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Opinion about Spotfire
October 27, 2017

Opinion about Spotfire

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 3 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Desktop

Overall Satisfaction with Spotfire

Used by some departments who seem to really like it, and not by others who really do not because it doesn't truly "analyze" it just draws pretty pictures and takes a lot of time to get data cleaned up so Spotfire can use it. Used to visualize data geographically (mapping), by performance indicators, and data from various and different sources.
  • Makes pretty pictures out of data
  • The training modules need work. The audio goes way too fast. For most trainees, keeping up with what they are trying to do themselves on the screen while listening and watching a module that is now 5 steps ahead, means having to stop every 15 seconds to back up, and it gets exhausting and annoying after much time.
  • Spotfire has lots of capabilities, and the redundancy built in means there are several ways to do the same thing. However, it also means the screen is so cluttered, and the icons so small, that it strains the eyes to see and use. Seems like the redundancy could be reduced to make the screen shot more user friendly and less eye straining.
Microsoft CRM. Experience with the contractor for user interface testing and training was unpleasant and unproductive. Spotfire used pre-recorded training modules which need a big obvious pause button.

Any true analytical steps that Spotfire can do, Excel and SPSS can do better. Some things Excel and SPSS can do, Spotfire cannot do at all.

Spotfire can "use" data from many different data sources, but in order to use data from Excel, SPSS, etc., it has to be massaged all over again so Spotfire can use it. By the time you get done making the data usable by Spotfire, you could have three or ten other analyses done with conventional software.

Spotfire is most useful to make pretty pictures out of data to use in presentations to managers, customers, and other stakeholders. It doesn't actually improve the ability to analyze data, but does improve the way the data can help show and tell a story.

Spotfire Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
8.0
Customizable dashboards
8
Report Formatting Templates
8
6.8
Drill-down analysis
8
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
2
Report sharing and collaboration
9
8.0
Publish to Web
8
Publish to PDF
8
Report Delivery Scheduling
Not Rated
7.7
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
9
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
9
Predictive Analytics
5
8.0
Multi-User Support (named login)
8
Role-Based Security Model
8
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
8
Not Rated
Responsive Design for Web Access
Not Rated
Mobile Application
Not Rated
Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Not Rated
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding ()
Not Rated

Spotfire Training

  • Self-taught
It was learn-able if you take the time, have the patience, and don't need to do anything else or get anything else done for a couple of weeks.