Spotfire Continues Business-Intelligence Push

Spotfire Inc. will continue its push into the business-intelligence mainstream Monday when it debuts an upgrade to its DecisionSite analytical and visualization software. DecisionSite 7.2 has capabilities that make it easier for power users to build their own analytical applications.

The software's new Analysis Builder tool guides users through the process of building an analytical application and specifying the data sources the application will tap into. The software also records the steps taken while conducting the analysis, reducing the time needed to re-create the analysis for other users.

"It really allows end users to capture the steps of what they are doing," says Charles Martin, CEO of Naxos Solutions Inc., which resells Spotfire software for analytical applications in law enforcement, state and local government, and health care. Martin has been testing DecisionSite 7.2 and says its new table-visualization capabilities make it easier to quickly sort through large volumes of data and identify the most relevant information.

Spotfire's software for assembling analytical applications gives users more flexibility than competing packaged analytical applications for horizontal tasks such as sales analysis or vertical industries, Forrester Research analyst Nate Root says. The Spotfire approach requires some analytical skills, he adds, but it "gives power users a lot more credit for mental horsepower than other [business-intelligence] tools. It's not dumbed-down."

New information links built into DecisionSite 7.2 make it easier to access data in databases, Excel and text files, and XML data sources. The software will be available in mid-June. Pricing will start at $25,000 to $50,000, depending on the scope of the implementation.