Putting the “Social” in Social BI: Meet Lou Jordano

Meet Spotfire’s new director of product marketing, Lou Jordano (@LouJordano).  Today, we’re sharing Lou’s thoughts on why he joined Spotfire and how mobile technology and

Meet Spotfire’s new director of product marketing, Lou Jordano (@LouJordano).  Today, we’re sharing Lou’s thoughts on why he joined Spotfire and how mobile technology and Social BI are changing the way people work together.

Q: Why did you join Spotfire? What makes Spotfire so unique?

A: Spotfire just seemed so exciting from the outside – the demo gallery offered me some great clues early on as to just how great the product really is – and leading up the Product Marketing function was exactly the type of opportunity that would allow me to make the impact I was seeking. Also, I had experience with text analytics in my previous job so the broader analytics / BI space really intrigued me. Frankly, the opportunity to join Spotfire was too great to pass up. I am thrilled to be on board and am working hard to make sure that customers & prospects, partners as well as press & analysts all have an accurate understanding regarding the value that Spotfire can deliver and what makes it such a differentiating offer.

Q: How do you see companies using the ‘live data’ model of Spotfire and interactive data and forecasting? Is using the iPad and other devices instead of print reports and PowerPoint slides to ask ‘what if?” questions on-the-fly really changing the way people are working together?

A: Fueled by incredibly powerful and intuitive devices such as smartphones, tablets, e-readers, and the like, people expect to access information from anywhere. Moreover, Google has significantly raised expectations re: information discovery; most things should be knowable with just a few clicks. Batched reports generated overnight are out-of-date by 9am the next morning. What really provides that split-second advantage to today’s leading organizations is on-the-spot data interrogation. The more it pervades the organization, the greater the operational efficiencies and competitive advantages. The best Marketing managers have closed loop campaign information at their fingertips – those struggling to cobble together that information from fourteen different spreadsheets and a dump from Salesforce might as well be using lanterns to light their offices. Similarly, sales directors need to command detailed status regarding sales pipeline across their territories; engineering leads must know off hand how actuals compare against forecasted development expenses, and executives value easy-to-read dashboards that present a macro view of business operations, while also expecting on the spot answers to questions fired off constantly. Simply put, you want your average business user not only to be able to find and access information, but to quickly extract meaningful insights to make informed decisions more quickly than ever before. And this is exactly what Spotfire provides.

Q: Now that analytics is catching on as a core competitive advantage, is the next differentiation in how many ways, or departments or people, are using analytics and BI tools to make data-driven decisions?

A: Certainly, broadening the user population the more information workers who use Spotfire, the more data-driven decisions can be made, and that translates into higher levels of organizational efficiency. To ensure widespread adoption across information workers, ease-of-use is paramount. Spotfire is among the easiest to use analytic applications, and that is one reason it has such a loyal customer base. In analytics, power and presentation matter, and Spotfire has both.

If you want to learn more about Lou and keep up on the Analytics and BI space be sure to follow @LouJordano on Twitter.

David Wallace
Spotfire Blogging Team