Introduction to Yellowfin BI
Yellowfin BI is a comprehensive and innovative business intelligence (BI) platform designed to connect people with their data, enabling transformative insights and decision-making. Founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2003, Yellowfin has evolved into a global leader in the BI, analytics, dashboard, and reporting software market.
What Yellowfin BI Does
Yellowfin BI is more than just a visualization tool; it is a robust platform that simplifies the entire analytics workflow. Here are the core aspects of what Yellowfin BI does:
- Data Connection and Preparation: Yellowfin works with data in existing sources, including JDBC compliant databases, XML/A compliant cubes, CSV files, and third-party sources like Salesforce and Google Analytics. It does not require data import, allowing users to connect live to various data models and run models exported in PMML or PFA formats.
- Analytics and Reporting: The platform supports self-service BI, enabling users to create reports and dashboards using advanced tools such as the Report Builder, Quick Charts, and Guided Natural Language Query (NLQ). This makes data-driven insights accessible to both technical and non-technical users.
- Automated Business Monitoring: Yellowfin features automated business monitoring through threshold-based alerts and AI-driven signals. This ensures that critical changes in the business are never missed, with personalized alerts and detailed insights into the root cause of data events.
- Data Storytelling and Management Reports: The platform allows users to create rich data visualizations and professional management reports. Data stories can be presented in long-form narrative or presentation modes, providing context to the numbers and facilitating better decision-making.
Key Features and Functionality
Data Visualization and Dashboards
Yellowfin supports a wide variety of data visualizations, including tabular reports, cross-tabular reports, and various chart types. Users can interact with these visualizations through drilling down hierarchies, applying filters, and exporting data to multiple formats like Excel and PDF.
Embedded Analytics
The platform is renowned for its embedded analytics capabilities, allowing businesses to integrate analytics into their operational workflows. This is particularly useful for software companies and multi-tenancy hosted environments.
Augmented Analytics
Yellowfin Signals, a key component, uses machine-assisted insights to automate the analysis of data, generating personalized alerts for interesting changes. This feature deploys complex ranking algorithms to ensure only the most relevant insights are alerted to the user.
Collaboration and Sharing
The platform includes robust collaboration features, enabling users to share, discuss, and follow data stories and signals. This facilitates teamwork and ensures that insights are acted upon efficiently.
Data Governance and Security
Yellowfin provides a comprehensive data governance framework, ensuring data security and compliance. The platform supports multi-tenancy, data integration, and customizable interfaces, making it adaptable to various business needs.
Mobile BI and Geospatial Analytics
Yellowfin offers a responsive mobile BI platform, allowing users to access and interact with data on mobile devices. Additionally, it includes geospatial analytics for location-based insights.
Performance Monitoring and Self-Service BI
The platform supports performance monitoring, scheduled reporting, and ad hoc reporting, making it a versatile tool for ongoing business performance analysis. Self-service BI options accelerate discovery and enable users to create reports in a governed manner.
Unique Differentiators
- Extensibility and Flexibility: Yellowfin allows users to create unique analytical experiences with dashboard canvases or use code mode to embed workflows and operationalize data science models.
- Integrated Location Intelligence and Social Media Layer: The platform includes integrated location intelligence and social media layers, enhancing the depth of insights available to users.
- AI/ML Capabilities: Yellowfin pioneered the use of AI and machine learning (ML) in BI with the introduction of augmented analytics, data science integration, and ETL capabilities.
In summary, Yellowfin BI is a powerful and flexible platform that offers a broad range of functionalities to transform data into actionable insights, making it an invaluable tool for businesses seeking to enhance their analytics and decision-making capabilities.