Yellowfin Product Roadmap & Vision Update 2024

Earlier this year, Yellowfin celebrated its 20th anniversary. While we have been around for a while, some things remained constant - our focus on customer and innovation.

Yellowfin was borne out of the frustrations felt by our founders, and millions of other information workers, in accessing the data they need to do their jobs effectively, a frustration just as relevant today as it was 20 years ago. The principle of connecting business users to information in the easiest and most effective way has driven, and continues to drive Yellowfin’s innovation strategy.

Yellowfin delivered many market firsts:

• Unique set of collaboration features for sharing information across enterprises
• Data storytelling capabilities that bring completely new ways to communicate data
• Innovations in machine learning (ML) - including our Signals product which fully automates the information discovery
• Natural Language Query (NLQ) approach to information querying that today we are enhancing to incorporate flexible AI capabilities
  
  

Over the years we grew from a relative minnow in the BI-world to a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant and the tool behind the analytics products of many large companies around the world.

Our focus on customers

At its core, Yellowfin is all about providing information to the workers that need it, irrespective of the industry they work in or the role that they play. Whether accessing information on-demand, or having it pushed to them on a regular basis. Providing the flexibility to  consume data in tabular form, chart form, in high-fidelity dashboards, long-form data stories, or getting insights on their mobile on the go. Yellowfin is designed to cater to a vast array of needs, and do so at scale. Yellowfin can be incognito, embedded within any application. Yellowfin services the information needs of many millions of customers every day, who don’t even realize they are using it as their analytics tool.

Yellowfin continues to invest in things that have made us great, as well as focus on carefully considered and impactful innovation. In recent years, we have focused on modernizing and simplifying Yellowfin. Some key features covered in the 9.x incremental releases, are:

• New workflows for data connectivity, including more data connectors
• New workflows for locating and organizing content
• Improved User Interface (UX)
• Improved Embedding and Customization Capabilities
• Improved Operational Reporting
  
  

Here is an example of the Revamped Navigation UX Planned for Release in 9.13

Quality is a key focus area for Yellowfin. Over the last two years we have made concentration on quality improvements a top priority compared to new functionality. We believe that Version 9 was a milestone that set Yellowfin apart, containing a large number of innovative features. Quality, scalability and performance are paramount for Embedded Analytics use cases. Our positive customer feedback is a testament that this is the right direction and we will continue to emphasize quality with every new release.

Operational reporting

Our Yellowfin 9.12 release (released just this month) delivered some significant improvements to our operational reporting capabilities. Yellowfin’s operational reporting is arguably the most comprehensive in the market today. We have stayed committed to operational reporting, whilst other competitors and new entrants have overlooked this vital capability. To this day, the mass distribution of reports in tabular form, delivered in the format of choice for users (PDF, XLS, DOCX) still remains the most common way that information is delivered to information workers (for many through legacy platforms likeOracle, IBM and SAP). In 9.12, we added additional flexibility for exporting dashboards, creating flexible distribution schedules (aka broadcasting), and customizing PDF and XLS outputs to further consolidate our leadership position. The balance of advanced modern visualization and core reporting has made Yellowfin the preferred platform for modernization use cases.

Embracing artificial intelligence (AI)

Yellowfin has incorporated Machine Learning (ML) in several areas of the product, such as Natural Language Query Processing (NLQ) and Automated Business Monitoring. In the spirit of focusing on the customer, we have taken a more considered approach to implementing AI that focuses on true value added use cases vs implementing AI for the sake of marketing buzz. 

Our evaluation of Gen AI and specifically the emerging field of AI analytics, shows enormous potential for innovation and is now an integral part of our roadmap. Later this year, Yellowfin will introduce new chatbots that leverage large language model (LLM) capabilities to better assist users in learning about Yellowfin’s features, as well as assisting developers in generating the code they need to utilize Yellowfin’s application programming interface (APIs). We are working on integrating LLM capabilities into our Guided NLQ and Assisted Insights features, to create even more intuitive and powerful self-service analytics capabilities.

Developer productivity for embedded analytics

We recognize that with the increased adoption of Yellowfin as an Embedded BI and Analytics engine for new applications, developers are a key customer. Our platform is well tailored for customizations and embedding, but has historically lacked robust productivity tools to make it easier for new developers.

We are currently working on an extensive update to our REST API which will increase developer productivity. This will add further opportunities for our customers to automate key processes, including the creation of the meta-data layer, including individual customizations for software company clients running large-scale multi-tenant environments. We are also developing enhancements to our developer documentation and playgrounds of sample applications.

New release nomenclature and phasing

Our end-users have noted that we maintain the 9.x release structure for longer than usual. This represents a new strategic direction to make upgrades smoother and makes the introduction of new features less disruptive. The increased stability of the platform helps us minimize the risk of breaking changes. Customers should expect a lot more 9.x releases. This release strategy is also in line with industry trends, where we try to eliminate the significance of any one particular release.

We encourage our users to visit the Yellowfin Community, where you can submit product questions and feature requests.