Owner at Richard Duggan Pty Ltd
Real User
Top 20
Powerful visualizations, easy to use, and stable.
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very good for data visualization. It has very powerful visualizations and is easy to use."
  • "I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing. Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training."

What is our primary use case?

I am using it for personal and organizational purposes. Most recently, we used it to collect and analyze the personal and geographic data input by people over the web.

How has it helped my organization?

Makes analysis fast and easy, providing insights that could be missed otherwise.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to use with very powerful data visualizations.

What needs improvement?

I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing.

Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training.

Buyer's Guide
Tableau
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution off and on for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable if you use it with other tools. I have used it with other tools.

I am a freelance consultant. I use it myself. My clients have hundreds or thousands of users.

How are customer service and support?

I don't have any experience with their support.

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

I also use Power BI. Tableau is very comparable to Power BI.

How was the initial setup?

If I remember it correctly, it was easy.

What about the implementation team?

I can do it on my own.

What was our ROI?

My clients don't measure an ROI, they are interested in getting insights faster and when the get past the basics right then modelling scenarios. If you invest in BI tools it is part of a journey requiring investment. Analysis often helps to increase revenues and reduce costs. 

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

It is expensive when you compare it with Power BI. It should be cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have looking at SAP SAC and Oracle / Essbase for a client.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Tableau a nine 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
Senior Manager Analytic & Insights at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A powerful, secure, and flexible end-to-end analytics platform
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau is easy to use and it has great predictive features."
  • "It would be nice if we could export more raw data. Currently, there is a limit as to how much data you can export."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to process and create reports for management. 

Within our organization, 10 people in marketing use this solution.

How has it helped my organization?

With Tableau, we can create our own reports which in turn, saves us tons of time as we don't have to wait for IT to do it.

What is most valuable?

Tableau is easy to use and it has great predictive features. 

What needs improvement?

It would be nice if we could export more raw data. Currently, there is a limit as to how much data you can export.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for roughly three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau is very stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is pretty good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite straightforward. It's not too complex.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed this solution on our own.

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

The price of this solution could definitely be lower. It's quite expensive. We're on a monthly subscription — I am not sure exactly how much we pay.

What other advice do I have?

Tableau allows us to go deep inside the data — other solutions, like Excel, don't allow you to do that.

As a BI tool, I would give Tableau a rating of eight out of ten — it's one of the easiest BI tools available; however, it's not that easy to manage orders. It's really user-friendly for individual users, but it may not be suitable for large organizations.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
765,386 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Data Warehouse Manager at a construction company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We use it to illustrate trends in cash balances, research grant expenditure trends, and student metrics and performance.

Valuable Features

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.

Improvements to My Organization

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.

Room for Improvement

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.

Use of Solution

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.

Scalability Issues

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.

Customer Service and Technical Support

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

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

Implementation Team

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, Setup Cost and Licensing

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.

Other Solutions Considered

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

Other Advice

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
MBA, MS Business Analytics at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Complex, with long load time, but is good in terms of resources
Pros and Cons
  • "When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources."
  • "People are migrating to Microsoft BI due to the speed, which is quite slow to load, and the lack of visualization options."

What is our primary use case?

It's similar to what we do with Power BI. It is used for dashboarding as well as a few analyses.

What is most valuable?

When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources. In any kind of material, learning material, or if I find a new chart and decide I want to do it, Tableau is more easily available than Power BI.

What needs improvement?

It's a little more complicated than Power BI.

More visualization options, but not the same as in Power BI, where there are simply more options. I see very few options here. Many of these must be customized and custom-built, which is a lengthy process.

I would like to see more options in visualization customization.

People are migrating to Microsoft BI due to the speed, which is quite slow to load, and the lack of visualization options. There are a few default options in Power BI that Tableau does not have.

I would like to see the added visualizations and possibly an easier way to process data, which are useful now that we all have Power BI, there is a whole power query interface that directly links to Microsoft BI, whereas with Tableau, I would have to go through an entirely different process for it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for one year.

We use the latest version.

It can be deployed both on the cloud and on-premises.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau is very stable, but it takes too long to load.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability has been fine. So far, I believe it has served our purpose.

We have more than a hundred users in our organization.

It is being extensively used, but it is getting to be lesser now.

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

We have also used Power BI.

We found Power BI to be more useful than Tableau.

How was the initial setup?

Tableau was already set up when I arrived.

What other advice do I have?

It is purely a visualization tool, as opposed to Power BI, which has connectivity to the entire Microsoft product suite, including your Excels and other tools, which Tableau does not.

I would rate Tableau, a five out of ten.

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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Associate Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good visualizations and good dashboards with a nice look and feel
Pros and Cons
  • "It's easy to use."
  • "If I have to develop any, for example, pie charts, I can develop them just fine. However, if I have to develop a donut chart, that I cannot do it in a simple way. There are tricks that I need to use if I have to design a donut chart. It should be more flexible and provide more visualization options."

What is our primary use case?

We use it for internal monitoring purposes.

What is most valuable?

I like Tableau a lot as its visualizations are great; there's no doubt about it. It's easy to use. 

The look and feel and features are very good. Dashboarding is very good.

The product has been stable. 

What needs improvement?

While my experience has been mostly positive, there are certain limitations, as every tool has.

If I have to develop any, for example, pie charts, I can develop them just fine. However, if I have to develop a donut chart, that I cannot do it in a simple way. There are tricks that I need to use if I have to design a donut chart. It should be more flexible and provide more visualization options.

It does not provide detailed reporting like other reporting tools such as Microstrategy or Cognos, or other enterprise reporting solutions.

If they could provide better reporting as well as visualization, it would be a perfect product.

Pricing is a major thing. If someone has to use it within an organization, it is not that cost-effective, especially when a competitor like Power BI or some other reporting tool comes almost free along with their cloud solution. If someone is opting for any cloud solution, any cloud platform, especially if I talk about Microsoft, they will give you Power BI almost free of cost, or at a minimal cost. In such scenarios, people would prefer using Power BI or a similar kind of tool rather than using Tableau. That is a major concern which Tableau should look into.

For how long have I used the solution?

I haven't been using it continuously, however, I started using Tableau around six years back. Since then, there have been two projects in which I worked on Tableau. I did work with it in 2021.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability has been good. there are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I'm not managing any scaling aspects. I'm basically from the development team. Every company has its own scaling goals. In my company, I don't really follow that aspect.

I can't say how widely used it is in my organization. When we deploy a tool, there are different teams. There are different stakeholders who are actually using it. I manage my team. I know about only my team, not other teams.

How was the initial setup?

I'm not part of that team that manages the setup. I cannot comment on that.

What was our ROI?

As far as ROI goes, I'm not directly aware of it, however, likely you can Google statistics. 

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

The pricing can't compete with Microsoft, for example, which basically gives their BI product away for free to those that purchase cloud products.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I'm also aware of solutions such as Microsoft BI, which is bundled into Microsoft Cloud products. It makes it less expensive for users if they are already heavily using Microsoft.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a customer and an end-user.

I'd rate the solution at 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
Data Management Team Lead at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Centralizes metrics and KPIs very well and is easily customizable
Pros and Cons
  • "I really like the interactivity of the dashboards."
  • "Users would like to be able to export an Excel file when they see a table or something like that. That's not an out-of-the-box feature for Tableau."

What is our primary use case?

I've used it for multiple purposes, for example, for exploratory analysis or just for dashboards for presentations.

How has it helped my organization?

I'd say it brings a centralized place to check day-to-day metrics and KPIs. It helps reduce the duplicated reports or sources of information to get the same data or information. Everyone knows that those dashboards are up to date. They know where to find the answers they're looking for.

What is most valuable?

I really like the interactivity of the dashboards.

I appreciate the fact that you can have filters and parameters so that users can really customize the view to what they want to see.

What needs improvement?

Truthfully, this solution offers pretty much everything that I need for my everyday tasks.

It seems that power BI is more targeted for report creation while Tableau is more of just a dashboard. If you need to have something report-like, or downloadable to share outside of the dashboard, that's where Tableau is lacking some features. 

Users would like to be able to export an Excel file when they see a table or something like that. That's not an out-of-the-box feature for Tableau.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for a year and a half so far. It hasn't been that long.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've had a good experience with the stability. There are no bugs or glitches that I have experienced. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

We did have an issue with our server and it took a while for Tableau support to find a solution. However, that was a one-time thing. That's the only time where we've had issues with our server.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is pretty good. In our case, we did start small and we are now scaling in for our different departments. It's working great.

We are not a big group, however, I would say that we have around 80 to 100 users and that combines creators, explorers, and viewers - a little bit of everything.

We are getting used to it and using it more and more. We are expecting to increase usage in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've never been in touch with technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are. 

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

We did not previously use a different solution prior to adopting this product.

How was the initial setup?

I wasn't around for the initial setup. I cannot speak to what the process was like and couldn't say if it is difficult or straightforward. 

We have some server admins that take care of it and work with Tableau to support it whenever needed. It's a group of people, however, I am unsure about the actual number of personnel that handles it directly. It might be three to five people. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I've looked into Microsoft BI and downloaded some information about it recently.

What other advice do I have?

I'm just an end-user of the product.

I'm likely using the latest version of the solution. 

Everything was implemented when I started, so I wouldn't know if there were any hiccups or best practices, or lessons learned from the process of setting it up. 

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten, from the experience I've had so far. It has helped us tremendously with our everyday reporting and things like that. I can do pretty much everything I want to do and it's been working fine for us.

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
Director of Professional Services, Analytics at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Easy to set up, stable, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
  • "With Tableau, there is a gap in its ability to handle very large-scale data."

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the ease of use.

What needs improvement?

With Tableau, there is a gap in its ability to handle very large-scale data. I would like it to be similar to the rest of the solutions, which can handle terabytes of data.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have used Tableau within the past year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Tableau is not as scalable from an enterprise perspective as some of the other tools out there.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've had no problems so I have not been in contact with technical support.

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

In addition to Tableau, we're a licensed Cognos user and we also use Microsoft BI.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed it myself.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

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
it_user251337 - PeerSpot reviewer
DHS HQ at a government with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Good for quick visualization and being able to quickly consume unstructured data, but not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration and data mining
Pros and Cons
  • "It’s good for quick visualization and being able to quickly consume unstructured data to play around with."
  • "It is not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration, data mining, etc."

What is most valuable?

It’s good for quick visualization and being able to quickly consume unstructured data to play around with. This is good way to show a demonstration/prototypes of dashboards and scenarios for design discussions on reporting requirements or to show what the data is telling us when it comes to features of data integration, OLAP services, data mining and extract, transform, and load (ETL) capabilities.

How has it helped my organization?

Good for adhoc visualization of an unstructured dataset which comes from other sources outside of source systems that you can overlay on top of the structured data and you have to get a quick visualization dashboard prototype going. It helps with the Agile design build and can be used in our current operations analytics work to overlay multitude of data sources that we know of. Can always work offline, which is nice. It’s good for organizations with very limited staff to do quick report builds and dashboards that can be put on our SharePoint site for sharing or on reports when responding to data caps. I use it a lot for design discussions so I can communicate the gaps in data sources for data exchanges or to generate a storyboard prototype of how the data is to be used in visualization but where we need to have data exchange/ETLs on.

What needs improvement?

It is good for its use if ad hoc, offline, or needed for quick turnaround on reports/dashboards. It is not so great when it comes to data exchange/integration, data mining, etc. I rely on what’s available in current versions to see what APIs and plugins that I can use and they have Open Source on GitHub is a plus to share things to re-use.

Room for improvement is more on data integration features that are agnostic to any solution platform but can be plug and play to be able to reuse what was built out Tableau in any other platform of work.

For how long have I used the solution?

Over five years, and the past three more for integrating the use of a similar family of tools where Tableau is one of a few options in our environment, where these services are considered for quick-hit items as needed, given time, dollars, and analyst skills.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes, see other answers. Scalability per user defined elements are okay but not so much for enterprise wide reuse. Per license cost can have some work done to it to make it more affordable on the recurring maintenance end of things. I would like to see more subscription based models.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don’t have to use it much since I can get much of this through current site materials and social media blogs/videos.

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

I didn’t switch. It was just a matter of seeing where Tableau makes sense as a service to use in our environment, which is for the simpler, not so complex, but quick turnaround. Worked with other technology stacks that are similar, like Information Builders, SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, SAS, MicroStrategy, IBM, Salesforce, Qlik, etc. I find Tableau the easiest on visualization and its license model straightforward. But when it comes to scaling to other interoperation work, not so great on the wizard template, to do data mining/exchange. It doesn’t have that robust analytics and intelligence self-learning feature that comes with other tools.

How was the initial setup?

It’s straightforward, like any typical software. You have just got to understand what the various versions of API and plugins and what they can do. Though I have noticed that there were situations where it was said it was able to do things, but not until a later version. It needs better communication on that front.

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

License small scale and run with it to get a business case going on its use. Give the licenses only to those analysts you want to do quick turnaround visualizations and those that know the data sources/data (those that don’t will just have access to tool and that compounds a problem with giving you something nice to look at but no meaning behind it, which I wouldn’t recommend). Look to existing platforms of one’s current BI environment and see if you can have a server license which can reduce the per user licenses.

I wish there was more of a subscription model with the pricing when it comes to Tableau, so you can get all the latest version upgrades/features if you pay monthly/annually, rather than buy straight up licenses that you lock to a baseline version and have to pay for upgrades later on. It limits how many users you can get on the thing, and it's not like you will use it all the time.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, we did an alternatives analysis of all the product line options against our criteria of need in our environment, where recurring cost, time to implement, and other interoperation, security, platform scalability, architecture, etc. factors play a role. The majority were mentioned above.

What other advice do I have?

We always have the latest versions of Tableau (part of the package deal), so we can have the latest in APIs and integration hooks and plugins needed across our platforms of OBIEE, SQL, etc.

Tableau is good for quick visualization once you have the data, but not such a great interoperable tool or getting to multiple sources without a lot of work and know-how. Good for pulling in unstructured data and doing quick reports/prototypes. Does require some stronger business analytical skills rather than your novice user (and technical with regards to use of API and plugins).

If new to the analytics/BI market, use it, as it's good for getting you jumpstarted to understanding your data/data sources and to envision what you can use the data for. It's a good starting tool for that. If more advanced or need it for interoperation, I suggest looking to see how it fits with your current environment and determine where best to use it as it shouldn’t be your only option as the features are not robust enough to scale for everything.

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: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.