Tableau Enterprise Reviews

The most valuable features are the ability to use various data sets from different platforms, the intuitive graphs, and the ability to play around with the data and graph selections for different views of the data. As the course work is focused on ‘Big Data’ - both structured and unstructured - the ability to mix some of these sets and have Tableau suggest the best graph was very helpful. Because the product is so flexible, other graphs can be selected and a new ‘view’ of the same data presents a different insight.

All product use was through the school.

Version-specific work did not automatically version up with the upgrade. Since the version change occurred during the course and the majority of us had never used Tableau before, this static versioning for the projects caused some anxiety and some rework. There might have been an easier way to move these projects to the new version, but it was not transparent how to do that and online resources referenced an older version solution that did not work in the newer version.

I was introduced to the product through a few courses in my master’s program in Business Analytics, and was able to use Tableau Desktop for one of the course projects.

I did not encounter any deployment, stability or scalability issues. All product was through the school.

I did not interact with Tableau staff; all support was derived from the school’s IT staff.

The initial desktop setup was phenomenally easy and straightforward. Access to test projects and videos are available to ensure that the product works as expected.

Desktop implementation is user-based and although the setup is easy, it is necessary to be cognizant of where the base files reside and how projects and data sets are stored.

I am unable to provide pricing/licensing advice; the licensing is provided through the school with keys for each student to obtain a desktop version.

Tableau is a very robust engine. As attractive as the speed to combine data sets is and the great visuals it can produce, it is well known that it is not an affordable product if you maintain small datasets. To use a phrase, you don’t need an army tank where a red wagon will do. Because of this, Tableau would need to have a Tableau-lite for smaller businesses, so that it wasn’t so hard to start using the tool, then as the business grows, so does the product if need be.

One of its greatest strengths is that it can very quickly perform various analyses, tests and rules out different scenarios, in seconds. It works perfectly integrating different data sources and applying immediate updates.

Ease of use: It requires a brief introduction and then you can use your imagination to perform all the analyses you want.

Other valuable features are: the ability to graphically represent different ideas, integration with different data sources and the ability to perform the deployment throughout the organization. To perform analysis is important but being able to share empowers the organization.

Tableau has allowed automated analysis and delivery. We have managed to automate reports that previously took up to 10 days to produce. Now, we can deliver these reports in a day (including updating databases).

They can improve the integration of SAP BW (join between elements) and Tableau Server platform, better adaptation for tablets and cellphone by the application and organize displays more efficiently.

We have used Tableau for almost a year and a half.

The connection between Tableau Server and SAP BW can sometimes be unstable and lose the connection, at which point it does not display the query or the hub to which it was connected.

Tableau technical support is one of the best I've had. 9!

Installation is really quick and easy; you just download the version directly from the official website of Tableau. The server configuration was a bit more complex but we had the support of the local provider.

You should always analyze the variables; each organization is unique. However, for implementation, we ran the methodology suggested by Tableau Drive, which is based on others’ experiences.

It has allowed us to replace reports. The impacted report areas have been empowered by the tool, and are more aware of the data they report.

We evaluated Qlik Sense, SAP Lumira and Tableau. We decided on Tableau over Qlik and Lumira for ease of use by the functional teams, and because they have a direct supplier in Venezuela, including support and training. At the time of evaluation in May 2015, SAP Lumira’s analysis development capabilities and its integration with different data sources were not as good as Tableau’s. Even when connecting SAP Lumira with SAP BW, we could not publish analyses.

It is important to consider change management, definition of roles and performance analysts.
Tableau is a powerful tool for performing analyses and communicating them. We managed to empower the organization with Tableau and we are in the process of extending it to all the analytical community of our company.
We can integrate with SAP BW and perform analysis of information. However, we have found it difficult to join elements of BW such as cubes or queries, but this promises to be resolved in the new version, Tableau 10.
We are really pleased to have chosen Tableau as our ETL tool to support our analysis and sharing it within the organization.

Visualization and ease of use are the product’s most valuable features. Dependency on the IT team has been reduced. Users feel comfortable creating their own dashboards.

Tableau Provides a set of different visualizations that were not available in OBIEE. The dashboards help narrate a story. As an organization, we were able to bring in more people to use our platform because it was easy to use and helped business teams make quick decisions. In OBIEE, the business was dependent on IT vendors to generate reports. With Tableau, non-technical business users have become familiar with creating dashboards, thus reducing dependency on IT vendors.

We were not able to implement organization-wide security the way it exists in BO or OBIEE. We had to do a workaround to restrict access by transferring roles on the portal using Java and PHP to restrict content.

The second area for improvement is the processing large amount of data using R.

Finally, I’d like to see Tableau have more statistical capability.

I have used it for three years now and am pretty happy. We're going to upgrade on 9.3 in Q3/Q4.

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

We are planning to increase our infrastructure to support more complex queries in Tableau. We are still in process of integrating R with Tableau. This is one area where I can see problems as R and Tableau both have issues processing large amount of data.

I rate technical support 8/10.

We were using OBIEE for generating dashboards and wanted to upgrade our system with better visualization tools.

Initial setup was pretty straightforward, except for security. Also, we had to change the entire data model so that we could get in Tableau dashboards similar to those we had in OBIEE.

Technical expertise: in-house. Support: vendor team. I recommend that in-house implementation to bring expertise onto the team.

We were able to see 200% increase in usage of the platform vs usage of OBIEE.

We evaluated Spotfire, QlikView & Sisense. It came down to a tough choice between Spotfire and Tableau. We finally selected Tableau because it is good in providing visualizations, its integration with R, and it has a lot of connectors with various databases that Spotfire does not have. It also looked promising that it would provide more features in future releases.

Do not think twice about it; just go for it to find new insights in your data. There is a great future for this tool. It will help you perform basic statistical analysis. It will give you a different way to look at data structures.

• Ease of use - very intuitive
• Same design for both the desktop and server solution - Easy configuration
• Easy and intuitive manipulation of data
• Program automatically suggests the best data representation
• Graphical design - modern and nice

It brought easy and comprehensive access to company data to managers, without needing the IT department.

It would be nice to be able to use the reports as a data source. Calculations in reports are still tricky.

I have been using it for a few months.

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

Customer service and technical support are very good; the free tutorials are especially great.

I used IBM Cognos for many years, I am now working with BO, and I have evaluated many others. I choose this product for a particular customer because he needed analytical access to data for managers without having an IT department in the company.

Initial setup was very straightforward, and configuration was easy. Both the client and the server solution have the same UI design. It is easy to begin with the desktop solution and then upgrade to the server.

I implemented just a pilot project and I did it myself.

I have not calculated ROI.

Pricing is very competitive.

The product is probably not very suitable for standard corporate reporting, but if your users need analytical insight to data, it is an excellent solution.

• Very easy and fast to build dashboards, compared to many other BI tools
• Has connectivity options to various data sources
• Good community support and very useful free training videos

Clients are pleased with the beautiful and interactive dashboards. They are also happy with the noticeable shortening in time to production.

If it had a semantic layer, it would be great. I know Tableau is not meant for data modeling but the data warehouse is not always perfect. Without a semantic layer, we need to reach out to the ETL team for even small data model changes.

Also, a semantic layer would have allowed for building 'subject areas' by grouping tables and defining joins. This would then allow users with appropriate permissions to build ad-hoc reports without having to worry about table joins.

I have used it for 1.5 years.

We did not have any issues with deployment, stability and scalability. We deployed Tableau Server in the AWS cloud.

We have contacted customer support few times and the support team always came back with solutions / work-arounds promptly. So, customer service and technical support is good.

We evaluated a few other solutions, but we chose Tableau because of the speed with which we can build reports, the simple deployment (cloud), easy scalability and the cost factor.

Initial setup was straightforward and in fact very simple.

An in-house team implemented it, but we went for AWS cloud-based deployment, which was not complex.

Try the trial versions and explore all of the features before going in; it is very useful. Also, the training videos on their website are good.

The most valuable features of this product are:

• Easy-to-create dashboard
• Friendly user interface
• ShowMe
• Database connections

Users can generate reports by themselves, while IT people can focus on the database management.

It significantly reduced the time to prepare reports, from three days to three hours.

Add ETL function; add 3D graphics; add a keep-only filter because it is difficult to revert to the original data format; add more ShowMe options; include AI function.

I have used this solution for two years.

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

I rate the level of customer service and technical support 9/10.

We evaluated Microsoft Excel and IBM Cognos: they are more time consuming, less efficient for generating reports, and more expensive.

Initial setup is straightforward, consisting of simple procedures for database connections and desktop setup.

An in-house team implemented it using self-learning materials.

Desktop Pro is US$ 1,999 each.

Define the main purpose of using Tableau, and in which aspects.

• The ability to connect to different sources of data like SQL, Excel, etc. makes Tableau a very smart tool for data visualization.
• The way it incorporates user-level data with geographic mapping really helps in building strategy at the top-most level.
• Sharing dashboards among the team is extremely hassle free and also the data being up to date makes management extremely happy.

All-important, high-level metrics are at the fingertips of top management, which makes decision making less painful and more data oriented.

All employees have access to real-time data, which makes customer management a nuanced affair, because of which there is stark reduction in errors.

• Better dashboard creation
• Ease of making reports

I have used it for two years.

Once the reports are created, there are no issues at all. The only problem is the speed of loading data. For huge data sets, it takes a lot of time to load data. With Google' Data Studio coming out, they might want to improve this aspect of the tool.

Service is excellent and their support staff are very quick to answer any queries.

We did not evaluate any other solutions. We only worked with Tableau, as it was industry ready.

It is a pretty straightforward setup, as described on their website. If you follow those instructions correctly, there wouldn't be any problem.

• We did it in-house, as it helped us streamline things and rolling out required dashboards faster and more accurately.
• A team of two with basic tech background is more than enough to start off with.
• The learning curve is very flat, so within a month, resources can be ready to roll out reports.

Their price is as per industry standard and any company in analytics business will be comfortable with the pricing plans.

• Table joins
• Formulas
• Visualization
• Dashboard

I used this product to provide reporting and analysis solutions to my clients. It enabled a small organization to employ a state-of-art reporting tool without massive IT implementation cost (such as servers, ETLs, data admin, etc.). Utilize only basic Excel tables as the data input (5-6 Excel tables), my clients can visualize their quarterly reporting in one reporting package and share with their colleagues.

I would say they could improve the data blending within the desktop version. Ideally, it is better to be done on the server, but for small businesses (or company divisions), the server is not an option due to cost.

For the China market, I would encourage them to offer a license below $1,000 per year.

I used it for six months.

I developed the dashboard / storyboard for just one user, so I had no issues at all, except the limitation on the table join side.

I did not utilize the tech support on my desktop deployment.

I previously used MicroStrategy. I chose Tableau for three reasons:

• Powerful functionality
• User-friendly interface
• Great community

The desktop version is easy to setup.

I implemented it by myself.

On the desktop version, use the community forum wisely; you will be able to find enough support for 99% of your challenges.