Director - Technology Operations at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Great dashboards and reporting capabilities with very good reliability
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution offers very good reporting."
  • "It would be nice to include more features on each dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

Tableau is used for reporting time in the dashboard and also for skills in maintenance and metrics. That's pretty much it.

What is most valuable?

The dashboards are great.

The solution offers very good reporting.

It's a stable solution. We've never had any issues with it.

We have found the scalability to be good.

What needs improvement?

There are no significant improvements needed. 

It would be nice to include more features on each dashboard. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for a couple of years. I've used it for a while at this point.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability and reliability are good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. It's not difficult to expand it to your needs.

We are a really big company. I'm not sure exactly how many people actually use the solution. In our department alone there are at least 50 users. That's a small team, really. I'm sure it's used extensively globally.

I have not heard of plans to increase usage in the future. 

How are customer service and support?

I don't have experience with technical support. I can't speak to how helpful or responsive they are as I've never been in contact with them.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

This product was already in place when I was hired. I'm not sure if something different was used previously.

How was the initial setup?

The installation was handled before I came on board. I was not a part of a process. I can't speak to if it was difficult or not.

It's a hosted solution. We don't need a team of engineers on it from our end.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I can't speak to the pricing. We're a global company. Another team deals directly with contracts. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the solution at an eight out of ten based on my experience and what I know. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Business Intelligence Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Dynamic tool that facilitates the visualization of a broad range of data types
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau has data relationships that can be applied to a data source which helps build out a directory which is helpful. Data blending has also been valuable to us."
  • "The extraction, transformation and loading of data in Tableau takes a lot of time and we do not have confidence that Tableau is showing all the data we need."

What is our primary use case?

My client was initially using SAP BO as a reporting tool. This client added another entity to their organization and considered using Tableau for reporting purposes. The reason for choosing Tableau is because it is easy to use and we already had some developers with experience using Tableau. We have not done a complete migration from SAP BO to Tableau due to the volume of reporting still in SAP BO which Tableau cannot handle. 

When creating reports for entities with less data, we make use of Tableau. We have trained 10 to 15 developers for this reporting. It took two to three months for them to master reporting in Tableau. 

We use Tableau to create reports based on geographical maps to show the impact of natural hazards on the insurance industry. This solution offered us the flexibility and ability to visualize this type of information. We also use Tableau to host reports which are published on a weekly schedule to certain user groups. 

What is most valuable?

Tableau has data relationships that can be applied to a data source which helps build out a directory which is helpful. Data blending has also been valuable to us.

What needs improvement?

The extraction, transformation and loading of data in Tableau takes a lot of time and we do not have confidence that Tableau is showing all the data we need. This is due to limitations on data extraction which needs to be improved.

We experience user restrictions using Tableau and require a more dynamic setup for extraction of data, configuration of reports and providing access to users. 

Tableau useful for dashboard reporting, however, there are limitation on the number of rows of data you can view in a report. It is for this reason that we use Tableau alongside other reporting solutions. Tableau does not support any HTML coding in the same way Power BI does. 

There is a maximum number of tables we can use in Tableau. This could be improved in a future release.

For how long have I used the solution?

I'm have been working with Tableau for seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is a scalable solution. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We continue to use SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform. 

What other advice do I have?

Tableau is a business intelligence tool. It allows you to extract specific insights and analyze data. It comes with many add ons and features including stories and dashboards. Our biggest challenge when using Tableau is the ETL size. It is for this reason we are switching to Power BI. 

I would rate it an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Implementer
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
770,141 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Program Manager at a non-profit with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It allows us to understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner.
Pros and Cons
  • "It allows us to basically understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner."
  • "It is a stable solution."
  • "I would like to be able to set the parameters in a more specific manner."

What is our primary use case?

We have used it for our program correspondence, basically, so how to program report to satisfaction of different programs. It helps us obtain information. We also use it for visualization.

How has it helped my organization?

It allows us to basically understand and evaluate our numbers in an expedient manner. It doesn't require us to need a huge number of data bases that we need to manage. This solution sets everything up for us. It has a good ease-of-use.

In the past, we were using several different solutions, and the packages were insufficient for our needs. We used a lot of different software solutions, and extreme Excel, but it wasn't enough for our needs. We were also looking for something that was a bit more user-friendly. 

What is most valuable?

One of the most valuable features are the different visualizations. It makes it much easier for us to represent what the data is showing. The dashboard is great, and the visualizations are really what we focus on. 

It's as powerful if you know how to use it, so it's made as much as we know how to use it. It's enough, but there's much more of a need to understand what you do to operate the solution. To be able to do more, we need to set it up to do different things. It is fine, but we have not really invested time or people into doing this much.

What needs improvement?

I would like to be able to set the parameters in a more specific manner. I feel as if it's not a questions of whether the solution is sufficient, it's whether we understand how to use it to the best of its productivity.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. I think we can use it for a while for a lot of different things. Again, we do not know the full scope of the capabilities. I think we are using it the best we can, but we could find better ways for it to best suit our needs. So, we just need to learn how to use it more efficiently.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good. They give solutions to our questions. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Microsoft BI.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in the initial setup of the solution.

What was our ROI?

Most people buy software because they know that it will help them do one thing, but they use it a tenth of the potential of what it could be used for. So, if you don't know what that is, you're stuck at ten percent. Be sure to explore the full capabilities of the solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price is competitive. We always consider pricing when considering a new solution. We are a non-profit, and pricing is a huge concern.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We always like to evaluate other products in tandem with what we are using.

What other advice do I have?

When reviewing a possible solution, we always consider:

  • Price
  • Functionality
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Business Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Most of the configurations are accessed by drag and drop, so very little actual programming is required.

What is most valuable?

I have been using Tableau to visualize data sets. The three features that are most valuable to me are:

  • Ease of use. Most of the configurations are accessed by drag and drop, so very little actual programming is required.
  • Interactivity, especially the ability to use tool tips to identify exactly which points are plotting in an unusual or unexpected position. This is the first step in distinguishing outliers from important data features, which is an important part of data exploration.
  • The ability to easily annotate and export finished plots for presentation purposes.

How has it helped my organization?

I have previously used Excel or R to perform exploratory data analysis. Tableau is easier and quicker, which means results can be obtained more quickly.

What needs improvement?

Some of the command choices have to be memorized and are not intuitive. It could be even easier to learn.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for about three months.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployment, except I wish a version was available for Linux (Ubuntu).

How are customer service and technical support?

I haven't needed technical support yet.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I previously used R for data exploratory analysis. I'm choosing Tableau because it is quicker, and exploratory data analysis by its nature requires a large variety and volume of output.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was very simple; standard Windows installation.

What about the implementation team?

Just me... No problems. Just note that Tableau workbooks are stored in their own file structure by default, not in the file where the data originated or where the exported charts are stored.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Tableau has a free trial, free versions for academic scholars/faculty, and a free public version. The paid versions are a little pricey, but likely worth it.

What other advice do I have?

There is a public version you can implement for free. Its main restriction is the variety of data source connections that it supports. You can still work with the typical text or Excel files, but live database connections are not supported.

I think it's great at what it tries to do.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user3768 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Straightforward installation and modern interface, but not cheap for personal use

I spend most of my time with clients trying to get more out of their existing tools, more often than not some combination of an ERP tool (JDEdwards, SAP etc.) a selection of more “pure” databases such as Oracle, Access, SQL and a lot of spreadsheets.

All of these tools have well understood strengths and weaknesses. One common issue is the effort required for data visualisation. Just to be clear, when I say data visualisation, I mean the presentation of data in a graphic format so that trends, insights and results can be easily and quickly extracted by the reader.

Excel is fine, especially as most of us are very familiar with it, but it has definite limitations. Try putting 10,000 data points on a scatter plot or add interactivity to your chart and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve taken a look at three tools that really caught my eye when looking for a client solution. There are 20 players in the 2011 Gartner review of BI tools. Many of these are 400lb gorilla solutions, like Cognos, some are more sector specific and others tend to be strongest in certain geographic areas.

Being a Brit, who wanted something strong on visualisation, quick implementation and didn’t want to build a data warehouse, the shortlist came down to:

  • Tableau
  • Qlickview
  • LogiXML

In this blog I’m going to look at Tableau. Over the next few days I’m going to add short reviews of Qlickview and LogiXML.

I’m not Gartner, so there may be some other contenders out there, but life is short so it’s these three that I’ll be testing over the next few blog entries.

Just to set expectation, I’m a data professional, but I’m not a coder or database specialist. I come to this as an “IT competent” management information specialist. I know the sort of output I want to see but I don’t like reading manuals or spending ages building things – much like my clients.

Installation

Installation of Tableau is pretty straightforward. You need to register on their site to get a two week trial period. You download a 51MB .exe file, double click it and in a few minutes you have a working installation of Tableau. It’s a Windows only affair. For this review I ran it as a virtual installation on a Mac which didn’t seem to cause any issues

First off the program asks you to connect to a data source. For ease I used one of the ready-made databases, but the connectors on offer look pretty comprehensive.


Tableau asks you to connect to a data source, including Excel of course

Interface

The interface is fairly busy, with a number of different areas on the interface. It’s all quite clean, logical and modern. There’s a tabbed workspace concept which anyone from an Excel background with instantly be comfortable with.


The chart creation interface will be very straight forward to anyone who has used Excel pivot tables

Applying the “man test”

Like many slightly vain middle aged men, I’m not too keen on tutorials and manuals. I dived into Tableau without reading any of the documentation. Within 15 minutes I’d figured out how to produce and tweak some pretty good looking graphs. I used the sample data provided by Tableau, which may have helped things along a bit.


Flashy geographic mashups are a doddle


This dull looking bar chart has hidden depths - you can click to drill down. It didn't require any configuration


Charts like this heatmap are quick and simple to create

To create a chart you just drag and drop the data items from the panel on the left into a simple table. It’s a lot like creating a pivot table in Excel, only a bit less impenetrable.

Another 10 minutes and I’d figured out how to produce a quite credible looking dashboard. So in terms of “ease of use” I’d give it 10 out of 10. I think it goes as far as you can with usability before you need to start throwing features overboard to simplify it further.


Not a great design by me, but it is a very quick and simple job to create this live dashboard

Features that really stood out

Creating charts: It’s so clearly the “sweet-spot” of this package that it’s easy to overlook the ease with which charts are created.

Drill down: It’s trivially easy to rollup or drilldown through data in the appropriate graph type

Unusual charts: Tableau can create charts that are either difficult or impossible to create in Excel. Heat-maps, graphical mashups (see this dental decay graphic one for a good example) and interactive charts are all possible. You can then post these on the inter/intra net for others to view.

Tableau was dismissed by one of its rivals salesmen as having “pretty graphs”. After a few hours with Tableau I think it’s fair to say that it has some of the best conceived “template” graphs I’ve seen in any package. Their blurb on their web site talks about “visual best practices are baked-in“ and they aren’t kidding. There’s minimal design clutter, clear layout and very spare use of colour. No 3d bars, shading or gridline clutter here. The type of design approach championed by Stephen Few has rarely been executed so well and consistently.

Sharing

The samples on the Tableau web site shows a good selection of ways you can share:

As a web page – you can drop a javascript code snippet into a page to create a web page or share a link

As an image, data download, crosstab or print to PDF

A download to the free Reader application

Samples

To get a good impression of what Tableau can do it’s worth having a look at their excellent selection of demo graphs. Although it’s not always obvious what purpose these graphs serve, there are some outstanding examples of rich, intelligent chart design. I particularly like this dental decay graphic and this flight delay graphic.

The key thing for me is that I actually enjoyed using this software and started working out whether I could justify the cost of a personal copy. Pricing is $999 for a desktop copy that can’t access databases, $1999 for the pro version that can plug into just about any data source – so for personal use it’s not cheap. As with most vendors, there’s no mention of the client-server version software costs, but it’s likely to be industrial grade pricing, like their competitors.

Where I see Tableau (and data exploration tools in general) really delivering value is in encouraging managers and analysts to take the terabytes of data that already exists in most organisations and spin it in new and insightful ways. So rather than just looking at the classic complaint volumes and complaint ages (for example) bar charts, why not start looking at complaint severity and customer segment, or complaint source by geographic source within the production area – as a visual heatmap' Many organisations have allowed their tools to define their ambitions for their analysis, with a tool like Tableau it’s an opportunity to be a bit more ambitious.

I’d recommend downloading a trial and giving it a spin.

Note: I have no commercial relationship with Tableau, so my view is as independent as they come.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1545645 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Management and Analytics Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Expert SQL skills not required, easy to use, and flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to use, flexible, our clients enjoy seeing the data on maps, and you do not need to be an expert in SQL to use it."
  • "There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to allow management the ability to create dashboards for our data center.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use, flexible, our clients enjoy seeing the data on maps, and you do not need to be an expert in SQL to use it.

What needs improvement?

There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the solution to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good, we have 100 users using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

I am not satisfied at all with the support response, it takes a lot of time. Some tickets will take more than 10 days to have an answer, this is not helpful. There is some documentation that is very useful on their site. This is the worst support I have experienced, the support could definitely be faster.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Qlik Sense before this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward. The time it took for the installation was approximately four hours. However, the configuration takes a lot longer but it is not a problem with this solution it is common for configurations to take a while.

What about the implementation team?

We did the deployment ourselves. We have a team of two administrators doing the maintenance for the solution and a team of four for the development of the dashboard. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is a license required, we pay an annual license which is priced fair.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others. We are satisfied with the solution and are going to keep using it in the future.

I rate Tableau an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Assistant Vice President at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Consultant
Good visualization, but the price should be reduced and the extraction of data should be faster
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau is very good in the front-end visualization compared to Power BI."
  • "When it comes to large datasets, the data should be extracted faster."

What is most valuable?

Tableau is very good in the front-end visualization compared to Power BI.

The look and feel of Tableau are the best when compared with Power BI.

Power BI meets with my expectations but the wow factor is in Tableau.

What needs improvement?

An issue that is common to both Tableau and Power BI is with large data sets. When it comes to large datasets, the data should be extracted faster.

Tableau should offer the end-user a desktop version that is free where they can go in and practice. There are other solutions that offer it for free such as Huawei, and the desktop version of Power BI is also free.

People tend to know if they want to learn visualization. They don't have a proper tool in place, they don't know how to or where to go to learn. If you give them the tool to learn and let them explore when they want to go into production, people are able to purchase the license. A 14-day trial version would not be enough time.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

If they want to be competitive in the market, the price must be improved.

They should allow more than a 14-day trial version. It should be a longer duration otherwise no one will want to learn it.

Tableau is $35, whereas Power BI is only $9.90. Tableau is not competitive and should reduce its price.

What other advice do I have?

SQL is the most important. Writing SQL queries is very important and that's the first foundation I would recommend for any juniors to start.

If they're not very strong in SQL then they will not be able to write the functions for both Power BI and Tableau. SQL is the foundation for anything.

I would rate Tableau a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
Rajdeep Biswas - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Architect - Sr. Manager at Axtria - Ingenious Insights
Real User
Robust visualization, a functional UI, and it integrates well
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the richness of its visualization and from a self-service standpoint, the ease of use."
  • "The data processing in Tableau is pathetic compared to Qlik."

What is our primary use case?

There are many and various use cases. Some use it internally for inter-department analytics, sales analytics, campaign management, and sentiment analysis.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the richness of its visualization and from a self-service standpoint, the ease of use.

The interface is fine. The functionality in the UI front is good as well.

It integrates easily.

From a UI visualization standpoint, I think it's pretty robust.

What needs improvement?

The data processing in Tableau is pathetic compared to Qlik.

In Qlik, I can replace my ELD layer for an application. This can't be done in Tableau.

The initial processing of data in Tableau takes a lot of effort.

If there could be a feature that a particular visual can be exported or just the data behind the particular visual can be exported in one single click, just one button on a visual and it exports the relevant data out to Excel or a CSV output, that would be good.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau since 2014, maybe even before that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's decently scalable. I have been able to scale it pretty easily.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is good. On a scale of five, I would say four.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is neither straightforward nor complex.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is not bad. It's competitive.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a BI Architect.

My recommendation for this solution would depend on the use cases.

I would rate Tableau and eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.