Item: Spotfire
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Spotfire

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Spotfire as an internal tool (within our business group) for analysis and integration of large energy industry data sets. As we add new types of data to these data sets, we can easily create new data visualizations in Spotfire.

We also use Spotfire to deliver self-service data visualization to our clients.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Spotfire is very good at combining data from multiple sources, such as from database queries, files, and web-based data sources. We make use of data from all of these sources, and this is a key feature.
Spotfire provides a good expression language for performing calculations using the data that has been loaded into a Spotfire document. The expression language makes it easy to write calculations that can be reused. Additionally, expressions can be stored in document properties, providing a centralized set of calculations for easy (and error free) reuse throughout a Spotfire document.
The IronPython scripting language makes it possible to create fully-automated work flows, automate the creation of standard visualizations, and provide user-specific Spotfire documents.

Cons

Although the IronPython scripting language is very useful, you need to understand the Spotfire API to make full use of the scripting language. The API documentation could be improved to be more readable and understandable.
The scatter plots need to be able to support multiple data sets on both the X and Y axes, and the axes labels should have more options, such as which side of the plot the labels appear on.

Alternatives Considered

None

We started using Spotfire on the recommendation of one of our clients. We have never looked at any other products.

Other Software Used

Oracle Database 12c

Likelihood to Recommend

Spotfire is very useful in basic exploration of a data set - grouping and organizing data, quickly spotting trends in data, and then giving basic statistics for a data set. It is much better than Excel for this task, as categories and identifiers do not need to be created manually.

Another use is "what-if" scenarios. It is very easy to create document property controls in Spotfire to vary the inputs to standard calculations and view the results of those change in real-time in multiple visualizations.

Using Spotfire

Spotfire Training

Training Types Used

Online training
In-person training
Self-taught

In-Person Training

This training was taken by one of our developers to learn how to build Spotfire add-ins. It was very hands-on, and gave him all the knowledge necessary to build and maintain add-ins.

Online Training

By on-line training, I am referring to all of the on-line resources Spotfire makes available at no charge to users. There are very targeted videos that explain and show how to perform various tasks. There are also example files available that show how to accomplish more advanced tasks such as predictive analytics using TERR. They are all easy to understand, and are very useful in getting users comfortable working with Spotfire...

Ease of Spotfire Training

Yes, it is easy to use without training. There are many no-cost options available for learning on your own, and there are many examples of using Spotfire to analyze data available. Spotfire is a product that rewards experimentation. That said, it helps to develop a good set of "best practices" for your work...

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Spotfire - Data Analysis for Data Users

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