It is only for limited use with high level operational and transactional dashboards with top management. It has very good and attractive, detailed graphical objects to present the data. Connectivity wise, since SAP bought it and it is available to use multi-source database connections.
Pros
it's a very good product to create board pack reports. we did the same and some operational data presentation at the department key user's mobile.
delivered the existing key user webi reports on roambi.
used cardex base graphical reports for regional and sector wise sectioning presentation.
some sap mobile BI challenges are solved by ROAMBI & Its very advanced with iPADs comparing with other analytical mobile apps
Cons
cardex type of presentation is already innovated in roambi in 2012, even iOS safari browser idea was created from this cardex style
blink view is only available for sap and ms sql
roambi publisher is very user-friendly and understandable for non technical person as well
Likelihood to Recommend
Regional based sales performance by Cardex view reports.for on the go mobile analytics for CXO reporting especially for attractive dashboards conversion from website reports, the option is available and it is not time-consuming.
VU
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
We implemented Roambi Analytics and Roambi Flow at two of our customers' sites. The first customer uses it for dashboards in sales and marketing in order to provide top management the latest campaign results. The second one started in the IT department with a comprehensive pilot and is displaying the IT KPIs to management. They are preparing for broader usage with 100 plus users. While the first one is using file based data which we access directly from the server, the second one integrates it into a SAP Business Objects environment. Both ways are possible and deliver good results. The user likes the user experience and the "no education" approach in using Roambi.
Pros
Excellent User Experience
Integration into existing BI environments
Leverages the capabilities an iPad provides to the user
Cons
Customizing the GUI
Support of other mobile operation systems
Providing write back capabilities
Likelihood to Recommend
It is best suited, if the company uses iPads and the data is ready for reporting.
We have been implementing Roambi at various companies of different sizes from 20 Employees to several thousand Employees. Roambi is used by our customers mainly in the sales organization. Roambi provides Business Intelligence reports to the sales people. This helps them to visit their clients well prepared. Since Roambi is extremely easy to use and has such an intuitive interface, the feedback from our customers is overwhelmingly positive.
Pros
Very intuitive user interface that exploits the touch capabilities of tablets and smartphones very well.
Offline capability - extremely helpful for sales people that can not always be online.
Integration with existing BI solutions - almost all of our clients have already a BI Infrastructure. Roambi integrates very well.
Cons
Availability on Android and Windows Platforms would be good.
Support for even larger data models.
Likelihood to Recommend
Roambi is easy to set up and understand for BI developers. Depending on what BI infrastructure exists, one can reuse knowledge. We find it very comfortable to use Microsoft Reporting Services to provide the basic data for Roambi reports. Since a lot of our customers are using Reporting Services, we can utilize the existing data management platform and deliver reports with very little effort.
We are a reseller of Roambi and find it far easier to use and quick to deploy than traditional BI tools.
Pros
Template-driven, meaning it's fast to deploy and therefore it costs far less than traditional BI tools to roll out
Offline capabilities far outperform standard BI tools that have been pushed to mobile devices
Publishing capabilities of Roambi Flow are amazing: think of never printing a sales report, board pack, finance report, power point etc and being able to embed data into that report or presentation. Our customers find this feature invaluable
Cons
Android
Likelihood to Recommend
This is not a desktop replacement BI tool so if you need detailed desktop analysis capabilities this is not the tool, this is a presentation tool.
We are a Business Intelligence company and we are reseller for several products such as Roambi. When it comes to Mobile BI there is only one true mobile BI solution, and that is Roambi. The ease of use and visual capabilities are simply great. We recommend Roambi for lots of our customers to leverage the power of their existing BI stack.
Pros
Mobile/Offline access
Ease of use
Implementation speed
Cons
Only Apple platform
No desktop solution
Likelihood to Recommend
It is very well suited for mid- to large size companies, but not recommended for small companies without an existing BI system.
Used to prepare client demos for sales dashboards for highler management. It addresses the current problem of diificulty of set up and complication is usage that most reporting solutions current face
Pros
Easy to set up
With little training, you can create reports
Visually very attracting
Cons
The pre defined templates create a lot of limitations on reporting solutions
One template cannot be connected to other in a single report, requiring users to refer to different reports for information
Likelihood to Recommend
It's less approriate as a full reporting solution, where as for simple reports, it can be very effective
I currently use Roambi within my own department (Manufacturing). I use this product only as per my personal preference, neither my department nor my company endorse the use of this product yet. After some research, I decided to utilize this product to enable quick analysis of business operations figures for department leaders who are almost always traveling and usually do not have the time nor the inclination to access detailed excel sheets and go through rows and rows of information. The Roambi app for iPhone and iPad makes it quite convenient for me to represent a lot of information on attractive and easy to reach charts that can be quickly accessed on mobile devices on the go. So I developed an excel template that when updated on a regular basis would provide the consumers of the Roambi front-end the most uptodate information possible. This "proof of concept" was well received and the capabilities of the Roambi software were much appreciated.
Pros
Quick and precise synchronization of information between the front end and back end: I have extensively updated offline excel templates with information and upon uploading to Roambi I could see that no information had been lost and the synchronization process itself is quite speedy and precise.
Plenty of options to customize representation of data on the front end: I have played around with lots of available options to represent raw data in an attractive and easy to read manner. There is always an option available to suit my needs irrespective of the dimensions or the dept of data that I am trying to represent.
Well designed and implemented app for idevices: The app itself is very well designed and of a very high aesthetic value. I am especially impressed with the performance of the app.
Easy to learn and use: The whole Roambi layout (esp. Roambi Lite), back end templates and front end apps are very easy to learn and use. There are no complicated steps and the representation or layout you want can always be achieved with some tinkering.
Cons
The system that performs the rendering of data to the front-end can be improved to intelligently read the back end data template or at least the layout. Inserting new rows/columns of data completely messes up the rendering on the front end and the process of re-selecting information to ensure proper rendering is a very tedious one.
Also, Roambi should have the capability to analyse information in formats other than excel such as word, ppts and/or pdfs. I found the lack of this capability a major hurdle because each time I had to export information into excel to render into a template.
Likelihood to Recommend
<div>It is well suited in the following scenarios:
</div><div>1. When accessing and analyzing large excel sheets or extensive data is difficult </div><div>2. When having remote discussions of trends (highs/lows) with colleagues in other geographies </div><div>3. For presenting a more visually appealing picture of what data is trying to say </div><div>
</div><div>It is less appropriate for:
</div><div>1. Users on devices other than Apple devices </div>2. Desktop users, Roambi should be able to export in an interactive file format so that functionality is not lost to those users
Over the time, Roambi has become our primary report consuming tool in the organization. While other reports are still being generated and used, our most common reports are also pushed into Roambi and consumed that way. Not only because of the mobile aspect of the product, but also because we took the time to rethink some of our reports specifically to fit into certain Roambi Views. This way, we now have a more engaging reporting tool with redefined insights.
Pros
Mobilization of reports; after all it primarily remains a mobile reporting solution.
Previous investments in reporting solutions remain valued. Roambi acts as an additional layer on top of your existing infrastructure, leveraging existing reports in a first phase. Then, you can start collecting data for new reports you might design.
The added interactivity and intuitivity drives people to use the reports more frequently and more efficiently. Now, when common business questions need answers, Roambi is usually able to provide answers in seconds.
Cons
Maintaining the Flow documents created with Roambi (magazines and presentations) requires more effort. While automating traditional reports works without problems, publications from Flow are a bigger task.
Not yet available on devices other than iOS. However, Android is due to be released this year; this is one of the most expected innovations.
Likelihood to Recommend
Getting Roambi up to speed in your company certainly is a quick win. After just a few days, several of our reports were mobilized, interactive and automatically updated. Building Roambi reports is not hard to do; the intuitive interface allows virtually any type of user to create his or her own reports.
Roambi was chosen at my organization for use in the Financial Planning & Analysis department. Because the organization was a major pharmaceutical company (it got acquired) with hundreds of sales representatives nationwide, we dealt with a lot of numbers - both pharmaceutical data and financial data. Roambi was implemented to help our Finance department better understand our current and projected sales trends, expenses, and organization headcounts.
Pros
Very easy to set up data and visualize it through the iPad
Powerful visualizations and ability to customize the way information is interacted with and displayed
Made it easy for non-developers to understand data trends
Cons
Not enough customization (compared to QlikView)
The application needs a more flexible user interface
Data layers to drill down through limited to six
Likelihood to Recommend
I would recommend Roambi for its ease-of-use and quick deployment. It is very visually rich and eye-catching, and I believe it is best suited for presenting business & finance dashboard to C-level management and sales representatives in the field. Because it can be accessed on the iPhone or iPad, it is very mobile and the Apple touch interfaces are nearly flawless. If an organization needs to really dig deep into their data, I would look elsewhere, as Roambi has certain limitations.
Roambi is being used by 500+ user. Mostly for the commercial data - sales details together with contact information. It us used on daily basis by Sales Force agents across the country.
Pros
Can be used off-line
Quite stable
Nice graphic interface and visualization
Cons
Performance
Data source development
Integration with more data sources
Likelihood to Recommend
Roambi platform is a good choice if you need to have access to your data without constant internet access. The application can be used in an off-line mode. You need a connection just to retrieve new data. From the other side we noticed the view refresh and downloading performance is quite slow for big amount of data (more than 5MB).
VU
Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)
