Item: Roambi (discontinued)
Rating: 7
Author: Sean Chou

Overall Satisfaction with Roambi

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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 and Cons

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

Return on Investment

Increased visibility for headcount and expenses management
Saves time for management
Decreased mean time to action

Alternatives Considered

I have also used Spotfire and QlikView. Of all three, Roambi is the easiest to use and quickest to deploy. Roambi is also one of the easiest to start turning your data into beautiful charts and dashboards. Spotfire is easy to use but requires more time to get used to - but allows for more flexibility and customized design of dashboards. QlikView is perhaps the hardest to use and longest to deploy but enables the richest, fully customizable dashboards.

Likelihood to Renew

I would definitely use Roambi again because of its ease-of-use, but its lack of customization ability makes it difficult to recommend to businesses as business needs are always changing. People are picky, and on the Roambi project, we were not able to fully live up to the customer's expectations, limited by Roambi's preset limitations.

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.

Using Roambi

Usability

VERY easy to use. Only limited by how the graphs and data is initially set up.

Usability Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Relatively simple Easy to use Well integrated Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using	Requires technical support

Easy Tasks

Navigating the different types of visualizations
Setting up data in Excel
iPad App gestures and interface

Difficult Tasks

Designing graphs granularly
Test-viewing visualizations involved a lot of back and forth

Mobile Interface Availability and Impressions

Yes - Because the user interface (UI) is on iPad and iPhone, Apple's movement gestures play wonderfully for Roambi's interface. Roambi's bright colors helps ease the contrast and makes it easier for the end user to navigate data.

Comments

Please log in to join the conversation

Roambi: Good for quick, visual dashboards intended for management