Tableau: Is It The Business Intelligence Solution For You? (2024)

Tableau Software is likely a top prospect if you are looking to choose a business intelligence, visual analytics platform, or data visualization tool for your analytics efforts.

Like most visualization and reporting tools, Tableau products help people see and understand data visually.

The big question? Is it the right tool for you? Our scorecard will help you understand how best to answer when to use the software, especially when compared to the alternatives.

• A data exploration and visualization tool for actionable insights
• It provides visuals that enhance users’ natural ability to spot visual patterns.
• Delivers drag and drop interactive dashboards that support “insights on the fly.”
• Allows you to ask questions, spot trends, and identify opportunities
• Connects to SQL databases, spreadsheets, cloud apps, and flat files like CSV
• Adam Selipsky is the CEO and is headquartered in Seattle, WA, US.

The company provides desktop, server, and hosted software that allows users to connect, explore, and visualize their data. The software has native connectors that enable it to query relational databases, cloud databases, flat files, and spreadsheets.

In June 2019, Salesforce indicated it was buying the modern analytics platform company for $15.7 billion in an all-stock deal. Salesforce mentioned expanding its Einstein platform (home of all of Salesforce’s AI-based initiatives) and “Customer 360” with Tableau capabilities.

Usually, people exploring will start with questions like “Is Tableau easy to use” or “What does each Tableau license cost?”.

While we touch on these types of questions, this review is based on a 10 point scorecard that provides an objective framework to evaluate the analytics platform.

In this post, we will cover a few topics;

• How to access the desktop, server, or online versions
• The Tableau explorer, Tableau data prep, and other adjacent tools/features
• Creating dashboards, visualizations, reporting
• Planning for data management and architecture
• Access to a community of Tableau consulting partners and training
• The concepts of admins, explorers, and viewers for creation or sharing reports
• Undertaking advanced data analytics with third-party data sets from sources like Google Analytics, Facebook, CRM, and others
• The financials of how it is billed annually and scaling costs

The company states that it “helps the world’s largest organizations unleash the power of their most valuable assets: their data and their people.”

This statement aligns with its’ “analytics for anyone” positioning as the accessible and intuitive BI choice for a business user or like-minded people passionate about insights.

The software is focusing on simple, intuitive products and easy access to self-service analytics for non-technical “business” users and visualization experts.

The use of attractive visualizations, combined with an intuitive user interface, positions the BI tool well with executive decision-makers eager to have information presented clearly and accessible in different formats, including mobile.

It also appeals to analysts that are “power users” who may be looking for alternatives to traditional BI solutions with a different class of analytics capabilities offered by an integrated analytics platform.

Questions to ask yourself

Are you in the target audience the software is built for? Is there alignment with your needs and the product focus and roadmap?

Noteworthy features are improved AI capabilities with “Explain Data.” This feature automatically delivers AI-driven explanations of values in the data.

The service uses Bayesian methods to surface statistically significant explanations behind data points.

In edition to Explain Data, the main areas of focus for reporting visualizations and dashboard creation. These have been hallmarks of the software since its inception. The following are a few of the critical features promotes for its software:

• Tableau data visualization design capabilities are first-rate, which increases the speed at which users can be productive
• Appealing visualization outputs with bar charts, sparklines, maps, graph to improve absorbing complex information to inform business decisions, including Tableau dashboards for broader information sharing
• Easily connects to your data warehouse in a matter of just a few clicks and has plenty of data connectors allowing you to join the data from multiple data sources
• Allows you to perform queries without a single line of code
• Allows you to filter data and show relationships

• Allows you to build interactive dashboards combined from data sources and formats
• Provides comprehensive analytics with linear geometry, MATLAB, and machine learning capabilities

• Collaborative features and skills with the addition of Tableau Server
• Sharing capabilities in Server and Online that allow users to publish dashboards for teammates, partners, and even customers
• It allows you to interact with dashboards using a browser or mobile-based device via Apple and Android apps.

Questions to ask yourself

Do these features align with your expectations, needs, and aspirations? Check out the release notes to find the latest version info. You may want to explore older versions or look at changes across multiple versions of the software.

The software comes in a desktop, server, and online hosted model.

• Desktop is used for powerful data visualizations and has an interactive dashboard. Windows and Mac support tableau Desktop.
• Server allows dashboard sharing and collaboration across teams in the organization. At the moment, the Server is Windows and Linux compatible.
• Tableau Online is a hosted server version to skip hardware setup. It is always updated, reliable, and secure. Tableau Mobile can be used here to access data on the go through iOS or Android apps.
• Tableau Public is free software that allows anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and create interactive data visualizations for the web.
• Tableau Reader is free and allows you to open and interact with data visualizations built in Tableau Desktop.
• Self-service data preparation can occur with Tableau Prep Builder and Prep Conductor. (see our Tableau Data Prep post for loading outputs to a data lake)

The software supports a broad collection of database connectors as well as flat files like CSV and spreadsheets. Among those are Amazon Athena, Aurora, EMR and Redshift, Apache drill, Cloudera Hadoop, Hortonworks, MapR, Google BigQuery, Oracle, Prest, SAP, Teradata, and other “big data” systems.

Questions to ask yourself

Do you have the hardware to run the desktop and server software? Do mobile apps add value to you?

Discussions is a relatively new feature, but useful. It is built for real-time conversations between colleagues. Users can easily comment and use snapshots to draw attention to a particular detail or viewpoint with Discussions.

Questions to ask yourself

How important are collaboration capabilities? Does the software support your vision for team collaboration?

The software can be an intuitive tool for experienced analysts; however, training would be essential for many new users before they could enjoy the tool's full potential.

Keep in mind that you will have to invest some time, and often money, for your employees and yourself to learn how to get the most out of the software and go beyond basic queries. Luckily, Tableau provides rich sources of training materials:

• Tableau tutorials (video) on their site. There are over 80 videos that guide through getting to know how everything works. Tutorials help users become more skilled with advanced analytic and visualization capabilities.
• Training playbooks like the “Starter Kit” offer a self-paced learning environment for users to grow comfortable and productive with the software.
• Live Online Training and Classroom Training. Live online training allows you to choose your topic for a one-hour live, instructor-led webinar with audience Q&A. Classroom training includes in-person training courses offered in cities around the world.

Tableau certification is provided through various training classes.

Data visualization courses on the web can help you get started with the tool and pick up basics. For example, a Data visualization course on Coursera teaches you to structure your data analysis projects and streamline them effectively to design meaningful “data stories.” As a nice bonus, this course comes with a 6-month license.

Questions to ask yourself

Does the approach to product training and education fit the learning style of you and your team?

The software is well known for a passionate and engaged user community through its community forum. Users can seek advice, ask questions, share recommendations, and samples of their work, and post suggestions on improvements they want to see. A big community is built around a free version.

The public distribution option allows anyone to connect to a spreadsheet or file and create interactive data visualizations for the web.

They also host Tableau User Groups that allows users to catch up and discuss anything with other enthusiasts in their area. Those groups can be found on their Tableau community site as well as on LinkedIn.

Several enthusiasts and evangelists’ sites and blogs offer tips, tricks, and advice. Here are just a few examples:

• VizWiz (Andy Kriebel)
• Drawing With Numbers (Jonathan Drummey)
• Paint by Numbers (Peter Gilks)
• The Information Lab (staff contributors)

The company runs chats, discussions, and weekly projects such as #MakeoverMonday on Twitter and other social media. Also, they run an annual Tableau Conference where you can meet thousands of passionate users and have countless opportunities to learn.

Questions to ask yourself

How important is it to have a community to rely on for inspiration, advice, and feedback?

The software is used by companies large and small around the world:

• Multi-National Corporations from different sectors like Aerospace and Defence (Aer Lingus, AeroMéxico, SpaceX, etc.)
• Associations & Non-profits (Medway Youth Trust, TNP2K, French Red Cross, etc.);
• Higher Education (Faculdade de Informática e Administração Paulista (FIAP), University of Birmingham)
• Computer and Information Technology companies like Adobe, Dell, Lenovo, Paypal, Yahoo!, Cisco.

The information is open and can be found on this page.

Questions to ask yourself

Do customer success stories align with your expectations? Any parallels to your organization?

The company provides both unpaid and paid customer support. All customers have access to a private customer support portal to log and manage requests, licenses, and other communications with the support team.

The company also provides a broad cross-section of guides, FAQs, and knowledge base for self-support:

• Knowledge Base
• Product Help
• Support FAQs
• All Tech Specs
• Known Issues
• Release Notes
• Security Bulletins
• Tableau Blog

They also offer paid Tableau training options;

• Customer Success
• Technical Account Management
• Consulting Services

Lastly, they can be contacted via Twitter.

Questions to ask yourself

Does the approach support customers to align with your needs or the need of your team?

They have a robust partner ecosystem covering the spectrum of professionals, from independent consultants to full-blown service organizations. These partners typically fall into the following categories:

• Technology: Technology partners create software products that enhance or complement the experience.
• Talent: Tableau developers, consultants, and freelancers that have a background in BI, specific training or certifications, or have expertise with enablement (i.e., building data systems that support use)

To see a list of current partners, you can visit this page.

Questions to ask yourself

How important is a vibrant partner ecosystem? Do you envision the need to tap into a partner network at any point?

A big question is always, “How much does it cost?”. Tableau license costs moved to a subscription model. The subscription pricing starts at $35 per user, per month, for Desktop. Server pricing is now $42 per user, per month, for its online fully-hosted version. If you are not sure, you can always start a 14-day free trial.

It is important to note; those are the costs for licenses only. You will want to also factor in your total cost of ownership (TCO). You will likely need to factor in onboarding, training, equipment, servers, support, and so forth.

The following are a few key areas to make sure you have covered in your analysis:

• Software: the cost of licenses, maintenance, and subscriptions
• Infrastructure: on-premises hardware or cloud services. This includes client software.
• Data Costs: the cost of data sources or connectors used by the solution
• Labor: the effort associated with the use of business intelligence tools, including that of procurement, IT, and training teams

As with any software, if you leave the labor costs, software training, and IT resources needed, you will significantly reduce your chance of success and blow your budgets.

Questions to ask yourself

Does pricing align with your budgets? Does the purchasing process fit with corporate procurement processes or standards?

Users often report they enjoy working with the Tableau software solution. While an alternative to Tableau can be found, few match the simplicity, ease of use, and visual outputs are often cited as the reasons for selecting it.

The software has a very active and supportive community, including forums and individual blogs, so that you won’t be left without a path to an answer.

Combining a passionate community, a ton of online learning material, and plenty of self-paced training available, it can be a compelling option to consider. Teams are doing some innovative and cost-effective deployments building serverless business intelligence stacks.

Not all tools are perfect for all people, teams, or companies. Our suggestion is to experiment before committing (i.e., purchasing) licenses or long-term contracts.

They offer a free trial, so take advantage of it with a quick Tableau desktop download. During your trial, use a standard dataset to explore how your data works within the software.

Try out different visualizations and assess your comfort level with the user interface and workflows.

D Want to discuss BI for your organization? Need a platform and team of data engineering experts to kickstart your analytics efforts? We can help! Getting traction adopting new technologies, especially if your team is working in different and unfamiliar ways, can be a roadblock for success. This is especially true in a self-service only world. If you want to discuss a proof-of-concept, pilot, project, or any other effort, the Openbridge platform and team of data experts are ready to help.

Reach out to us at hello@openbridge.com. Prefer to talk to someone? Set up a call with our team of data experts.

Visit us at www.openbridge.com to learn how we are helping other companies with their data efforts.

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