring. We've tried time and time again to improve the model, but they haven't offered much in terms of help or partnership.
In comparison to other tools such as GraphWiz or Circos, Gephi comes with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that makes it easy to load your data, and quickly start building all sorts of different graphs. There's absolutely no code that needs to be written for either loading or modeling. And without downloading additional plug-ins, Gephi ships with quite a few standard graph models, as well as some "fun" extras such as the Sierpinski triangle, and a variety of force atlas types.
Most of the layout types (maybe all) are highly configurable, which can make for extremely customized and unique displays of your data. Again, none of this requires the user to write any code. That said, it is possible to script custom functionality for your models, or even update the Java source code yourself, if you feel like getting technical. Gephi builds are available on GitHub, and the developers encourage people to contribute ideas, improvements, and plug-ins.
There's a plug-in for Gephi that allows for streaming data to update your model. This essentially allows you to create near realtime graphs of your data in motion. This plug-in was by far the biggest reaston we invested time in the product; to create animated data visualizations without exhaustive hours in development.
Ease of use. It is a no brainer for our sales teams. They go through just 10 minutes of training. It is very prescriptive and clear. There is a minimal amount of flipping to get through what they need to. Everything is just on one screen.
Integration to Salesforce.com. The level of integration today is moderate. It integrates opportunity to opportunity. As soon as a sales person converts, it flows.
They are highly responsive as a vendor. If there’s a field that we want to add, they will adapt the product for us very quickly.
The model for professional services (fee based) is very flexible. It’s as much as you need. They advocate high service level for ramping new regions, and are very flexible with feet on the ground and helping out.
I (and many others) have had to expand Gephi's memory manually by experimenting with the configuration file. I'm glad it's possible, but it should be easier.
Gephi sometimes crashes inexplicably and loses your work, so I have developed a habit of explicitly exporting versions of my graphs as csv's, but I think this should be handled automatically in Gephi.
Because it is prone to crash, ideally, Gephi would help the user manage his/her use, by estimating processing and memory for very large tasks and prompting the user to confirm their requests before executing. Instead, I just tend to avoid certain functions.
Detailed technographic information - we had a lot of issues with Lattice not being able to identify specific technologies being used by a company, which would be able to provide us materially different context as a seller.
Model is built once and is static until refreshed - do not get meaningful feedback into the model in real-time
Hard to identify which attributes are meaningful enough to include as enrichment in SFDC.
While Gephi isn't perfect, it's a powerful tool for mathematical graph modelling that's hard to find in other products, particularly by way of its interface. It grants non-software developers access to a point-and-click way of creating accurate, beautiful visualizations that would normally take hours in other applications. The fact that it allows for live streaming data is also something that's hard to come by, at least for visualization software
I will continue to use PRISM, especially now, because I after 3 years in the same geography, I have just transferred to a new territory. The tool really helps me focus on the best opportunities to pursue, which can sometimes be difficult with over 100 assigned accounts
Gephi is very intuitive and the fact that it shows its process helps the user understand what's going on. However, the animation features can really slow it down and there isn't a way to shut them off. Furthermore, the failures on saving mean you frequently have to start over. These problems disrupt the workflow and can be frustrating.
The product is part of a service. The team from Lattice did a great job of supporting us and of delivering the results we set out to attain. They became an integral part of our success.
It's very good. They are very responsive. They aren’t pushy on providing too much. They are very transparent about what you’re getting and paying for
Please see my answers to the previous question. We had very good feedback from our product management, strategy and sales leadership and reps regarding our training.
The implementation hit the milestones we established. Lattice was VERY committed to helping us make sure what we committed back to the organization was met.
The interactivity in Gephi and the quality of the output figures are impressive. However, the selling point was the fact that we were able to link Gephi into our pipeline using Java's interface. Other products were less customizable and lacking of the sophistication Gephi provided without too much pain during the liking process.
Lattice was an incumbent tool from several years ago. Early on, we enjoyed a good relationship with the team there. After the acquisition, we have definitely seen a decrease in the quality of support and engagement from the team. As a result, we will look at several competing vendors when our contract ends with Lattice.
I have only used the product for education purposes. I will not be the best person to provide details about ROI and business efficiency and customer service. I was personally very excited about the tool and am continuing my work on the tool.
We have seen quantifiable ROI when our reps have used the product to target accounts. In a recent example we found that accounts that targeted these "hi-po" accounts identified by using Lattice analytics created over $27M in pipeline over a month long period for a key product we are interested in selling more of to customers, compared to a less than $1M for accounts that were not identified as "hi-po".
