Yellowfin receives high scores for its BI solution in Gartner user survey

Global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor, Yellowfin, has received strong customer endorsement in an official Gartner research note, compiled in relation to Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms.

Gartner is an information technology research and advisory company. Gartner’s BI and analytics Magic Quadrant provides an independent qualitative analysis of the BI and analytics market, its strategic direction, state of maturity and key technology vendors.

The research note – titled Survey Analysis: Customers Rate Their BI Platform Vendors, 2013 and authored by Gartner Research VP for BI, Rita Sallam – evaluated 34 vendors across six major indexes assessing vendor and product capabilities. Findings were based on 1702 survey responses, which form the customer research component of Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for BI and analytics platforms.

Each index divides vendors into four quadrants depending on their average scores for each horizontal and vertical metric.

Compared with other ‘Vendors to Consider’, Yellowfin was placed in the top right ‘leaders’ quadrant in five out of six survey indexes, including:

• Customer Experience vs Sales Experience
• BI Success vs View of Vendors’ Future
• Product Ease of Use vs Strength of Overall Functionality
• Complexity of Analysis vs Ease of Use & Achievement of Business Benefits
• Software Quality vs Quality of Support

In the critical ‘Product Ease of Use vs Strength of Overall Functionality’ index, Yellowfin was one of only two ‘Vendors to Consider’ to earn above average scores for both measures. Yellowfin also achieved the best ‘sales experience’ result of all ‘Vendors to Consider’, scoring 9.5 out of 10. When rating sales experience, survey participants were asked to rate their overall experience of “doing business” with their vendor, considering pre-sales, the sales process, contract negotiations and post sales relationship.

Sallam’s research note found that niche ‘Data Discovery’ vendors – of which Yellowfin was categorized – “dominated the top spots in many ratings”, with their “loyal customers rating them very highly on many aspects throughout the survey.”

Conversely, customer survey results revealed that “Megavendors continue to be judged below average by all respondents on many measures of customer success, ease of use, functionality and overall customer experience”.

The report exposed a notable trend away from ‘traditional’ BI vendors, stating that “customers of large, IT-centric vendors, those holding the top spots in terms of market share and installed base, report less success and lower achievement for business benefits than customers of most other vendors. These customers also tend to have a lower view of their vendors’ futures. This data suggests that without significant changes, these incumbent vendors will continue to be at risk in their installed bases and in new purchases, as up and coming vendors (data discovery, cloud, and small niche vendors) continue to deliver on key requirements.”

Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for BI and analytics platforms was released earlier this year. The report noted Yellowfin’s product focus on Mobile BI delivery, Collaborative BI, Location Intelligence and embedded BI, as well as the vendor’s recently released ‘Storyboard’ functionality – a fully integrated and interactive PowerPoint like presentation and collaboration module.

Yellowfin has a history of performing strongly in research based on customer feedback and satisfaction, receiving the highest outright score in Dresner Advisory Services’ 2013 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study. Via a combination of customer and vendor survey data, the study compares and ranks 17 of the world’s foremost BI vendors, their solution and associated services.

Yellowfin was also identified as a leading “Dashboard vendor” and “Small to Medium Projects vendor” in the Business Applications Research Center’s (BARC) The BI Survey 12 – the world’s largest end-user BI study.

About 2013 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Gartner changed the name of this Magic Quadrant from “Business Intelligence Platforms” to “Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms” to emphasize the growing importance of analysis capabilities to the information systems that organizations are now building.

Gartner’s 2013 Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms was authored by Gartner analysts Kurt Schlegel, Rita L. Sallam, Daniel Yuen, and Joao Tapadinhas.

About Yellowfin

Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Yellowfin is headquartered and developed in Melbourne, Australia, offering a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embeddable BI as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

For further media information, interviews, images or product demonstration, please contact:

Lachlan James, Yellowfin Communications Manager, on +61 (0)3 8617 4954, +61 (0)431 835 658 or lachlan.james@yellowfin.bi

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