Item: Spotfire
Rating: 9
Author: Kirk Ashdown

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Spotfire is a great tool. I didn't use it in my previous role, but I started using it almost 3 years ago when I moved into my current role. All the teams in this organization heavily rely on Spotfire on a daily basis and, from what I hear, it is spreading to more of the organization. We use it from production analysis to research projects.

Pros and Cons

I love that we can connect it straight to our database so that the data is continuously updated.
I have used Spotfire to automate some of my repetitive weekly responsibilities and it has given me hours back in my week.
There are so many functions that Spotfire can do that I haven't even been able to learn all of them. There are endless possibilities.

I wish that there was a way to put a background color to the visualizations. I take screen shots and put them in reports, but it's white on white which doesn't make for a very interesting report.
I have tried to do an automated weekly email of visualizations that I put on a report, but I have to open the report and take screen shots because they don't have the same formatting when it comes in the email. Disappointing when you spend a lot of time getting the formatting just right.
I wish that there were stacked area charts. That is the only visualization that I have wished to use and been unable to.

Alternatives Considered

The only other software like this that I have used is MS Excel. It has a few capabilities that I'm waiting for Spotfire to get, but overall it is a superior program and helps to view, analyze, share, and create. For the most part, I only use Excel to hold the data and then link it to Spotfire.

Other Software Used

SAP Business Objects Data Quality Management

Training Types Used

Online training
In-person training
Self-taught

In-Person Training

I learned a lot and found a lot of the lessons useful. Sometimes I felt like things were moving a little fast, but it was a fairly good experience. The instructors are usually patient and willing to answer questions. I think there is a lot to learn in these sessions and it was well worth my time.

Online Training

I have taken both formal and informal online training. The formal was well put together and I enjoyed being able to take my time and do extra trials on concepts that I didn't get right off the bat. What I would call my informal training is just Googling questions which I find answers toon discussion boards or YouTube. It's great for quick questions to fill small gaps.

Ease of Spotfire Training

I would not recommend this to others unless they have the time to use Google for discussion boards and YouTube. There are a lot of moving parts in different areas that I think would be difficult and slow going if they had no training. I do believe though that if someone had a basic knowledge of the functionality, then they could then go to self taught to fill in gaps here and there as they expand their skills.

Likelihood to Recommend

We have a database with everything from production to pressures and temperatures to item specific data which all links to Spotfire so that we can run analysis on just about anything, and it has helped us to see unthought of relationships, and change our processes to be more accurate and efficient. I have not found anywhere where it wasn't helpful.

Great product with more great potential!

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with TIBCO Spotfire