Business Intelligence Analyst at a government with 10,001+ employees
Real User
User-friendly, useful report publishing, and trial version available
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau's most valuable features are user-friendliness and have a connection between multiple source systems. You can publish a report by using Tableau Public and there you can make your data online, not only batches of data, you can use it as an online analytical tool."
  • "There are more than a powerful tool in the market, such as Microsoft BI."

What is our primary use case?

I have used Tableau to generate visualizations to calculate system trend analysis for business. 

How has it helped my organization?

Tableau has been very helpful to give a high level of insight into our business.

What is most valuable?

Tableau's most valuable features are user-friendliness and have a connection between multiple source systems. You can publish a report by using Tableau Public and there you can make your data online, not only batches of data, you can use it as an online analytical tool.

What needs improvement?

There are more than a powerful tool in the market, such as Microsoft BI.

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April 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Tableau within the last 12 months.

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?

I have found Tableau to be scalable.

I would recommend this solution for large enterprises.

How are customer service and support?

I have not contacted technical support. However, after reading many reviews others have found the support to be good.

How was the initial setup?

The setup and deployment of Tableau are very easy. I did not have a problem.

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

The price of Tableau could improve. The license is too expensive. 

There is a 14-day trial version available to those who want to try it.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Tableau, but if any organization wants to use it, they can see if the solution fits their business requirement. There is a very competitors market and with a low price. Those wanting to use this solution need to study the requirements to know which repository to use.

I rate Tableau a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Director at Decision Science
Real User
Top 20
​Data is easily understood at all levels of the company
Pros and Cons
  • "Partner support is very good."
  • "Tableau is a company that does not respect partners."

What is our primary use case?

Creates data visualization for final users, then shares these visualizations throughout the entire company.

We offer Tableau as a product. As a partner, we recommend it to our customers. We use it internally to manage all our KPIs and services, so we also use it as a customer.

How has it helped my organization?

  • Data is easily understood at all levels of the company.
  • Business insights are shared across various departments.
  • They allow you to quickly mount decision scenarios, and point you in the right direction of issues.

What is most valuable?

  • Its ease of use and ability to convert drag and drop gestures into queries.
  • The ability to create complex calculations.
  • The completeness of things you can do.
  • It has a very nice dashboards.
  • You do not need a technical background to fulfill your business needs.

What needs improvement?

  • Conditional formatting could be an interesting feature to provide to final users. It is a long-term request of our users.
  • The data preparation/blending options are very basic. They could be improved.
  • More willing to hear customer/user suggestions.

For how long have I used the solution?

Five to ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No stability issues. I never had it crash my computers. The stability is awesome.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It can be achieved, but it is not what most companies focus on. You can have a huge server with core licenses. You can have a lot of users using and consuming information and dashboard use it continuously, but the thing is to still have a PC or text components, which is the weakest link in the chain. 

Scalability may be good. Not awesome, but good.

How are customer service and support?

Tableau's support could improve.

Partner support is very good.

In five years, I have been working with Tableau. I have used technical support only one time. They did not complete what I needed. I figured out the solution myself, but I understand this may be due to my own expertise. However, in general, our customers are very satisfied with the support.

I would rate technical support as an eight out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I used Cognos, BusinessObjects, and QlikView. I switched because of the paradigm change to self-service capabilities and ease of use.

We also have a lot projects to change previous tools. For example, we replaced six Enterprise QlikViews in six different companies which had been working there for six or seven years.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very simple and the deployment is easy. Both tools (Desktop & Server) have a very simple wizard.

The typical installation from Mexico to Argentina, which is the market that I serve, is very easy to perform.

What about the implementation team?

Both. Expertise on this tool is very high throughout all of the Tableau ecosystem.

What was our ROI?

It is very high, but it requires a data preparation/blending tool.

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

Tableau's licensing is pretty straightforward and simple. 

However, Tableau is a company that does not respect partners. Tableau is a company that overlaps and steps onto the partners' total deal. We had a very good example in Panama with one of the biggest companies in the country. They stepped in without notice, without having a partner laid out. The company turned down the deal and took it another year and a half to resurface. Finally, when it was close to closing, Tableau stepped in and messed it up. That is a common behavior of the boss company in Latin America.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Power BI, which was in its early stages at the time, but now sprawling across Latin America. Yellowfin, who we are a partner with now. We are now looking at Birst.

We chose Tableau because they were the whole package at the time.

What other advice do I have?

Do not hesitate to implement Tableau. You will not regret it if you are looking for a visualization and discovery tool.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

  • Customers' experiences
  • Transparency
  • The financial stability of the company.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: My company is a Tableau Partner.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
April 2024
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770,616 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Product Manager at Rabita Software
Reseller
Enables us to visualize our raw data
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very user-friendly. It's not like Power BI, Tableau is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Tableau. It's very easy to adopt things. I can visualize the stats."
  • "In the next release, I would like to be able to have the option to see more raw data that I'm converting on the dashboard."

What is our primary use case?

Tableau is an analytics tool so we use it to feed the data. I get the raw data. We use it for business problems. If I want to see what is happening in the market I have Tableau's raw data. I'll make sure that I take all that data and feed it into Tableau.

What is most valuable?

It's very user-friendly. It's not like Power BI, Tableau is very user-friendly. Anybody can use Tableau. It's very easy to adopt things. I can visualize the stats.

It's one of the fastest-growing data visualization and data analytics tools. It aims to help people see the data. You can simplify and convert raw data into a very understandable format. That's the good thing about Tableau. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Tableau for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good. It's easy to use. It's user-friendly. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is quite flexible. It designed to give a more flexible scaling experience. It's quite easy to add users. The Tableau server can support 200 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

I get good support from the Tableau team. If I have any issues, they're able to solve my issue within 24 to 48 hours. If I create an issue, they resolve it between 24 to 48 hours. If I have an issue, I'll just send in a form in the Tableau portal. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy. My IT team took care of setting up the licensing part. 

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

The pricing is expensive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated Power BI and Qlikview. I'm more comfortable with Tableau, it's user-friendly.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten. 

It's a good thing that I'm able to visualize my raw data. In the next release, I would like to be able to have the option to see more raw data that I'm converting on the dashboard.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Principal Consultant at University of Utah Hospital
Real User
Its ease of developing visualizations is a valuable feature, but the tool needs improvements in its security schema
Pros and Cons
  • "It most valuable feature is its ease of developing visualizations, not just charts and graphs."
  • "Improvements in schema security and row/column security need to be made."

What is our primary use case?

I use this solution for healthcare analytics.

How has it helped my organization?

Tableau has provided visibility into patterns which I had not previously observed.

What is most valuable?

The ease of developing visualizations, not just charts and graphs.

What needs improvement?

  • The enterprise features need improvements.
  • Improvements in schema security and row/column security need to be made.

For how long have I used the solution?

Less than one year.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user844137 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at California Department of Corrections
Real User
Allows insights into business performance issues, but dashboard deployment to viewers can be prohibitively expensive
Pros and Cons
  • "It provides supporting data for critical policy and operational changes"
  • "It is easy to adapt visualizers to have interactive conversations among decision-makers."

    What is our primary use case?

    Business Intelligence for operational and executive dashboards. It is used to create real-time operational insights which start at the line-level staff person who manages their own productivity and performance indicators. This gets rolled up to middle and upper management and provides a full sense of operations and targeted goal achievement.

    How has it helped my organization?

    Excellent product: Great visualizers and it is easy to use. 

    Allows insights into business performance issues, providing supporting data for critical policy and operational changes.

    What is most valuable?

    It is easy to adapt visualizers to have interactive conversations among decision-makers. Powerful aggregating and drill-downs are critical for effective insight discovery.

    What needs improvement?

    Deployment of dashboards to viewers and unit supervisors can be prohibitively expensive.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    One to three years.

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

    The cost is high.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user494277 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Director, Strategic Data Analytics at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
    Vendor
    We were able to shorten the delivery of data visualization and analysis projects.

    What is most valuable?

    • Ease of use
    • Efficiency
    • Integration with sources
    • Amazing way to view your data

    How has it helped my organization?

    Data visualization and analysis used to take much longer; we were able to shorten the delivery of the projects by 60%.

    What needs improvement?

    I would like to see improvement in licensing. It is expensive to provide licenses beyond the 10 we already have.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using it for four years.

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    Our deployment issues are related to cost.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    No, very stable product

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Yes. licensing costs are an issue

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is 9/10.

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

    We didn’t have a data vis solution beyond Excel and MSRS before. I used Spotfire in my business school work.

    How was the initial setup?

    Initial setup was straightforward. I created a data mart, plugged in Tableau and started creating dashboards.

    What about the implementation team?

    A vendor team implemented it. Implementation was pretty straightforward – but our data was cleaned and well thought through. I would say, 80% of time should be spent on designing your data mart (if that’s the route you are taking) with clean data and valid data sources.

    What was our ROI?

    We haven’t calculated ROI, but we know that we shortened the delivery timeline by 60%.

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

    Make sure you plan it into the 5 year plan - how many licenses you will need, etc.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    When time came to select a tool for my work, I did thorough research. I downloaded trial versions of both products and selected Tableau based on my user experience and the ratings (Gartner quadrant).

    What other advice do I have?

    Beware of licensing costs, but it shouldn’t deter anyone from using this product. Even if you just use Tableau desktop to provide static data vis’s, it’s worth it.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user434919 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Sole Proprietor at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
    Consultant
    When mixing structured and unstructured ‘Big Data’, it suggests the best graph.

    Valuable Features

    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.

    Improvements to My Organization

    All product use was through the school.

    Room for Improvement

    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.

    Use of Solution

    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.

    Deployment Issues

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

    Customer Service and Technical Support

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

    Initial Setup

    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.

    Implementation Team

    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.

    Pricing, Setup Cost and Licensing

    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.

    Other Advice

    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.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    PeerSpot user
    Manager Business Intelligence and Analytics at a hospitality company with 1,001-5,000 employees
    Vendor
    It connects to data sources without needing to develop a reporting or meta-data layer.

    What is most valuable?

    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.

    How has it helped my organization?

    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.

    What needs improvement?

    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.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have used it for 3 1/2 years.

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    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.

    How are customer service and technical support?

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

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

    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.

    How was the initial setup?

    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.

    What about the implementation team?

    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.

    What was our ROI?

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

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

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

    What other advice do I have?

    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.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user326337 - PeerSpot reviewer
    it_user326337Customer Success Manager at PeerSpot
    Consultant

    How would improved integration with Microsoft Office improve your workflow/productivity?

    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.