ibi WebFOCUS Reviews & Insights

Score7 out of 10

33 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for ibi WebFOCUS are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Business Problems Solved

Users of WebFocus have found it to be a versatile tool for generating reports and analyzing data. It is widely used across different departments and projects within organizations, including sales, healthcare, marketing, procurement, and R&D. One key use case is the creation of dashboards and executive reporting, which enables key business individuals to build and manage information solutions effectively. Additionally, WebFocus is utilized for generating scheduled reports tied to releases and independent time-triggered reports, making it easier for users to access real-time data in graphical form.

WebFocus addresses the challenges of generating and handling reports efficiently. With its HTML pages, users can select parameters and run queries quickly and easily. The ability to generate custom reports in various formats such as HTML, Excel, or PDF provides flexibility for different users' preferences. Moreover, the integration with Oracle as the backend database enhances the reliability and performance of fetching data for display in reports.

Another notable use case of WebFocus is ad-hoc analysis of data, providing meaningful insights for analysts and executives. This feature allows users to perform predictive analytics using the new version 8 of WebFocus. Furthermore, it serves as a central business intelligence solution for consolidating transactional information from multiple countries, improving data quality and providing valuable insights for decision-making.

Overall, WebFocus is well-regarded by users due to its user-friendly interface, efficient report generation capabilities, support for various data formats, integration with Oracle as the backend database system, and its ability to fulfill diverse use cases across different departments within an organization.

Reviews

16 Reviews

Webfocus: a gem with a vast potential

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

March 9, 2021

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use [Information Builders WebFOCUS] as our main central BI and analytics solution, where we consolidate transactional information from over 20 of our countries (dispersed landscape). We translate the data in descriptive as well as prescriptive reports and dashboards, mainly focusing on marketing, procurement and r&d. We also use it to get insight in data quality and improve there

Pros

Integration in suite of information builders (data migrator, info assist, webfocus etc) allows me to do all ETL and reporting without need of other solutions
Flexibility in reporting. If the GUI cannot offer it, FOCUS (code) allows you to get really creative
Increased speed of development in the last 1-2 years
Bi for all types of users

Cons

More flexibility in graphs/charts out of the box (html5 allows for a lot, but they are not all out of the box or limited in the applicability)
Further development of info assist (it lags behind compared to the rest of the toolset)
Upgradeability could be easier

Likelihood to Recommend

I would less recommend it because it looks like IBI is receding a bit from the European market. I would not be certain for future support. Knowledge in the market in western Europe is limited

Functional wise the application suits almost all situations. I would for sure recommend it purely based on its capabilities

Verified User

Director in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

WebFOCUS: Intelligence in your hand

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

August 8, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Information Builders to perform a couple of functions. In one project different resources across different business units view reports and dashboards to assist in project management. Senior leaders also use the reporting to make key decisions and monitor the status of projects.

In the other solution we use WebFOCUS to provide client based reporting of data to show errors and a visible way to obtain client approval prior to implementing.

Pros

One thing that has always been good at WebFOCUS is how they interact with the customer on items. They take suggestions and implement them. In addition technical support is timely and very detailed.
I think they keep up with and lead in implementing new technologies in the BI space. One case of this are the ability for user to create their own easy dashboard using the green plus buttons. Also the ability to link d3 into and have the ability to implement new types of graphs is nice.
I have been to a spoke at one of their user conferences and they are worth going to. In addition to all of the great seminars the interaction you get with vendors and other users is key in the growth of your knowledge. I've learned so much for my time at these conferences.

Cons

Some product offerings we have looked at were cost prohibitive based on the licensing. This could be improved on by having different pricing models.
Sometimes developing solutions for what we've had to do has been difficult to figure out.

Likelihood to Recommend

WebFOCUS is a good comprehensive tool for BI for companies. I feel that scenarios where you want the user to interact and be able to ingest data in different formats would be a good use of the tool. Performing data discovery is easier with InfoAssist, especially the most recent versions, and allows users to customize their views and provide comments.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

Excellent Software for Data

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 28, 2018

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Webfocus is being used by several departments including inventory, merchandise planning, analytics, and marketing. We can view several reports about our catalog revenue and each item's conversion rate. The tool has helped us with maintaining records on what we put into every catalog as well as an updated sales report on catalogs that have been sent out.

Pros

Webfocus reports all have the option to export to Excel. The excel spreadsheet is always very organized and clean, and the information is very easy to read.
Webfocus is able to maintain data from years prior. We can look up what we featured in catalogs and all the sales history attached with it.
Webfocus is able to provide support to a variety of departments. For example, our buying team uses it for planning in advance and our marketing team uses the tool to see how categories and products as the selling

Cons

The functionally I would like to see is being able to export files in different formats.

Likelihood to Recommend

Webfocus is great for any company who wants to maintain a strong history of analytics. The reports update frequently so it is a great tool for any e-commerce business to have. I'm not sure how well it will work for any forms of business but Webfocus is currently one of our most used forms of software.

Verified User

Employee in Product Management (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

WebFocus BI tool review - The best BI tool I have used to date!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

August 9, 2017

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WebFocus is used across the organization. It is used for Sales dashboards and to give various departments reports (ReportCaster) and graphically displayed real time data. It is very convenient in how it can connect to any data and reports can be generated very quickly and are easy to debug. HTML pages make it easier for users to select parameters and run queries faster.

Pros

Great technical support - If you have a question or issue they will get back to you very fast and get it resolved. Never had a problem with their support.
I can get ANY data I want from practically any source, read it, filter it and display it quickly in a report, graph, etc...
I love the way LDAP is used in WebFocus 8 to grant user access. We use this through portals, folders, etc... This way if a user is in a certain LDAP group or groups they have access and can see and run certain reports. If not, they can't see anything.
I love the ability to completely customize reports, graphs, dashboards, portals, etc... We can finetune anything to any data and present it in anyway we see fit and do it quickly. Far quicker turn around then SAP Crystal Reports or any other comparable BI platform.
Very high reliability and uptime. No other BI product comes close. It's basically set it and forget it. It runs like a tank.

Cons

The admin console can be a little confusing for new people, but it doesn't take long to figure out where everything lives and how it works.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited for just about everything that I have seen or run into. There are some cases with data from sources like Essbase (Hyperion) and other sources where you may need an adapter, but IBI has adapters available for just about everything you can think of. I also love the ability to run either straight WebFocus code or SQL code.

David Maillie

Application Development Analyst and Software Engineer in Information Technology at Europa Sports Products (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

View profile

WebFOCUS in Higher Ed

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

September 12, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WebFOCUS is the primary reporting and analytics tool used by Information Technology and the various departmental representatives in need of institutional data, including enrollment management, student development, academic affairs, and institutional research. It is the primary aggregator for multiple datasets across several information systems and is used for official reporting internally and externally.

Pros

Customizable reporting - strength for any data needs to customize to business practices
Integration with existing data systems - important to not re-invent the wheel
Expertise and support - ability to find and implement solution details for various users

Cons

Learning curve - internal knowledge of WebFOCUS required to maximize use of platform
UI outdated - in a modern age of web-based services, the user interface is outdated

Likelihood to Recommend

WebFOCUS is great for creating customized reports across multiple datasets and has served our institution well to report timely and actionable data for various constituents internally and externally. The need for expertise in WebFOCUS and the internal datasets supplied for analysis can be cumbersome for one particular area of responsibility, which is why embedded departmental analysts are probably the best resource.

Verified User

Director in Sales (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

WebFOCUS 7

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

WebFOCUS is currently in use across the whole organization from field users to upper management. We are using this technology to keep track of some metrics and to display them in reports. The information that we use come from different sources and we are working to crunch it and make it available in our WebFOCUS servers so our reports can display properly in a fast way.

Pros

I think that the speed that WebFOCUS use is good. You are able to process high amounts of data in just minutes.
It is easy to create basic reports and the tools that it provides are very good in order to achieve the goals of the team. It let you create data marts and reports that will work together to display the information that our users need.
WebFOCUS can work with some many different sources at the same time. It leads you to be able to work using different technologies.

Cons

The Developer Studio has some bugs. I've faced errors where swapping between our DEV and PROD servers causes that the software stops responding.
Easy to find documentation and examples. WebFOCUS has some help with this but it'd be better to provide more real life examples.
Sometimes it's harder to code the graphical interface of the report because of the HTML styling.

Likelihood to Recommend

I would recommend WebFOCUS to colleagues if asked. I think this is a very impressive tool that we use to process information in a very efficient way. Our reports load fast and the information is very accurate. I also think that WF could be used in any kind of scenarios. I am planning to attend the WF summit this year and I've seen so many companies that are sharing what they've done with this and basically can be used anywhere.

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

WebFocus one of the Best BI analysis tools

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

June 1, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Webfocus is used across the whole company. For example in the stores the managers are able to see reports on a daily basis. At the SSC we develop reports for all levels of the company hierarchy. With the reports we provide via webFocus, the vice presidents of the company will make important decisions for the company.

Pros

The software is continuously improving
Easy to learn programming language
Very fast and stable
Compatible with most web browsers

Cons

Price
Support
Training

Likelihood to Recommend

Luis Miramontes

Programmer in Information Technology at AutoZone (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Good reporting system.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

May 31, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It's being used across different areas of the organization. Primarily we use it as a massive reporting tool for our business, helping our more than 5,000 stores to keep track of the multiple KPIs. Nevertheless it's also used as data management system for big data systems such as Hadoop, ODS, Greenplum, etc. Providing ad-hoc analysis of data is a big part of what WebFOCUS is being used for as well, helping us provide our analysts/executive team with meaningful data to determine business and operational decisions.

Pros

Massive reporting, allows multiple users to access the same report at the same time within a fraction of a second. Its open, code wise, enough for you to assign distinct drilling levels and data view restrictions.
Ad-Hoc Analysis will allow you to manage millions of rows of data within seconds for you to provide with the proper analysis for your different needs/areas.
Data management in WebFOCUS is also very easy to understand and code, giving even the non-tech savy users a useful tool for reporting.
FOCmarts can make your reporting so much more faster, when you have so much data to analyze having a tool that provides you with the ability to save off a smaller table of data with only what you need, always comes handy.

Likelihood to Recommend

We have very good experience with WebFOCUS being able to distribute massive reports through emails or web. It's really helpful to quickly present data in a very innovative way. Unfortunately programming wise is hard to edit and you could potentially affect the report in a way that is hard to make it fit on every drill down that your report may have.

Saul Arrazate

Lead Developer in Information Technology at AutoZone (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

Focused on WebFOCUS

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

May 5, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Information Builders WebFOCUS to not just create dashboards and executive reporting, but to enable key business individuals to build and manage information solutions supporting their departmental organizations as well as across the enterprise. By surfacing appropriately staged data with governance and oversight through a tool like the WebFOCUS BI Portal the business is able to rise above the tail chasing that normally happens when attempting to generate reports and insights leveraging the business and an IT report writer.

Pros

WebFOCUS as a BI and analytics platform has all of the necessary components to successfully implement and run a competent and intelligent organization.
WebFOCUS has adapters into any data source that has ever been made and is being made. This allows reach into virtually any system to report and analyze the data.
With version 8 of WebFOCUS the usability of the BI Portal and the development environments are extremely robust, yet easy to use. Business users are able to quickly and effectively get up to speed and build powerful solutions with minimal assistance.
The ability to parameterize virtually anything and also access to the backend coding allows powerful, creative, and innovative solutions.

Cons

Bullet graphs and a few of the newer multi-variable graph types are not available that are very handy in specific situations. They are in the works, but not in the current version.

Likelihood to Recommend

Information Builders has built a broad and deep platform for data access, reporting, and analytics over the past 40 years. Given this, they have a suite of offerings that will fill needs of small companies to the largest. If a company is looking for a tool for a data scientist type of position their InfoDiscovery or RStat tools will fill the need, but where I feel they shine is at a mid-sized enterprise model where the platform is leveraged by everyone... at the appropriate accessibility levels. Companies should have governance over who does and sees what. I strongly recommend that only 5% of the individuals in the business should have "designer" access, and those individuals must be mentored and connected to all of the others in the company. No silos.

Rob Fosnaugh

Sr. Manager - Business Intelligence in Information Technology at Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

9 years of experience

View profile

Webfocus is E-Z ..By using the new tools development is a breeze

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

February 26, 2016

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It was an enterprise application that allowed for ease of reporting from the Meditech system (primarily). We also used it for other systems to bridge data to Meditech.

Pros

The Info Assist tool in Webfocus was wonderful. Easy to use GUI, powerful, capable of complex calculations easily.
I loved the data loader tool. It was a simple GUI interface that allowed for a great deal of flexibility.
The education and communication from the company was great. They had an in person user forum and the web resources where wonderful. This made it easy to learn and grow your skills.

Cons

There is a gap between old system users and new users. It was hard to find help from Info Assist users vs old users that would send you back a pile of code vs. how to do it on the GUI.
Layering of reports was easy, but when it got to real depth it was harder. I needs another layer which would allow for more self directed exportation of the data , under the structured layer.
Formal support was not so hot. My rep was really the person who could get stuff done.

Likelihood to Recommend

It works well with large structured data from a database. I would not use it as the primary solution to pull from source systems.

Tara Barnes Olsen

Business systems analyst in Finance and Accounting at AmerisourceBergen (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile