The Business Application Research Center’s (BARC) The BI Survey is the globe’s largest annual, and vendor independent, study of Business Intelligence (BI) software users.
The BI Survey 15 is the 2015 edition, and fourteenth iteration, of the study.
The BI Survey 15 was based on data derived from 3,267 survey respondents. The survey offers insight into how and why organizations utilize BI technologies, and offers direct – apples-for-apples – comparisons between the BI market’s premier BI products across important functional, performance, scalability and support criteria.
Yellowfin a standout performer in many categories in The BI Survey 15
“Users have rated Yellowfin’s BI platform very highly for the complex ‘Innovation’ KPI over the past four versions of The BI Survey – and results from The BI Survey 15 are no exception. Yellowfin is the top ranked vendor for ‘Innovation’ for all regions within its ‘mid-sized deployments’ Peer Group.
“The ‘Innovation’ KPI comprises ratings for seven pioneering product capabilities, including cloud BI, Collaborative BI, Data Discovery and data visualization, Mobile BI, operational BI, location Intelligence and visual design standards – areas in which Yellowfin excels. In particular, Yellowfin’s Collaborative BI capabilities support pervasive sharing of BI content amongst information consumers, as evidenced by the high proportion of employees using Yellowfin’s BI solution.
“New ideas and technologies are the lifeblood of the software industry. Yellowfin’s innovative product features are being embraced by its users, helping them achieve strong levels of satisfaction, high user adoption, project success and desired business benefits.”
Yellowfin: A top mid-sized deployments BI solution in BARC’s The BI Survey 15
Yellowfin was identified as a top-performing BI platform across many categories in the ‘mid-sized deployments’ Peer Group – throughout EMEA, the Americas and APAC.
Yellowfin ranked first for five KPIs – and was identified as a leader (ranked within the top 25 percent of products assessed) for an additional 11 KPIs – within the ‘mid-sized deployments’ Peer Group for the EMEA region.
Yellowfin was also a top ranked BI solution in three KPIs – and was pinpointed as a leading BI product in a further 14 KPIs – within the ‘mid-sized deployments’ Peer Group for the Americas region.
Additionally, Yellowfin was rated as the best performing BI platform for six KPIs – and was recognized as a leader for another 13 KPIs – within the ‘mid-sized deployments’ Peer Group for the APAC region.
“Yellowfin’s outstanding performance in BARC’s The BI Survey 15 demonstrates our ability to deliver value through advanced product features and high user adoption. Yellowfin was the top ranked BI solution for its vendor Peer Group in the critical Collaboration, Mobile BI and Innovation KPIs across all regions – EMEA, the Americas and APAC. Additionally, the average proportion of employees using Yellowfin within an organization was found to be 39 percent, compared an average of 17 percent for all products assessed in The BI Survey 15.”
Mid-sized deployments vendor Peer Group performance (EMEA)
Yellowfin was a top ranked ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Proportion of employees: Based on the percentage of employees that use the product
- Cloud BI: Based on how many sites currently use the product in a cloud environment
- Collaboration: Based on how many sites currently use collaboration features with their BI tool
- Mobile BI: Based on how many sites currently use mobile BI with their BI tool
- Innovation: Combines the ‘Cloud BI’, ‘Collaboration’, ’Data discovery/visualization’, ‘Mobile BI’, ’Operational BI’, ’Location intelligence’ and ‘Visual design standards’ KPIs to measure the product’s level of innovation
Yellowfin was also identified as a leading ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Business benefits: Based on the achievement level of a variety of business benefits
- Project success: Based on the implementation satisfaction level and the frequency of projects completed on time and on budget
- Recommendation: Based on how many users would recommend the product to others
- Data discovery and visualization: Based on how many sites currently use data discovery/visualization with their BI tool
- Location Intelligence: Based on how many sites currently use spatial/location analysis with their BI tool
- Operational BI: Based on how many sites currently use real-time data from transactional systems with their BI tool
- Performance satisfaction: Measures the frequency of complaints about the system’s performance
- Vendor support: Measures user satisfaction with the level of vendor support provided for the product
- Project length: Based on how quickly the product is implemented
- Agility: Combines the ‘Project length’, ‘Self-service’ and ’Flexibility for users’ KPIs
- Ease of use: Based on how often the product was chosen for its ease of use, and on the level of complaints about ease of use post-implementation
Mid-sized deployments vendor Peer Group performance (Americas)
Yellowfin was a top ranked ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Collaboration: Based on how many sites currently use collaboration features with their BI tool
- Mobile BI: Based on how many sites currently use mobile BI with their BI tool
- Innovation: Combines the ‘Cloud BI’, ‘Collaboration’, ’Data discovery/visualization’, ‘Mobile BI’, ’Operational BI’, ’Location intelligence’ and ‘Visual design standards’ KPIs to measure the product’s level of innovation
Yellowfin was also identified as a leading ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Business benefits: Based on the achievement level of a variety of business benefits
- Project success: Based on the implementation satisfaction level and the frequency of projects completed on time and on budget
- Proportion of employees: Based on the percentage of employees that use the product
- Recommendation: Based on how many users would recommend the product to others
- Cloud BI: Based on how many sites currently use the product in a cloud environment
- Data discovery and visualization: Based on how many sites currently use data discovery/visualization with their BI tool
- Location Intelligence: Based on how many sites currently use spatial/location analysis with their BI tool
- Performance satisfaction: Measures the frequency of complaints about the system’s performance
- Vendor support: Measures user satisfaction with the level of vendor support provided for the product
- Implementer support: Measures user satisfaction with the level of the implementer’s support for the product
- Customer satisfaction: Combines the ‘Product satisfaction’, ‘Vendor support’ and ‘Implementer support’ KPIs
- Project length: Based on how quickly the product is implemented
- Agility: Combines the ‘Project length’, ‘Self-service’ and ’Flexibility for users’ KPIs
- Ease of use: Based on how often the product was chosen for its ease of use, and on the level of complaints about ease of use post-implementation
Mid-sized deployments vendor Peer Group performance (APAC)
Yellowfin was a top ranked ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Proportion of employees: Based on the percentage of employees that use the product
- Cloud BI: Based on how many sites currently use the product in a cloud environment
- Collaboration: Based on how many sites currently use collaboration features with their BI tool
- Mobile BI: Based on how many sites currently use mobile BI with their BI tool
- Innovation: Combines the ‘Cloud BI’, ‘Collaboration’, ’Data discovery/visualization’, ‘Mobile BI’, ’Operational BI’, ’Location intelligence’ and ‘Visual design standards’ KPIs to measure the product’s level of innovation
- Vendor support: Measures user satisfaction with the level of vendor support provided for the product
Yellowfin was also identified as a leading ‘mid-sized deployments’ vendor in:
- Business benefits: Based on the achievement level of a variety of business benefits
- Project success: Based on the implementation satisfaction level and the frequency of projects completed on time and on budget
- Price-to-value perception: Based on how users rate their BI tool in terms of price-to-value
- Chosen as standard: How often the product is chosen to standardize on by respondents at multi-product sites
- Recommendation: Based on how many users would recommend the product to others
- Data discovery and visualization: Based on how many sites currently use data discovery/visualization with their BI tool
- Location Intelligence: Based on how many sites currently use spatial/location analysis with their BI tool
- Performance satisfaction: Measures the frequency of complaints about the system’s performance
- Implementer support: Measures user satisfaction with the level of the implementer’s support for the product
- Customer satisfaction: Combines the ‘Product satisfaction’, ‘Vendor support’ and ‘Implementer support’ KPIs
- Project length: Based on how quickly the product is implemented
- Agility: Combines the ‘Project length’, ‘Self-service’ and ’Flexibility for users’ KPIs
- Ease of use: Based on how often the product was chosen for its ease of use, and on the level of complaints about ease of use post-implementation
Ranking and criteria (KPIs)
The BI Survey 15 includes 14 aggregated KPIs, which can be absorbed at a glance. It also includes a set of 29 normalized KPIs, which are referred to as ‘root’ KPIs, for each of the 35 products assessed within The BI Survey 15. The ‘aggregated’ KPIs are aggregations of these root KPIs. This year, sets of KPIs have been calculated for each of the six Peer Groups. The values are normalized on the whole sample. Peer Groups are used to ensure similar products are compared against each other.
About Peer Groups in The BI Survey 15
Vendors in BARC’s The BI Survey are segmented into different Peer Groups based on how survey respondents – end-users with first-hand experience using vendor products and services – reportedly utilize vendor solutions.
Peer Groups are used to ensure similar products are compared against each other both in fairness to the vendor and for the benefit of the customer. The groups are designed to allow fair and useful comparisons of products that are likely to compete.
About The BI Survey 15
Now in its fourteenth year of publication, The BI Survey is an annual report based on the world’s largest vendor-independent survey of BI and Performance Management users. The BI Survey 15 attracted 3,267 responses. The BI Survey 15 uncovers the truth about why real-world organizations select BI products, how they use them, and with what success. It also compares the leading products in the market across a number of headline criteria, such as performance, scalability and vendor support.
The survey is published independently by BARC and, unlike many other surveys, it is not sponsored by any vendor. The questions are devised entirely by BARC’s BI analyst team. The BI Survey 15 enables the comparison of leading BI products across multiple criteria, in order to establish which tools are the best fit for particular organizations and industries. It also reveals the best practices that lead to the most successful BI projects, saving time and money in research hours and consulting fees.
About BARC
BARC is an enterprise software industry analyst delivering product evaluations, conferences, market research and consulting to over 1,000 customers each year. BARC specializes in advising organizations on software selection in its core research areas of BI, data management and enterprise content management.
Along with CXP and Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC), BARC forms part of the CXP Group – the leading European IT research and consulting firm with 140 staff in eight countries.