Analytics software can be a lot like duct tape (only smarter). There are countless MacGruber-esque ways to quickly save the day using duct tape. Well, the same is true for TIBCO Silver Spotfire. It makes data analytics so easy anyone can apply it. That’s why I signed up for a year-long test-drive of ‘analytics in the cloud’ using my own data.
I was able to choose up to three files to upload – totaling no more than 30 megabytes. I uploaded the contact information for an alumni volunteer group. Using Spotfire’s simple menus meant I could see data visually in quick patterns. Sharing live data showed when people were last involved with the group and displayed the clusters quickly. For example, we used to send every member of our alumni club board of directors a spreadsheet of participants and BOLD the names of people who participated recently. Now, TIBCO Silver Spotfire easily identified the zip codes or ages of the active and inactive members. That quickly showed who we needed to call or email. And because our club has several people in different places, we could easily share data without worrying about who made the last update, re-inputting bad data or other common collaborative workflow pitfalls.
The offer actually comes in two pieces: a data analysis application for the desktop called TIBCO Spotfire Professional and a hosted, web-based publishing environment called TIBCO Silver Analytics. The free desktop application is where data is loaded and, using analytics capabilities, the results can be and displayed in a range of options such as scatter plots, pie charts, line plots, using regression algorithms and smoothing functions. Spotfire Professional is downloaded and installed on a local machine, however files can only be saved onto the hosted server for up to three dashboards.
I really liked the fact that it was easy to set up, required no IT infrastructure, and was free for a year. In the end, I was able to quickly see and share hidden details about my alumni volunteer group. Click below to learn more about TIBCO Silver Spotfire and Social BI.
David Wallace
Spotfire Blogging Team
Image Credit: Courtesy of TIBCO Spotfire
