Yellowfin as easy BI & Analytical tool for all kind of users of an organisation
Updated March 14, 2016
Yellowfin as easy BI & Analytical tool for all kind of users of an organisation
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Overall Satisfaction with Yellowfin
We are re-seller, consulting and system integrator of Yellowfin BI application for our esteem customers. We have implemented many customer business use cases and also use in our own organisation across departments :
Here are some business problems we have addressed for our customers:
Here are some business problems we have addressed for our customers:
- A framework for candidate sourcing, selection, hiring, on-boarding and
retention for a large blue collar employee hiring company. The outcome of the framework is the availability dashboards and its
associate reports to improve productivity, reduce risk and lower cost. The
dashboard covers requisitions status, candidates timelines & hires. - Order Forecasting model - To prepare a 15-day rolling forecasting
mechanism that will forecast the month-on-month and Y-o-Y sales orders
for TS business in terms of product lines. An accuracy of ~90% is achieved
using ARIMA modelling. This is achieved using Yellowfin and "R" integration. - Evaluating massive amounts of historical and real-time sensor data across
assets in operations to optimize “my maintenance” (predictive )
schedules and real-time executive dashboards with accuracy of data for large boiler room solutions.
- Yellowfin’s Storyboard, Timeline and Collaborative tools make it easy to share data and insights across an organisation.
- Strong Operational and Executive Dashboards that reflect the business KPIs and can send out prompts to people within the business based on rules.
- Yellowfin makes it incredibly easy to create dynamic reports and dashboards which incorporate maps through locational intelligence functionality.
- Yellowfin is a single license and all access is via a web browser making it perfect for both on-premise and cloud deployment. Mobile apps are also available.
- User roles and source filtering allows Admin/IT to offer different functions/views by user group/role.
- Mobile BI applications to support any device ..
- API connectors ( YF 7.2 on the way in Mar16 ) for a range of third-party Web-based applications, data sources, Enterprises CRM/ERP apps & open data platform apps, including Salesforce, Google Analytics, Twitter, Youtube , Zoho CRM, XE.com & more coming to make endusers to integrate their applications for better benefits
- Yellowfin Integration with Predictive analytical and Big Data processing tools like R, UDF, Spark to build rich applications for end users
- Predictive analytics features within Yellowfin tool.
My selection of Yellowfin based on following criteria for the Indian market:
- Availability in Linux platform to process high volume of transaction with CAL (concurrent user access license) model to use multiple server with high concurrent users
- Dynamic storyboarding, collaborative and timeline approach for senior management
- Fast development and deployment with web-based centralised architecture
- Value/$- Yellowfin has been #1 on BARCs value/$ rating for the past 3 years. Plus it has a very simple user-based licensing model
Yellowfin Feature Ratings
Using Yellowfin
15 - Business users
Analysts
End users who view and analyze the data and reports ( Finance, HR, IT, procurement )
Analysts
End users who view and analyze the data and reports ( Finance, HR, IT, procurement )
3 - Support resources have good knowledge on the following for L1, L2 and L3 support
- SQL
- Linux
- Web Services and Java
- Business Intelligence Development
- Communication skill
- Support procedures & SLA
- Incident logs - Remedy tools
- Predictive analysis
- Large volume of data processing and Report & Data Sharing
- Self Service BI
- Mobile BI implementation
- Management reporting using Storyboards with collaboration & timeline
- Order Forecasting: To prepare a 15-day rolling forecasting mechanism that will forecast the month-on-month and Y-o-Y sales orders for TS business in terms of product lines. An accuracy of ~90% is achieved using ARIMA, Neural Network, and Time-Series Modeling using Yellowfin as data visualization and R for predictive analysis... Calling R functions within Yellowfin to achieve this.
- Specialized Workforce Hiring Dashboard and KPI: A framework for candidate sourcing, selection, hiring, on-boarding and retention. The outcome of the framework is the availability dashboard and its associate reports to improve productivity, reduce risk and lower cost. The dashboard covers requisitions status, candidate timelines & hires.
- Risk Population Analysis: Modeling the risk population, length of stay and predicting the risk of over stay (cost, doctors allocation, optimizing the bed-admission) for specific medical conditions using a decision tree or SVM models using Yellowfin & R integration.
- Integration of Yellowfin with R
- Integration of Yellowfin with UDF (user defined functions)
- Unique Chart ; Data Visualization creation using DashXML and Web Services integration
- API connectors with many CRM, ERP, Open Source platforms, Web-based applications etc.
- ISV integrations with many pre-build models
Evaluating Yellowfin and Competitors
Yes - QlikView
The reason of replacement of lack of scalability of QlikView when the massive data to be processed
Cost of infrastructure was high ; Cost of Development is too high ; not able to integrate with R , UDF, Spark and most of the important connectors available in the IT market for the end user applications
The reason of replacement of lack of scalability of QlikView when the massive data to be processed
Cost of infrastructure was high ; Cost of Development is too high ; not able to integrate with R , UDF, Spark and most of the important connectors available in the IT market for the end user applications
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Prior Experience with the Product
- Vendor Reputation
- Existing Relationship with the Vendor
- Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
- Analyst Reports
- Third-party Reviews
Yellowfin product support Linux based low cost infrastructure that support large of data processing on Hadoop environment. Yellowfin also support clustering environment with massive concurrent users support.
My evaluation would be on:
- Large number of concurrent users testing
- 1000 report distribution per minute using multicast
- Connecting to Hadoop, Spark, UDF and a large number of connectors to open data platform, CRM, ERP applications
Yellowfin Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes -
- Assessment and Requirement Gathering
- Design: Modeling and View Development
- Development: Report & dashboard development
- Rollout: easily rolled out using on JAR file migration
- QA testing and User acceptance testing
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - - Change logging system using ZIRA
- Document and code version control implementation
- Rebuild and Report rolled out
- Document and code version control implementation
- Rebuild and Report rolled out
- Web Services for custom development
Yellowfin Training
- Online training
- In-person training
- Self-taught
Yes - easy to learn with help of Wiki , Training Website and Sufficient documents and online company sponsored training available for users..
Very user flexible and online help .
Very user flexible and online help .
Configuring Yellowfin
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
Yes - we have added extensive custom code - Java , UDF functions
Yellowfin Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed No escalation required Immediate help available Support understands my problem Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response | None |
No - Annual Subscription cost includes the support of product. Annual Subscription fee includes: Activation Fee, Support and Maintenance Fee, Upgrades, Patch fixes, and Software license Fee only.
To support a specific client request for a large E-commerce company in India. The client requirement was to support 500 concurrent users in clustering mode with unlimited named users to access the reports. Starting from setup/configuration to testing, the concurrent users were supported by the support team.
Using Yellowfin
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | None |
- Installation, configuration and IT administration
- Developing dashboards, reports and views
- Report distribution, broadcasting and sharing
- Mobile BI development
- Integration with open source platforms - but these are on the way on 7.2 release on March 2016
Yes - The Yellowfin mobile application for the iOS / Android platform is a native application that is created to suit the mobile experience in terms of layout, display, and interaction. The usual taps, pinches to zoom, and touch experience is supported in the mobile application to ensure a great mobile discovery experience.
Yellowfin Reliability
Integrating Yellowfin
- Integration with R for predictive analytics
- Integration with UDF ( User defined functions)
- Integration with Spark processing for large data volume processing
- Integration with any social media
- Integration with many other connectors like SRC, ERP, HR , Marketing type of applications
It was on predictive modelling and returning result sets to the Yellowfin applications ... Not that difficult ; just to follow certain steps to achieve..
- Zoho CRM
- Sugar CRM
- Salesforce
- XE
- Workday
- SAP
Yes it is planned for 7.2 version
- File import/export
- Single Signon
- API (e.g. SOAP or REST)
- Javascript widgets
- ETL tools
- AppExchange or similar marketplace
ERP, CRM, HR
Extend a minimum of 10 open data platforms and free softwares
Relationship with Yellowfin
- POC development
- Con-current user connection license model
- Trial period
- Con-current user connection license model
- Trial period
- Choose the con-current user testing during POC period
- Process large volume of datasets
- Process large volume of datasets
Upgrading Yellowfin
Yes - No impact on upgradation
- Large number of connectors
- Design and Architecture of Reporting env
- Analytical functions additions
- More organised dashboards
- Improvement of server performance
- Predictive analytics features within Yellowfin
- NLP & Mining functionality
- Integration with SAS, rapidminer, R within yellowfin