Spotfire will today launch an analytics suite designed specifically for business end-users, offering enhanced visual displays, and improved and faster report generation.

Spotfire Data Experience (DXP), built on Microsoft’s .Net architecture, is designed to allow business users to analyse and publish corporate reports without needing help from the IT department, the company said.  

Mark Lorion, director of product development at Spotfire, said the new suite meant business user could quickly drill down into corporate data. "It allows business users to ask questions of their reports," he added. "For example, a sales manager can look at sales figures, but then analyse them by brand or region or other factors, such as when marketing campaigns were running, and get the new data back instantly."

Lorion argued that by putting this analytics functionality in the hands of business users, firms could speed up decision-making. "Previously, if managers wanted to do analysis they often had to go back to the IT department and request that new reports that extended the data cube in use were generated and formatted," he said. "Such delays… mean managers are either making decisions without all the data in front of them or, because of the limitations of analytics tools, they are moving the data into Excel, which is not a very powerful analytics environment."