Tableau Reviews

The most valuable features of Tableau are:

• The ease of learning and use. Tableau is very user friendly. I have a few colleagues at my place of work that had never used it. Within a few months, they created brilliant content.
• The ability to connect to any data source without any reporting layer or meta-data layer needing to be developed. I can connect directly to Oracle tables & views, SQL Server objects, flat files, Excel files, anything. I don’t need to do any additional work in order to achieve this.
• The capability of creating brilliant, creative insights while still achieving data discovery. Tableau makes creating analysis fun and beautiful, while still finding incredible gold nuggets in the dark data of enterprises.
• The culture and support community around the product. There is a true excitement in the Tableau community and anyone who uses Tableau knows what I'm talking about. There are many user group community meetings around the globe that are educational, helpful and fun.
• The ability to share, collaborate and view content through Tableau Server or Tableau Public. It is easy to send users to a web portal to see content analysts create.
• The cost. Tableau is much lower priced than an Oracle-, SAP-, MicroStrategy-type product. The cost is similar to QlikView and a bit more than Microsoft PowerBI on its own (but you need an EA from Microsoft to leverage the lower pricing on PowerBI).
• The support. I can pick up my cell phone and call four people I know from Tableau and get their feedback and help right now.

We now are starting to remove the data silos. We are seeing how data visualization helps to lead to quicker actionable insight. It also has helped reduce the number of reports and dashboards the organization needs.

I am very excited about Tableau 10 and what has been built into the beta. I think with those changes and some we saw at TC15 that are coming, the product is poised to remain the industry leader.

I would like to see Tableau provide a bit better integration with the Microsoft Office platform. You can download your dashboard data to CSV or crosstab, but it’s not optimal. Even if it’s the best dashboard design ever, there are users that still want to see the numbers underneath. Until data visualization reaches a critical mass, like Excel did in the late 90s to early 2000s, we still will need a way to give access to some of the underlying data in an easy way for Microsoft Office to consume.

I have used it for 3 1/2 years.

I have not encountered any issues. Deployment, stability and scalability have been fantastic. We've had a few bugs, two of which were fixed by Tableau support and one took a bit longer and was fixed in a release. However, we've not had long-term outages due to any issues. Installing Tableau is easy. Upgrading the server could be easier, but I think they have addressed that with version 10.

Customer service and support at Tableau is top notch. I haven't seen a better organization in technology with this.

I have used Oracle OBIEE before and Tableau beats that product on cost, usability and ease/speed of development. I don't have to know how to develop the RPD or meta-data layer. Tableau does that behind the scenes when I import a data source. Tableau was also much cheaper than OBIEE.

We also own PowerBI and Tableau is significantly better at ease of use and the number of data sources.

Initial setup was straightforward. We had a rapid start-up "team" come and help us but it was one person and he was done in two days.

Tableau sent out one of their partners, Interworks. I would highly recommend Interworks to help with Implementation. They can make the most of the implementation with their Drive methodology.

Our first dashboard caught an issue in the system and almost completely paid for the server license with the money saved.

Negotiate the server license. The desktop license price is pretty set.

Find a couple of good, quick-win use cases and don't necessarily re-create the dashboard or report in Tableau, but find a way to tell something about the business that wasn't already known.

Data Visualization & Analytics: In my last project, we used ESRI maps super-imposed with brand sales and sales history. By adding more dimensions to the data, we were able to drill from sales territories to analyze product sales at individual retail outlets. The next phase will be to add age-group demographics to the analytics.

That also describes our Agile approach. Incrementally add dimensions to the underlying data, and add richness to the analytics capability, and it’s a business-driven approach.

The client is in transition from traditional BI reports to real-time, mobile sales reporting, with a goal of eventually providing predictive analytics. The transition included a move away from IBM Cognos to Tableau, and using IBM Watson for predictive analytics. In this case, Tableau was able to do all the predictive analytics with less development effort and more visual results than Watson Analytics.

The trend I see from clients is towards more mobile solutions, more real-time analytics, and the integration of analytics and order entry. E.g. A sales consultant can seamlessly transition from sales analysis to entering an order while on-site. This implies a BPM integration with SAP, Oracle eBusiness Suite, SFDC and others.

The architecture this client was prototyping was an SFDC application with imbedded analytics provided by Tableau delivered to a tablet device. There are several ways to go about this, but the architecture was selected because SFDC was the system of record for all customer information.

I have used this solution on and off for about three years, more as Solutions Architect and Project Manager than a full-time developer.

I did not encounter any deployment issues, but a production deployment was outside of the scope of my role.

I know the client ran into several ODBC issues with the interface to Denodo, a data virtualization environment, but I can’t comment because Tableau support was outside of the scope of my role.

The client has a large Cognos footprint and they were looking to Tableau as a more agile reporting & analytics tool. For this project, we used Cognos 11 and were experimenting with IBM Watson Analytics. We were able to perform all the analytics they were doing in Watson Analytics, using Tableau.

In prior projects, I have experience with SAP BusinessObjects, SAS and QlikView.

Tableau was installed and configured by an in-house team and it was complete before I arrived on-site.

In my experience most (all) enterprise-scale clients have multiple, entrenched BI reporting tools that Tableau will have a tough time to displace. Tableau is most successful when it is introduced at a departmental or subsidiary level in an organization. That’s the starting point, and grow the ‘footprint’ from there. With that background in mind, make the initial pricing & licensing simple for a department to budget for & approve.

IMO, I don’t think any client can isolate an analytics tool and derive an ROI that stands up to scrutiny. I usually start by looking at a company’s annual report and I look for the transformational initiatives. E.g. They want more mobile capabilities, more real-time decision making, etc. I use that as the entry-point for discussion around capabilities, not a discussion of technical features and I look for real-world use cases to develop a solution architecture.

My advice to clients is always: Start with a clear goal in mind, generate some quick wins, and grow the environment from there. The enterprise-scale initiatives are big on vision, but I’ve seen more failures than successes.

The product is definitely a leader in the analytics-lite & data visualization space. Unless a client has a well-defined use case for one of the statistical or predictive analysis tools, Tableau can meet the needs. If the use case for Tableau becomes too complex, then clients can use the ‘R’ extension. I don’t have hands-on experience with that feature.

• Ability to visualize
• Easy to use for Business Analysts as this would enable different teams and remove their dependency on the IT team

We suggested this as a solution for multiple teams due to its distinct capabilities.

More visualizations can be added.

Real-time reporting capabilities can be improved.

I evaluated it for more than a year. I used it in multiple PoCs for client solutions.

I did not encounter any issues with deployment, as such.

Technical support and response is very good.

Initial setup is not very complex.

An in-house team implemented the solution.

We always use multiple solutions for our varied client base. I have used other products before and now as well for clients. Our evaluation always revolves around client requirements like preference to open source, cost of ownership, etc.

This is a good product. Easy to implement and use.

Valuable features include the various “Show Me” graph options; the ability to do forecasting (which is an area that Tableau needs to continue growing its modeling capabilities); and the immediate responsiveness to adding dimensions/measures and their effect on the visualization.

We have used Tableau to develop institutional dashboards for the university. We’ve used it to illustrate trends in cash balances, research grant expenditure trends, and student metrics and performance.

I’d like to see the forecasting capabilities expanded from an algorithm standpoint to offer different options for multi-variate forecasting. I think they can improve the ability to integrate with web pages. I’d like to see a more secure option for data regarding HIPAA regulations.

We’ve been using the Tableau solution for over three years. We started out with about 30 users and have grown to over 350 interactors and 50 authors.

A strong guide to help determine the scaling up options does not exist; it is still new to third-party support consultants which performance options are the best. I do like the fact that AWS has a one-click solution, but it needs more of a config wizard to better outline what storage/memory impacts choices will produce.

We have experienced less-than-preferable service with the technical support. For a while, it felt like they were experimenting for answers, even with complete log and infrastructure details. Their response time to issues is not acceptable for customers who are paying for core licenses, and they acknowledge that.

Initial setup was straightforward; the upgrade path is also straightforward.

We implemented from within our team. We did engage with a consultant about two years later to see how we were doing and discuss the next steps with server admin training. The results were acceptable.

Pricing continues to be a sore spot. Desktop licensing discounts in bulk do not exist, which is challenging for a non-profit. Server core licensing is also prohibitive from an expansion standpoint.

We only went with Tableau based on the feature set and the user base reviews.

There is a lot of competition brewing with other visualization providers that may be at better cost points. Definitely go in and deep dive/experience the other solutions. Though Tableau has a great reputation for ease of use, there definitely is a learning curve to optimize it, and other solutions like Microsoft Power BI and Qlik are making progress.

In-database analytics is the product’s most valuable feature to me.

Tableau provides more visually appealing reports for management.

- HA feature is missing
- Better scalability

I have been using it for three years.

I encountered stability and HA issues.

Technical support is 9 /10.

I previously used MicroStrategy, which is a real BI tool.

Initial setup was complex: report creation, installation, automation, report changes...

An in-house team implemented it.

The drag and drop feature that provides self-service analytics with absolutely no coding is the most important feature. It’s pretty strong in geo-spatial analysis as well.

We are a services vendor for this product and our team have grown over 300% in just one year just providing support for this product, among others.

While they continue to make a lot of changes for every version, in the current BI landscape, they need to be more device agnostic, especially to compete with other similar products in the market.

I have been using this product for more than three years now. I started with version 8.0. I have been through 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 and then to 9.0, 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3.

With data exploding exponentially, handling huge data that runs into billions of records is still a concern at an enterprise level. Organizations will also have to understand the right use cases, but then affordability would come into picture, where organizations do not want to invest on different tools. They try to make best use of the available tools.

The customer service has been great from Tableau. They also have different categories defined for premium service.

The installation and configuration of Tableau consists of just a few clicks. I don't think it can get better than that.

The implementation has been done in-house. In fact, as service providers we implement for others. Once the requirement is frozen and architecture has been decided, implementation is fairly easy and straightforward.

The ROI is immediate.

The price-war has already begun among competing tools. However, I still believe Tableau is fairly priced and there are multiple options.

The team I am part of works on different tools, not just Tableau. The tools are chosen based on the use case. Tableau is not the best choice for traditional reporting, which are still in demand.

Use this tool with the right use cases. Use your creativity to build dashboards. It’s a great tool for data discovery.

• Ease of creating dashboard objects
• Variety of dashboard objects
• Visual appeal
• Storyboarding
• Scalability
• Responsive design

It needs to allow for more complexity in data joins and creation. It needs to allow for designers to create objects together on one page instead of each object having its own page before then bringing them all together. They need to offer a personal (i.e., free) edition.

I have been using Tableau for six months.

Customer service and technical support are very good.

Initial setup simplicity or complexity depends on the project and the systems already in place. As for the tool itself, initial setup is straightforward.

I have implemented it in-house and with a vendor team. Business needs need to be fully understood and documented. Most of the issues have always been data related. The development team and the business HAVE to get a full understanding of what the data is, where it is stored, and how it is stored. BUSINESS RULES and a DATA DICTIONARY are a must.

Among Tableau, QlikView, and Qlik Sense, I prefer QlikView, due to its higher customization capabilities, its associative nature, and its ETL features.

Standardization in design/development is crucial. FULL communication and documentation with EVERYONE is needed. I don’t know how much time has been lost or efforts duplicated because of a lack of all this.

Data visualization: Simpler and cleaner charts, easier for users to perform self-service, not so steep learning curve for non-technical users; good integration to big data Hadoop and predictive analysis, well integrated with other ETL tools. Less-technical maintenance cost compared to QlikView, which requires the developer to do more scripting.

It is easier for users to do self-servicing; simpler, cleaner and story-telling charts; and requires less lead-time to develop charts/dashboard integration with predictive analytics and big data platform Hadoop.

Enhance standard reporting like QlikView (scheduled reports, notifications etc.); for MNCs, the server version license is not cheap; and row-level security: every user needs a DB account, which can give a hacker more opportunity to attack via more DB accounts.

I have used Tableau for two years.

I had a deployment issue: No version control means you can't roll back to earlier versions once overwritten/published.

I rate technical support 8/10.

Initial setup was straightforward.

An in-house team implemented Tableau.

Tableau seems to have easier user acceptance than QlikView because of the simpler charts and big data integration, increasing the possibility of helping an organization transform from reactive analysis to predictive analysis.

Server versions are not cheap and pretty similar for both Tableau and QlikView in terms of price. I don't see a big difference; it really depends on your organization's need.

I also evaluated MS BI and QlikView. Compared with MS BI, I find Tableau and QlikView have stronger visualization; intuitive data insights; less development lead time - MS BI requires creating OLAP cubes, which takes more time; clearer and simpler charts; and intuitive data mapping/insights.

If you have more developers/technical people and want to do more standard reporting without Hadoop, go for QlikView; if you have more business users with some SQL knowledge and would like to do predictive analytics, and integration with big data platform Hadoop, go for Tableau.