Lavastorm Analytics Engine and other ETL softwares

A few departments (non IT) in my company are using Lavastorm Analytics Engine and are trying to push this to be used company wide for analytics.  I have just started to read up on it and it basically looks like an ETL software.  As an enterprise solution, it does seem a bit pricey as well.  Currently we also have SSIS as part of our agreement with Microsoft.  I'm also working on a BI roadmap, but impatience is building up and everyone seems eager to move ahead with Lavastorm now.  Are any of you guys familiar with Lavastorm and is it worth purchasing since we already have SSIS?  Also, I've been trying to find reviews of this software but have been unable to find anything much outside their website.

Never heard of it either. But if you need an onsite review be sure to let me know!

I've never heard of it either - but it looks like yet another product promising to bypass the IT department, put the power in the hands of the end-user, etc, etc. It may well achieve this - but I would approach it with a sceptical attitude.
I agree that many IT departments (and I work in one) are slow to respond to changing user requirements and can be a blocker to the legitimate desire by business users to embrace better ways of working. However, bypassing the IT department with applications like this can lead to anarchy as everyone goes off to do their own thing and there is no common definition of business terms/processes/calculations etc. So even if the application does deliver what it says then it is unlikely to be a silver bullet as your company still needs to put in place, and manage, the appropriate controls.

If your company does want to go down this route then I would strongly suggest that a proper business case is put together, requirements gathered, the market researched, etc. Then a list of candidate applications can be put together and bench-marked against the requirements leading to an informed choice.

Choosing Lavastorm because someone in your company has some experience of it elsewhere and then "sold" it to their colleagues is probably not the best way of selecting a tool like this!

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the delayed response.  Thank you both for your comments, I appreciate it.  I was thinking along the same lines as you nick_white, this is not something I'd want for us to hastily adopt without the proper pre requisites being met.  In a couple months I should be able to deliver my recommendations and then hopefully make an informed decision.  As reference, I'm using the data warehouse lifecycle toolkit to assist us in charting a way forward. Once again thanks and have a nice day.