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Spotfire Eats Excel for Lunch
November 01, 2017

Spotfire Eats Excel for Lunch

Zsolt Vigh P.Eng | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Desktop

Overall Satisfaction with Spotfire

Nexen is using Spotfire across the whole organization. We primarily use it to handle large volumes of data and to build visualizations and dashboards. I have also used it extensively in the past to analyze large data sets, build out custom expressions, and use the statistical engines within the software to better understand data relationships.
  • Building data visualizations is infinitely easier with Spotfire compared to Excel.
  • Manipulating data in charts is another huge strength of Spotfire. Trellising data, removing data on the fly and coloring data trends based on different variables is incredibly easy.
  • The mapping feature allows you to build dynamic dashboards. I barely use IHS Accumap anymore now that I have built out my own visual dashboards using the GIS mapping feature.
  • Custom expressions can be cumbersome to learn and are not entirely intuitive.
  • Some simple coding tasks in Excel are a lot harder to do in Spotfire.
  • Not having the ability to set y axis intervals like you can in Excel for charts can be a bit frustrating at times.
I have not used any of Spotfire's competitor products other than Excel. I can honestly say that Spotfire blows Excel out of the water with its ability to handle large datasets and build beautiful crisp visualizations with ease.
Honestly, I use Spotfire whenever I can. It has made my job a lot easier, especially when I have to handle large datasets. I absolutely love the software. The cons I described previously, if improved would make the user experience even better.

Spotfire Feature Ratings

BI Platform ()
Not Rated
Supported Data Sources ()
Not Rated
10.0
Customizable dashboards
10
Report Formatting Templates
Not Rated
9.3
Drill-down analysis
10
Formatting capabilities
8
Integration with R or other statistical packages
Not Rated
Report sharing and collaboration
10
Not Rated
Publish to Web
Not Rated
Publish to PDF
Not Rated
Report Delivery Scheduling
Not Rated
9.0
Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
9
Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
9
Predictive Analytics
9
Not Rated
Multi-User Support (named login)
Not Rated
Role-Based Security Model
Not Rated
Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
Not Rated
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

  • Online Training
  • No Training
I really enjoyed the online boot camp training program that is offered by Spotfire. It really helped me get up to speed quickly on the various features available. My only complaint would be that the personal license price is cost prohibitive. I contacted Spotfire after the training course to see if I could purchase a license for personal use, so I could continue my training at home and I was a bit surprised that it was $2,000 USD/year. I think if Spotfire lowered the licensing fee for personal use they would pick up more personal users which could lead to additional corporate accounts.