Yellowfin launches Yellowfin 7.2: Empowers business users with new Business Workflow

SOURCE: Yellowfin

Global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor, Yellowfin, has launched the latest version of its BI platform, Yellowfin 7.2.

Yellowfin 7.2 introduced new technical capabilities in three core areas, including:

– The Business Analytics Workflow: The Business Analytics Workflow introduces a new framework to facilitate superior collaboration between data analysts and business users within the BI platform

– API connectors: Yellowfin 7.2 ships with an open connector framework, enabling users to connect to, visualize and act on data from any third-party Web-based application

– Forecasting: Improved forecasting and trend analysis extend the breadth of Yellowfin’s predictive capabilities, facilitating better, faster data analysis

For an overview of the enhancements and improvements contained in Yellowfin 7.2, download the Yellowfin 7.2 overview brochure here: https://www.yellowfinbi.com/Document.i4?DocumentId=642902

Business Workflow: Driving in-platform collaboration and user adoption

“Yellowfin 7.2 is a modern BI platform that connects people and their data,” said Yellowfin co-Founder and CEO, Glen Rabie. “The unique Business Workflow framework in Yellowfin 7.2 empowers business users and data analysts to work collaboratively to produce better business insights. Crucially, it also enables the entire data-driven decision-making process to take place in the BI platform – where it belongs.”

Access and share Yellowfin’s collaborative decision-making video here: https://youtu.be/GjhW6xV4-4k

The Yellowfin Business Workflow provides a clear path and process for business users to directly connect with the BI and data experts in their organization, to raise trackable tasks and data quality issues, brainstorm ideas, collectively review content and take better, faster data-driven action.

“The BI industry, as a whole, has persistently low user adoption rates,” said Rabie. “In an attempt to combat that issue, many BI vendors have tried to turn business users into data analysts, making them perform self-service data preparation and analysis tasks. At Yellowfin, we think that’s entirely the wrong approach. The industry has been trying to do this for more than 20 years and user adoption rates have remained stagnant at between 12 – 20 percent.

“We approach the problem in a completely different way. Yellowfin’s Business Workflow boosts business user adoption by enabling those users to actively participate in the entire data-driven decision-making process. Business users get the BI content they need, without having to turn into overnight BI experts or data analysts.

“This way, business users can work together with data experts to ensure the best business insights are delivered, allowing them to make better and faster decisions, while concentrating on their core job function.”

Yellowfin Business Workflow delivers a unique collaborative method of improving task management and analytic workflow in order to connect business users with business analysts. Features include:

– Task Management: Yellowfin’s new Task Management system gives business users the power to raise and assign tasks from anywhere inside the Yellowfin BI platform. Users can flag data quality issues, as well as request, track and review analytic content or analysis before publishing and sharing.       Yellowfin’s Task Management system quickly connects business needs with BI experts in the organization, while giving users complete visibility over task progression – from creation through to completion.

– Discussion Boards: Plan BI projects inside Yellowfin’s BI platform with Kanban style Discussion Boards that allow data analysts and other BI users to brainstorm ideas, organize responses to tasks and manage projects. Yellowfin Discussion Boards also enable users to visualize and organize workflow into activity streams to boost transparency, enabling users to easily monitor and communicate progress.

– Smart Tasks: Yellowfin Smart Tasks improve accountability and instantly turn insight into action by automatically generating tasks from Yellowfin broadcasts. If data falls outside predefined thresholds, a task is instantly created, assigned and given a deadline for completion.

Experts agree: Collaboration in Yellowfin 7.2 addresses market need

Industry expert and Associate Analyst at Bloor Research, David Norris, said that Yellowfin’s collaborative Business Workflow framework addressed an important gap in the BI market.

“I find Yellowfin’s approach very interesting and agree that the key is not to try and make everyone a data analyst,” said Norris. “After all, as far as the business is concerned, data is IT’s domain – the business is only generally interested in the insights and outcomes of data analysis.”

When asked by Yellowfin, Norris said that other BI vendors had approached the challenge of increasing BI adoption differently – by attempting to push the data preparation and analysis responsibilities of the data analyst onto business users – “because it’s easier to adapt what they have to fulfill that goal”.

“Importantly, Yellowfin isn’t a BI tool attempting to make the business user a techie,” said Norris. “It is about presenting data to users in an attractive visual representation, backed-up with some of the most sophisticated collaboration tools embedded into a BI platform on the market.”

Principal Consultant at international BI consultancy Minerra, Steve Remington, echoed Norris’ sentiments.

“Research suggests it can be more efficient when a decision-maker delegates information collection and analysis to an analytics specialist,” said Remington. “The new workflow and collaboration capabilities in Yellowfin 7.2 can make it easier for decision-makers and analysts to work together because analysis and collaboration is more closely linked. This can lead to better outcomes from using analytics in organizations.”

API connectors in Yellowfin 7.2 make data more accessible

Yellowfin 7.2 also includes an ‘open’ connector framework, enabling clients to quickly and easily build custom connectors for any third-party Web application. Additionally, Yellowfin 7.2 will ship with a range of API connectors out-of-the-box, including pre-built reports and dashboards, for applications such as Salesforce, Xero, Google Analytics, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and more.

Access and share Yellowfin’s connectors video here: https://youtu.be/DrikuzedOUw

“Yellowfin’s connector framework and pre-built connectors empower users to easily create, share and act on analytical insights from their most important third-party Web apps,” said Rabie.

Enhanced predictive analytics capabilities in Yellowfin 7.2

New forecasting and trend analysis capabilities in Yellowfin 7.2 extend the breadth of Yellowfin’s analysis capabilities.

Access and share Yellowfin’s Data Discovery and forecasting video here: https://youtu.be/jAXGLzLF9vM

“Demand for predictive analytics is quickly growing as it becomes increasingly important for organizations to use their data assets to pinpoint trends and conduct accurate forecasting,” said Rabie. “Yellowfin 7.2 will deliver enhanced forecasting and trend analysis capabilities, making it easier for users to understand where their business is heading.”

New forecasting capabilities offer enhanced flexibility, allowing users to set the parameters used to create a model, which enables faster and more accurate forecasting. Changes to trend analysis allow users to easily plot the relationship between two variables on a chart to instantly identify a trend. Finally, users can now automatically plot an average value on a chart by simply selecting to show an average for a particular metric.

About Yellowfin

Yellowfin is a global Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics software vendor passionate about making BI easy. Founded in 2003 in response to the complexity and costs associated with implementing and using traditional BI tools, Yellowfin is a highly intuitive 100 percent Web-based reporting and analytics solution. Yellowfin is a leader in mobile, collaborative and embedded BI, as well as Location Intelligence and data visualization.

Over 10,000 organizations, and more than 1.5 million end-users across 70 different countries, use Yellowfin every day. For more information, visit www.yellowfinbi.com

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