TIBCO Spotfire Reviews

It's an analytic tool, similar to Tableau. The features that are most valuable to us are:

• Its ability to consume data from about any type of source such as a CSV, SQL, Excel, and text (*.txt) files. Thus, it can consume and collaborate data from a number of different data sources.
• It has the ability to do very sophisticated analysis on the data.
• It has an extremely good graphic ability, so as to present the data in a way that's very meaningful to the end user.

They have good training programs for it, but the learning curve for Spotfire is probably higher than it might be for Tableau.

All of the functionalities are also higher in this product. Spotfire requires a fairly strong commitment from somebody to become a Spotfire developer.

I have been using this solution for about three years.

There were no stability issues.

There were no scalability issues, as of now.

We didn't use a different solution before. Previously, we have just used Excel, PowerPoint, and other such typical Microsoft Office products.

I'm a good advocate for Spotfire, so I would highly recommend it, with one caution. You have to train developers in it and that will take a fair amount of time and commitment.

• Data on demand
• JSS and HTML customization

It has allowed us to be able to host client and web on same server.

I have used it for three years.

The server crashes at times with plugins.

Technical support is 8/10.

Initial setup was simple.

Use it for all of your analytical reports.

It's not specific, but in general, the product's ability to handle large volumes of data through its in-memory OLAP is valuable, as well as its data visualization capabilities.

For most organizations which are generally not so tech-savvy, people usually rely on Excel to do their data analytics. But once the size of data hits a certain level, it becomes very inefficient to manage your Excel files. Once you are at this stage, you could either get a developer to come up with a solution (most likely an enterprise tool or some sort of OLAP database solution), or you could get a stand-alone version of Spotfire.

If you have someone in your team with a little bit of database development skill, learning to use Spotfire is not too difficult and you could save time and money on implementing a full-blown solution by IT consultants.

Our old executive reports were heavily text-based. People responsible for generating reports would spend a lot of time writing a report that nobody read. Once we implemented Spotfire, the reports have become data-driven and visually appealing.

We carefully designed the analytic report in a way that condenses text-based information into visual information that is easy to digest. It is true that you could also achieve the same outcome with Excel or other MS Office tools, but with Spotfire's data visualization capabilities, the job is much easier.

I'm not a technical expert, but based on my experience from the user/designer point of view, the level of visual customization (e.g., how graphical objects are displayed) needs more flexibility.

Learning to use the scripting language (Python) proved a challenge for me personally due to lack of good documentation, and the scripting editor is not so user-friendly. If you want greater flexibility and more powerful features than what's offered, you may need to hire a Spotfire developer to do the coding.

I have used the solution for around two to three years.

Generally speaking, the software is quite stable (both the application and back-end server). However, we did experience application crashes from time to time when memory usage is heavy, but we aren't technical experts, so we could not identify exactly when/why it crashed.

In terms of its ability to handle a big volume of data, it's highly scalable. But in my organization in which Spotfire was used mainly as a reporting tool, we found it a bit challenging to scale up our report configuration. For example, with MS Access, you create a master layout which can be used for several projects or customers. In Spotfire, we ended up having to create separate master layouts for every project. When there was a request to modify the report layout, it was a tedious task.

I haven't had enough experience dealing with technical support to answer this question.

We used a combination of out-of-the-box software solutions and Excel/Access before we added Spotfire to make our lives a bit easier. We did not switch completely from existing tools to Spotfire. It's more about adding Spotfire in order to enhance our existing system.

Our requirements were simple (only at the department level in a large organization). So the initial setup of the Spotfire server was straightforward and was done within a few days. The main issue was obtaining security credentials from the IT department to access database servers we need to generate reports.

A less-straightforward step is when we needed to design our analytical reports that meet the requirements of our executives. Here, it is nothing to do with Spotfire or any other software but more about good communication with the stakeholders.

My advice based on personal experience would be to start small and scale up when you're certain that Spotfire is the right tool for you. In our organization, we started with a couple of stand-alone licenses for one year. Only after that, we decided to implement a server-based license to expand our user base for the whole department.

We tried Spotfire and liked it, so we did not have the need to evaluate other options. However, other well-known (perhaps more popular) options include Tableau and QlikView. You can refer to the Gartner's Magic Quadrant report on BI tools.

In addition to what I have written regarding pricing and licensing, I suggest that having an in-house power user in your organization - who understands both the tool and your needs - is highly critical.

The quick data mash-up and manipulation and the visualization of large amounts of data.

Spotfire allows me to combine data from disparate data sources quickly and to investigate if my joins are appropriate visually. Additionally, the data transformations available when bringing in the data allow for quick changes such as pivoting and unpivoting, data type change, and renaming of columns. I am also able to load in large amounts of data within Spotfire and slice and dice this data as desired. I’ve had over 50 million rows of data in a single file and was able to create drillable visualizations with the entire data set.

Due to the creation of information links directly against our ArcGIS database feature classes, we are able to have live updated interactive shapefiles shared across the company.

We are also able to create visualizations in an interactive (investigative) dashboard combining data from multiple databases. These dashboards can serve somewhat as a self-service investigative tool by our team members to answer questions they might have about a particular issue.

I believe the number one feature that needs improvement is the ability to edit the data table construction/modification steps after the fact, similar to the Microsoft Power Query interface. Although you can prototype quickly in Spotfire, if you’ve made a mistake in building your table, you often times have to start from scratch to fix your error. Being able to modify these steps would greatly enhance the data preparation ability of Spotfire.

Also, further control over the stylization of shapes and shapefiles would be beneficial (e.g., dashed lines in shapefiles, different fill patterns rather than solid, etc.).

I have been using it for four years.

As far as deployment, everything I have experienced has been ok. We did have some issues in getting everything set up with Kerberos authentication and had to work with Tibco quite a bit on how to configure everything properly.

The stability is pretty good. However, if you have a decent-sized data set (maybe 100 columns by a few hundred thousand rows) and you create a lot of complex visualizations, sometimes the program will crash on you. As there is no auto-save feature, this can cause an issue sometimes.

I can’t really speak to the scalability issues as I haven’t been involved with that.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I’d say customer service is a 9. Their customer service representatives are usually extremely responsive and knowledgeable. For more complicated issues, they will schedule WebExes to facilitate a more efficient customer service experience. Furthermore, they are good at adding your requests as enhancement requests if the feature in question doesn’t exist.

I switched from using Excel to Spotfire about four years ago. At that time, I was not part of any other program evaluations. I was just provided with Spotfire.

Currently, I have worked with Power Query, PowerPivot, Power Maps, and Power BI and find them to be useful tools, especially for a reduced cost (sometimes free). However, I would classify these solutions as SpotfireLite. For many users at a company, the Power Suite would probably be suitable for general data investigation. Yet, you will reach a point at which the Power Suite cannot achieve the same functionality in such a controllable way as Spotfire. E.g., trend analysis, box plots, easy drillability, etc.

• Ability to handle large amounts of data from multiple sources and quickly visualize it for users.
• Connectivity to widely used data management (MDM) solutions in place in most organizations
• Easy to train users in how to use the dashboards, visualizations and maximize their performance as users

From a safety standpoint, I have developed visualizations that have highlighted trends in past history. When identified, they helped the business determine where to put more focus and consciousness in operations so that they can reduce injuries.

I would like to see improved mobile capabilities.

I would like more functionality in the formatting of the pages so that they can have more of an application with the look and feel of other custom-developed solutions with the organization.

I have used it for eight years.

I have never had issues with deployment or scalability, TIBCO offers different versions to fit customers’ needs (desktop, web based, etc.).

Technical support is average; however, the user conferences that are held regionally and nationally provide a lot of value.

I previously used Oracle OBIEE. We switched because:

• Development time was too long.
• Overhead of resources required to maintain it was too high.
• Spotfire will offer very fast enterprise data and visualization capabilities in a short amount of time.

Initial setup is straightforward; there are downloads that you perform in order that make it easier than it used to be, but it is not quite plug and play for an enterprise implementation.

I implemented it with an in-house team.

You may not need one, but establish a contact number at TIBCO for extra help should you encounter problems.

ROI depends on the maturity and adoption of the organization. Spotfire can have an exponentially higher ROI than what it costs, if implemented well, adoption programs are in place and users are trained.

Users can license and download directly from the TIBCO website and be active within minutes.

I highly recommend Spotfire.

• The advanced settings in the dialog box for visualization options are comprehensive and easy to use.
• The filters available in the data panel for data exploration are responsive, even on large data sets.

It has improved internal audits in customers that implemented the enterprise server by increasing the size and scope of data sets analyzed and tested. This makes the process more automated.

Some visualizations that were customized did not display well when published to the web server. I suspect it had more to do with the specifications for that particular deliverable than with the solution's capabilities.

We have used the solution for one year.

We have not encountered any stability issues.

We have not encountered any scalability issues, but we are only a small implementation for three to five analysts.

We haven't used the technical support facility.

Other customers implemented IBM Cognos, SAP Business Objects, or Tableau.

We don't know about the initial setup.

We can't offer any advice on this issue.

We evaluated Tableau. Our decision to go with Tibco Spotfire came down to the availability of a developer/analyst skillset with the tool.

Consider how this fits within enterprise data governance. There are no real savings on time spent preparing data for analysis.

• Best in class in visual and advanced analytics
• Enterprise scalability

• Massive process improvement and time savings in life science research, as well as clinical data analytics

Cloud infrastructure could be improved. The cloud market is rapidly evolving and TIBCO is at the forefront of development here. With Hadoop connectivity, there is also a link to data lake environments. I think that a turnkey offering with a smart data lake and analytics layer on top is where the market is heading.

I have used this for 15 years.

If you use recommended hardware sizing, you should not encounter any stability issues.

I did not encounter any scalability issues.

Technical support was excellent.

We did not previously use a different solution.

Initial setup was straightforward as you can start small and build the platform as you go.

You can choose between subscription and perpetual licenses based on your needs.

We did not evaluate alternatives.

I would recommend this product because it is intuitive with a fast learning curve and very powerful. In my opinion, it exceeds competitors' capabilities in enterprise scalability and advanced analytics support.

• Good data transformation tools.
• Excellent connectivity to different data sources.
• Good forecasting and statistical capabilities.
• Can be hosted or cloud based.

• It has enabled staff to easily create reports/dashboards without having to involve a developer in most cases.
• It has made it easier for users to create their own reusable visualizations/widgets.
• For more advanced users it facilitates better integration of the languages used (Python, Javascript, etc.) and the tools.

• Spotfire is poor at pixel perfect embedding in a website.
• It can be difficult to remove the Spotfire branding for embedded pages as well.
• It is a very expensive license model.
• DBA is still required for optimization of some report queries and their underlying SQL.

We used this solution for four years up to the beginning of 2016.

Ours was a hosted solution with two servers. The main Spotfire server required very few restarts and it was normally down to a user creating a crazy report for millions of rows of data.

We have not encountered any scalability issues. However, the cost is prohibitive.

The technical support is above average. Our Spotfire support was handled by a Spotfire partner who was quick to respond. TIBCO's website does also provide a wealth of information through a knowledge base, community forums, technical block articles etc. They provided a few licenses for a development system so we could test patches etc out before deploying to our production system.

We used Oracle Portal. We switched as the technology was becoming dated and our analysts wanted something they could use themselves with minimal development involvement and to be easy to deploy their dashboards/reports to their users.

I wasn't involved with the setup as our IT team did this. They didn't complain about it afterwards.

Tibco is an expensive product and although we purchased it initially for a small user group, as usage grew licencing costs meant we had to be very proactive with users who had licences but were not using them. There didn't appear to be any options to reduce the per user licencing costs by changing to a per processor model unless you were spending £1m+.

We looked at Tableau, Qlikview, Jaspersoft, Oracle.

• Tibco brought Jaspersoft recently which offers far better options for embedding/pixel perfect, however they are still in the process of integrating the two.
• Write your needs down as well as any specific requirements.
• Get the Tibco Partner to show you a demo against your data.
• If it's only for a small number of users look at their cloud solution rather than hosted.

Visualization is the most valuable feature. Visualizations help us dissect data more and spot outliers more easily.

We have a dashboard set up with Spotfire to show risk metrics across the firm for senior management.

Their mobile solution (i.e. to use on mobile devices) and export functions are relatively weak. Spotfire templates are typically designed and mocked up on PC and then got rolled out to users, who in most cases require the capabilities to view them on both PCs and mobile devices. Due to real estate issues, the PC versions wont’ fit well on the latter. Spotfire doesn’t offer easy solutions for the transition yet. Separate templates tailored to smaller screens have to be set up manually by users.

I have been using Tibco Spotfire for about four years.

We have not had any stability issues.

We have not had any scalability issues.

Technical support is medium. They don’t have a user hotline to call. Any technical issue will have to be either directed to consultants or logged in a ticket on the web.

Setup was straightforward. Users can use the product straight out of box.

I was not involved in pricing and licensing.

We evaluated MicroStrategy.

It is a great tool. Compared to other products on the market, Spotfire is designed for enterprise-level solutions. The key, however, to fully utilize the tool is to have an open/transparent data infrastructure to feed into the tool.

• Data engine: numerous methods to load load, transform, and merge data from every major data source.
• Web player: out of the box ability to share analysis through web browser. Advanced web functionality to customize with portals.
• Analytics: basic stats functionality out of the box and ability to connect to all major analytics vendors/languages (SAS, MatLab, R, etc.).
• Visualizations: equally suited for data discovery and reports.

• Tibco Spotfire analysts from building Excel and PowerPoint reports and allows them to start analyzing information.
• Standardizes metrics and flow of information within organizations.
• Simple enough for non-tech users to use, but powerful enough for power users to produce advanced analytics.

• Integration with a custom web portal is still challenging.
• Version control should be included to aide development processes.
• Further the out-of-the-box ability to customize visualizations.

I've been using it for over five years, starting with v3.

Initial deployments are normally issue-free. Spotfire supports numerous data sources, authentication methods, load balancers, and other IT environment configurations. Spotfire v7.5+ is a significant change in architecture and will require a different configuration and additional admin training.

Upgrades normally require minor adjustments to some Spotfire analyses. There are Spotfire tools to assess differences between files in each version and the change in performance.

The most common issue is insufficient resources on host servers or laptops. Most other issues arise from custom applications integrating with new versions of Spotfire.

I’ve worked with deployments and upgrades at small organizations and all the way up to 20,000+ user organizations. Spotfire can be scaledeasily, but requires planning and is dependent on the underlying technology (as with any software).

Improved dramatically in recent years with rapid releases of updated versions.

Professional and timely support. The Spotfire upgrade roadmap is a bit opaque though.

Previously I have used Tableau, Business Object, SAS JMP, MiniTab and Excel. Spotfire is most commonly compared against Tableau, Qlik and MicroStrategy. Spotfire is typically selected for its data engine, web player and advanced analytics capabilities.

It's generally straightforward except for when custom applications, e.g. in-house developed software, are to be configured with Spotfire.

Usually large scale implementations are done by a vendor, but small scale deployments are possible with an internal team. Beyond the basic requirements, the key is to understand scalability needs, community use cases, authentication needs, and data architecture needs. Upgrades can be handled in-house.

ROI can be measured by how much time is saved by your analysts no longer needing to build reports. Typically, a core group of users build the Spotfire templates and everyone else in the organization analyzes information in the templates. Other than upkeep, once a template is built in Spotfire, your organization can analyze information and take action. Also, the time and sanity saved in no longer sharing PowerPoint slides or Excel spreadsheets throughout the organization can be priceless.

ROI can also be measured by the fact that Spotfire can integrate with existing IT infrastructure and existing IT expertise. Eg. Spotfire can make use of your existing SAS environment to apply SAS models and SAS expertise to data in Spotfire (which is then visualized).

I recommend training a core group of analysts to build your Spotfire templates. The rest of your organization can use the less expensive Web Player licenses to analyze the data through their web browser.

I also recommend the Spotfire Automation Services component. It allows Spotfire to automate certain tasks like loading data at defined times, sending automated emails, sending alerts, etc.