Tableau Enterprise Reviews

Tableau Desktop - The product is easy to use, and does not require IT skills. I can create dashboards and connect to databases very easy and quickly.

We experienced an 80% reduction in the amount of time it takes to prepare reports and dashboards using Tableau. Before that, we had to use Excel spreadsheets and that consumed a lot of time to prepare data monthly. In addition, there was a problem related to the amount of lines in Excel that are not enough for our database.

I’d like to see a better ETL preparation engine.

I have been using Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server for four years.

The product is very stable and ease to deploy. We can deploy an enterprise solution in two days.

Technical support is very helpful and provide quick answers. In addition, their technical support is in many languages, which is very helpful when you face some issues.

I previously used QlikView and MicroStrategy, and they are not as friendly as Tableau for the end user. If you do not have IT skills, you probably will be stuck with a basic level of visualization.

For simple and more complex setups, it is easy to set up the product without too many issues.

If you want to start with Tableau Desktop, you can choose an in-house implementation, but if you are going to set up an enterprise solution, my advice is to use a vendor team to support your implementation. It will be faster.

The pricing and licensing model is very simple. There is one price for Tableau Desktop and two types of enterprise prices. You always know which price you are going to pay.

If you have a lot of databases to bring together, you might experience some ETL issues. But in the next release, version 10, the product will have a cross-join database, and that will help a lot to bring in many datasources.

The most valuable feature of this product is its visualizations.

It helped us deliver highly dynamic visualizations and dashboards to our clients.

It is not scalable at the enterprise level. Performance degraded massively when we scaled up backend data.

They have not developed a feature to re-use components.

We have used Tableau for over one year.

Performance degraded while scaling up the database.

Customer service is average.

SAP BusinessObjects does not offer similar visualization. Tableau’s visualizations are definitely a plus.

Initial setup was straightforward.

In-house and client site implementation. Product manuals helped achieve it.

The per-user licensing model needs to be improved, based on the type of user. Currently, all users have to pay the same price, irrespective of user type.

It is very good for local standalone databases. Enterprise-level implementation degrades performance.

There are many features which I can speak about, but its overall ease with which you can analyze your data within a couple of clicks is an outstanding feature. Also, the stunning visualization with lots of statistical options, makes it a valuable product.

When we started with Tableau, it was basically used for converting existing Excel reports. But later on, after exploring the features and with latest releases, it had a greater impact on the way we interact with the data. We were able to connect the data from different source of data together. We were able to relate the defects, quality and cost aspects of the products of our company from different regions in a much more efficient way. The visualizations gave a better picture of the current state of affairs and we got an idea of what needs to be improved in the line of business. Now, Tableau has become an integral part of our organization for any analytical solution.

Tableau comes out with one major release every year and minor releases frequently, which is very good. Also, most of the changes are done based on the ideas posted on the community, which means it listens to the user base to come up with the changes, which is phenomenal.

As far as the changes I would like to see, they could improve performance with respect to big data connections and cube data sources. Many users in my organization feel that Tableau is great with RDBMS, but with Hadoop or cube data sources, the performance is not so great.

I have been using Tableau for nearly four years for the majority of my reporting and analytical solutions.

We did not face any issues with deployment, stability or scalability. The deployment was simple and we have not faced any issues until now.

I would rate customer service and technical support as 9/10, excellent. The turnaround time for any issue is very good.

The initial setup was straightforward. The only thing you have to check is for hardware compatibility. The rest is very simple, with just a click of a button.

As implementation is simple, we preferred an in-house team. But you will get assistance from a vendor team if required.

ROI depends on how effectively you utilize the tool and explore the data.

Pricing of the tool would be expensive for any small organization. I would suggest sitting with the vendor's relationship manager to discuss your strategy and the pricing model you’re looking for.

We explored other tools such as QlikView and Pentaho, but Tableau stood out in terms of its ease of use, great visualizations and simplicity. We already had an ETL solution in place, so Tableau complemented it well for our use cases.

Tableau is more than a reporting tool; it has the analytical capabilities which need to be explored efficiently to get the best out of the tool. If you just want to replicate an Excel report, it would not help much in terms of ROI.

Tableau is a very good analytical reporting solution. It is improving its features with every release.

The dashboard with graphs is this product’s most valuable feature.

Previously, we were maintaining an Excel file for graphs and tables. With Tableau, dashboards are released and we have requested employees to access the data directly from the dashboard. Also, now the process is automated, so there are no manual errors.

I feel Tableau didn't cater to each and every requirement within the team. For example, we have an SSAS cube and I don't remember that I could connect that in Tableau. Maybe in the latest version this has been taken care of.

I used it for 18 months.

I did not encounter any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

Technical support was very good. 7/10.

I had been using SSRS, but the company where I worked had started using Tableau before I joined it.

It is a nice product and quick to get started, as compared to other products and technologies.

The ease and speed of creating visualizations and interfaces with any database are this product’s most valuable features.

It is able to provide answers within hours instead of days. Typically, we would have to create a SSIS package to connect to that database, then create a SSRS report and meet with the users a few times before coming up with the final visualization product. With Tableau, we can create all of these in one session.

It would be great if the licensing cost per user was cheaper.

I have been using it for one year.

We currently cannot use version 9 because we have to wait for our Tableau Server to be upgraded to version 9 first.

Technical support is good.

We were previously using SSR for reports and SSIS for retrieving the data.

Installing Tableau Desktop was easy.

We worked with the Tableau team.

I would recommend lowering the licensing cost per user.

I would recommend that everyone use this product.

The ability to create visualizations of data is the product’s most valuable feature to me because it provides a meaningful view of the data and the metrics used by our clients.

The ease with which users can visualize and share data has improved how we look at our metrics.

It’s a very basic thing, but being able to copy and paste data elements from the screen would be nice.

I have used it for nine months.

I have not really encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues. Our issues are not related to the function of the tool, but more to do with attitudes concerning looking at data and metrics.

It is well received when people see what it can do in transforming their data and metrics into meaningful displays that allow for greater insights.

• Geo charts
• Dashboards
• Data connections

Our decision-making process has been streamlined.

Real-time interactions need more attention. Predictive analytics capability should be increased.

I have been using it for 1.5 years.

I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

I rate the level of customer service and technical support on the high side.

Initial setup was straightforward.

We implemented it. I prefer in house, as it is the best.

It’s about each and every individual and organization.

The best feature of Tableau is the usability. It allows a business user to prototype something without going through IT and spending a lot of time and money trying to translate requirements. Going back and forth, it allows you to rapidly develop things that you need to analyze the data.

I also think, as I used SAP Business Objects before that and built out the reports, that you can build almost anything you need to, but it's a little more complicated. I would say Tableau is more like Apple, it just looks nice. It formats things. It just gives it to you in one way, as it assumes that is the way that everybody wants it. So it might be frustrating if Tableau doesn't give it to you the way you want. But usually, it does give it in a good enough way. So, it saves you a lot of time.

The thing I don't like is the refresh feature . The users can have the web page open and there's a browser refresh every 10 minutes, or every 30 minutes, whatever IT sets as the refresh rate. You lose everything when you have to refresh the page and it may take 30 seconds. So, that's a bit frustrating too. You expect that when you leave a browser page open, you want it to keep that view there.

I don't know if they've introduced it yet, but there is a connector with Smartsheet. We use Smartsheets a lot for project management and capturing data. We are basically exporting from Smartsheet to Excel, and then creating in Tableau and publishing it. I believe there is a connector now but I haven't actually used it. So that would be one useful feature; more connections to data sources.

I would sometimes get an error message stating “out of system resources”, but when I checked the RAM/CPU utilization in my laptop, it would appear that I had lots of resources.

Cisco has been using it for about seven years. Teams that I work with use it. I've contributed to the requirements of building dashboards with IT. I have been using Tableau for about three years.

There can be a memory hang, or the memory crashes sometimes. I'm not sure, but generally it's stable. I think it's when I build complicated data sets, like too many worksheets or too many reports in my workbook, this can happen, which is annoying.

I don't think it is scalable because of the stability issue. I think it's good for desktop; it's quick and dirty, making things you need, and you can actually build some really nice dashboards. It's scalable when you publish it to the server. Also, you can have as many users as you want accessing it. I have some impressions on how much data you can actually use at a time when you're building your reports.

I think technical support is OK. We have in-house support at Cisco, which is a team that supports Tableau as well, but we can go outside to Tableau support itself if we need help.

I found it easy to get started. I'm more of a technical user with an IT background, so I had no problems setting it up.

Get started using Tableau as it serves the purpose for most people.