Overview
What is Tableau Server?
Tableau Server allows Tableau Desktop users to publish dashboards to a central server to be shared across their organizations. The product is designed to facilitate collaboration across the organization. It can be deployed on a server in the data center,…
An experienced general review for Tableau Server
The WORST company to do business with
Data Analytics with Tableau
Laddy's Tableau Server Review
Pretty. Unstable product + poor support = operations nightmare.
Tableau Server is a world class product
Tableau - Great Visualization at ease
Tableau to the rescue
Tableau - Good Viz, Poor Admin
Failed to meet expectations
Great product but not Cheap
Reviewing Tableau Server
Tableau server is used across multiple departments, with the bulk users in our reporting and finance department.
It allows end users to see …
Tableau Server Review
Tableau Server for Sharing and collaboration of Dasboards
Tableau Server is a great tool for small, medium, and large companies
Awards
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Popular Features
- Customizable dashboards (94)9.494%
- Drill-down analysis (95)8.787%
- Formatting capabilities (93)8.585%
- Multi-User Support (named login) (93)7.474%
Pricing
Viewer
$12.00
Explorer
$35.00
Creator
$70.00
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Tableau Server | How to Restore a Backup
Tableau Server | How to Backup Server
How Tableau Works | Tableau Tutorial for Beginners | Tableau Server Online Training | Intellipaat
Installing Tableau Server 10.5 on Linux
Features
BI Standard Reporting
Standard reporting means pre-built or canned reports available to users without having to create them.
- 9.1Pixel Perfect reports(29) Ratings
Pixel Perfect reports are highly-formatted reports with graphics and ability to preview the report before printing.
- 9.4Customizable dashboards(94) Ratings
Customizable dashboards are dashboards providing the builder some degree of control over the look and feel and display options.
- 9.3Report Formatting Templates(81) Ratings
Ad-hoc Reporting
Ad-Hoc Reports are reports built by the user to meet highly specific requirements.
- 8.7Drill-down analysis(95) Ratings
Drill down analysis is the ability to get to a further level of detail by going deeper into the hierarchy.
- 8.5Formatting capabilities(93) Ratings
Ability to format output e.g. conditional formatting, lines, headers, footers.
- 8.9Integration with R or other statistical packages(59) Ratings
Integration with the open-source R predictive modeling environment.
- 9.5Report sharing and collaboration(89) Ratings
Report sharing and collaboration is the ability to easily share reports with others.
Report Output and Scheduling
Ability to schedule and manager report output.
- 9.6Publish to Web(85) Ratings
- 9.3Publish to PDF(84) Ratings
- 8.2Report Versioning(70) Ratings
Report versioning is the assignment of version numbers to each version of a report to help in tracking.
- 7.5Report Delivery Scheduling(77) Ratings
Report Delivery Schedule is the ability to have reports delivered to a destination at a specific data and time.
- 5.1Delivery to Remote Servers(9) Ratings
Ability to deliver reports to remote servers
Data Discovery and Visualization
Data Discovery and Visualization is the analysis of multiple data sources in a search for patterns and outliers and the ability to represent the data visually.
- 8.8Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)(86) Ratings
Pre-built visualization formats are canned visualization types that can be selected to visualize different kinds of data.
- 8.8Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization(85) Ratings
Location analytics is the visualization of geographical or spatial data.
- 7.8Predictive Analytics(64) Ratings
Predictive Analytics is the ability to build forecasting models based on existing data sets.
Access Control and Security
Access control means being able to determine who has access to which data.
- 7.4Multi-User Support (named login)(93) Ratings
Named model access means that users have access based on name and password.
- 7.4Role-Based Security Model(90) Ratings
Role-based access means that access to data is determined by job or position in the corporation.
- 7.4Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)(92) Ratings
Multiple access permission levels means that different levels of users have different rights.
- 7.5Single Sign-On (SSO)(62) Ratings
Allows users to use one set of login credentials to access multiple applications
Mobile Capabilities
Support for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.
- 7.3Responsive Design for Web Access(77) Ratings
Web design aimed at producing easy-to-read sites across a range of different devices.
- 7.1Mobile Application(61) Ratings
A dedicated app for iOS and/or Android.
- 7.9Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile(68) Ratings
In-app dashboard reports and data visualization.
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding
APIs are a set of routines, protocols, and tools for used for embedding one application in another
- 9REST API(40) Ratings
REST is an architecture style for designing networked applications
- 9.1Javascript API(37) Ratings
A Javascript API is a type of API
- 9.1iFrames(40) Ratings
An iFrame is an HTML document embedded inside another HTML document on a website
- 5.5Java API(7) Ratings
A Java application programming interface (API) is a list of all classes that are part of the Java development kit (JDK)
- 6.1Themeable User Interface (UI)(9) Ratings
A themeable user interface means that a specific visual them can be applied to it
- 4.6Customizable Platform (Open Source)(7) Ratings
A customizable, open source API Gateway is a fast and scalable type of API
Product Details
- About
- Integrations
- Competitors
- Tech Details
- Downloadables
- FAQs
What is Tableau Server?
Tableau Server is an enterprise self-service analytics platform that supports data-driven decision making throughout the user's organization.
Customers can deploy the way that makes the most sense for their organization - on-premises or in the cloud, on Windows or Linux, while integrating with their existing security and authentication protocols. Customers can provide governed data access while promoting sharing and collaboration with data, dashboards and insights. It includes automated processes and workflows, and users can define access for individual users and groups.
Tableau Server Features
BI Platform Features
- Supported: Administration via Windows App
- Supported: Administration via MacOS App
- Supported: Administration via Web Interface
- Supported: Live Connection to External Data
- Supported: Snapshot of External Data
- Supported: In-memory data model
- Supported: Multi-Data Source Reporting (Blending)
Supported Data Sources Features
- Supported: MS Excel Workbooks
- Supported: Text Files (CSV, etc)
- Supported: Oracle
- Supported: MS SQL Server
- Supported: IBM DB2
- Supported: Postgres
- Supported: MySQL
- Supported: ODBC
- Supported: Cloudera Hadoop
- Supported: Hortonworks Hadoop
- Supported: EMC Greenplum
- Supported: IBM Netezza
- Supported: HP Vertica
- Supported: SAP Hana
- Supported: Teradata
- Supported: Salesforce
- Supported: SAP
- Supported: Google Analytics
BI Standard Reporting Features
- Supported: Customizable dashboards
- Supported: Report Formatting Templates
Ad-hoc Reporting Features
- Supported: Drill-down analysis
- Supported: Formatting capabilities
- Supported: Predictive modeling
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
- Supported: Report sharing and collaboration
Report Output and Scheduling Features
- Supported: Publish to Web
- Supported: Publish to PDF
- Supported: Output Raw Supporting Data
- Supported: Report Versioning
- Supported: Report Delivery Scheduling
Data Discovery and Visualization Features
- Supported: Pre-built visualization formats (heatmaps, scatter plots etc.)
- Supported: Location Analytics / Geographic Visualization
- Supported: Predictive Analytics
- Supported: Support for Machine Learning models
- Supported: Pattern Recognition and Data Mining
- Supported: Integration with R or other statistical packages
Access Control and Security Features
- Supported: Multi-User Support (named login)
- Supported: Role-Based Security Model
- Supported: Multiple Access Permission Levels (Create, Read, Delete)
- Supported: Report-Level Access Control
- Supported: Single Sign-On (SSO)
Mobile Capabilities Features
- Supported: Responsive Design for Web Access
- Supported: Mobile Application
- Supported: Dashboard / Report / Visualization Interactivity on Mobile
Application Program Interfaces (APIs) / Embedding Features
- Supported: REST API
- Supported: Javascript API
- Supported: iFrames
Tableau Server Screenshots
Tableau Server Integrations
Tableau Server Competitors
Tableau Server Technical Details
Deployment Types | On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
---|---|
Operating Systems | Windows, Linux |
Mobile Application | Apple iOS, Android, Mobile Web |
Supported Countries | Worldwide |
Supported Languages | English, French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, Chinese |
Tableau Server Downloadables
Frequently Asked Questions
Comparisons
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Reviews and Ratings
(876)Community Insights
- Business Problems Solved
- Recommendations
Tableau Server has become an essential tool for organizations across various industries, offering a wide range of use cases that have proven valuable to users. Its ability to transform complex data into user-friendly visualizations has been particularly beneficial in emergency preparedness analytics within the healthcare sector. Additionally, dedicated analysts have utilized Tableau Server to create and deploy dashboards that are accessible to all employees, serving as the main repository for reporting needs. This versatility extends beyond healthcare, with organizations from IT to Human Resources leveraging the platform to address key issues such as device availability, performance tracking, and enterprise reporting.
Marketing teams have also found value in Tableau Server, using it to gain a better understanding of their customer base and track product ownership and usage trends. The platform's storytelling approach has been especially valuable for data scientists who use Tableau Server to present data to managers and executives, facilitating understanding and supporting decision-making processes. Furthermore, Tableau Server has been integrated into third-party applications and platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint, making it a convenient one-stop-shop for reporting needs.
Tableau Server's ease of maintenance from an administrator level and seamless integration with Active Directory for user permission management have made it a preferred choice for many organizations. It fosters secure and controlled sharing of work done by Tableau Desktop analysts and developers, enabling real-time data visualization and monitoring across the organization. This has led to increased adoption and expansion of its usage in various departments such as Finance, Supply Chain, and HR.
Overall, Tableau Server's ability to store, visualize, and share information effectively has provided organizations with leverage over other systems. Its versatility and ease of use have made it a trusted platform for reporting and analytics needs across different industries, enabling self-service analytics, cost savings through improved tracking capabilities, enhanced customer experience operations, and centralization of reporting.
Tableau users commonly recommend seeking advice from Tableau representatives to determine the best licenses for their needs. They also suggest optimizing data flows and extract refreshes from the beginning. Additionally, users emphasize the importance of being specific when setting up reports to avoid incorrect data. For example, providing clear filters and selecting the appropriate dimensions and measures ensures accurate results. Another tip is to utilize Tableau's training resources and attend user groups and conferences for additional tips and tricks on using Tableau effectively.
Attribute Ratings
- 10Likelihood to Renew20 ratings
- 9Availability9 ratings
- 8.1Performance8 ratings
- 5.4Usability17 ratings
- 3.3Support Rating18 ratings
- 9Online Training9 ratings
- 8In-Person Training4 ratings
- 9.1Implementation Rating13 ratings
- 8Configurability1 rating
- 9.5Data Visualization2 ratings
- 6.7Data Sources83 ratings
- 5.1Data Sharing and Collaboration80 ratings
- 8.2Tableau Server Integration55 ratings
- 8.6Tableau Server Governance55 ratings
- 8.1Tableau Server Supporting Resources55 ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 56)An experienced general review for Tableau Server
- To convert raw datasets into powerful reports, dashboards, presentable form .
- To easy share your work with anyone with easy access without any data loss .
- A database that stores all your works without any space in your devices and keep safe your data, dashboards etc up-to when you in need to use .
- Auto- scheduling for backups data in large data sets.
- More technical updates in coming versions .
- Speed to upload and opening files
Data Analytics with Tableau
- Security
- extract refresh schedule
- subscriptions to workbooks & Dashboards
- download data in crosstab
- download workbook as image, pdf, twbx
- permissions should flow from primary folder if changes are made later.
- download pdf content doesn't have scroll bar it just takes snapshot leaving some data
- data cache issues should be resolved
Tableau - Great Visualization at ease
- Connection to different data sources
- Creating meaningful visualization
- Advanced Analytics
- Tableau server can incorporate more AI visualization
- Errors in visualization can be highlighted quickly
- ETL capabilities can Ben enhanced
Tableau to the rescue
- Visualization of data in multiple formats
- Concisely present information in a dashboard
- Allow multiple users to access the same reports simultaneously
- Sometimes the functionality related to formula entry is difficult
- You have to create multiple data sheets to create one dashboard
The formulas are sometimes difficult to enter into tableau and that restricts some analysis to be performed.
Visualization within tableau is the best but the trend line graphs are not great
Tableau - Good Viz, Poor Admin
- Visualizations.
- Simple deployment method.
- Easy to navigate interface.
- Server administration is cumbersome.
- Recent changes (after 10.x) have required rewriting of admin scripts.
- Cumbersome licensing management.
- Tableau Server is extremely well at providing a stabile system for us to host data sources and dashboards
- Tableau Server is great at managing permissions for users, data sources, workbooks, and dashboards
- Tableau Server has had some issue handling some of our larger data sets. Our extract refreshes fail intermittently with no obvious error that we can fix
- Tableau Server has been hard to work with before they launched their new Rest API, which is also a little tricky to work with
Tableau Server is an absolute must for getting the most out of the Tableau Platform.
- It's good at doing what it is designed for: accessing visualizations without having to download and open a workbook in Tableau Desktop. The latter would be a very inefficient method for sharing our metrics, so I am glad that we have Tableau Server to serve this function.
- Publishing to Tableau Server is quick and easy. Just a few clicks from Tableau Desktop and a few seconds of publishing through an average speed network, and the new visualizations are live!
- Seeing details on who has viewed the visualization and when. This is something particularly useful to me for trying to drive adoption of some new pages, so I really appreciate the granularity provided in Tableau Server
- I think the UI of how projects and folders within projects are managed could use some improvement. The organization is pretty straightforward, but it's designed for a large amount of content. Accessing a simple dashboard from one published workbook requires clicking into a Project then clicking into the dashboard to actually see the content. It's hard to describe without seeing it, but it always feels like there was an extra, unnecessary click. Seems minor, but this is an annoyance I and my colleagues face many times through the day.
- There seems to be some formatting issues between what's built in Tableau Desktop (TD) and Tableau Server (TS), e.g., if I format some filters over a background in TD, they show up very legibly with the background as white against the color background. But when published the same filters could have the color of the background and no way to change it to white, and the font has less contrast for some reason. Seems minor, but it wastes a lot of time retrying then re-publishing just to get something to work as expected. The view in TD should be exactly the same as TS.
- As far as I can tell, there's no way to put a clone of a certain dashboard into multiple projects/folders and have any updates propagate to those clones. Also as far as I can tell, there's no feature that tracks where the same dashboard has been published in multiple places. That means if I have a dashboard that I need to show in multiple places so those teams can access it in their native location with their other content contextual to them, I have to maintain a record of all the places I've published and re-publish to all whenever updates are made. And if it turns out the solution is there in the product, then the UI is clearly pretty dense because I haven't found it whereas this was an intuitive setting to find on a competitor BI tool I have used. I think this should be improved in the product since it's often necessary to manage the same content across multiple locations so various teams are accessing their single location relevant to them.
Getting up and ready with a great data visualization platform in a few days with Tableau Server
Tableau is used by data scientists to present data to managers and executive. It has a storytelling approach that facilitates the understanding of data and eases the decision-making process.
- Tableau server's portal and general look is really convenient and pretty. Users feel comfortable using it.
- The learning curve of Tableau Server from an end-user perspective is really short. For the creator of content, it is a little more complex but easy to learn. Tableau has really succeeded in creating a user-friendly software.
- From an administration point of view, Tableau is great. Installation and housekeeping are really easy and quick.
- Visuals are really appealing and will help "sell" your presentations.
- Tableau allows connectivity to a huge selection of data sources and data formats.
- Online training for software is free and of very good quality.
- Tableau doesn't (at least when I used it) have custom widgets or elements in the creation of dashboards. Its main competitor, Power BI, allows this. Because of that, some visualizations are challenging and need the use of advanced tricks that most users don't know about.
- Tableau logs a lot of information, and sometimes, getting the right information from these logs when something goes wrong is challenging.
- Tableau support is not the quickest. This sounds bad, but I have to specify that I very rarely had to contact them. However, when I did, the answer took a few more days than with other providers.
In an environment where you have a lot of creators, the use of a server might not bring a lot of benefits, because creators using the desktop version can open and modify other people's dashboards.
Tableau Server is perfect for real-time visualization and interactive dashboards, not for advanced analytics
- Tableau is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing software to create beautiful visualizations that get updated in real-time. I wish this software had been around 20 years ago.
- Tableau Server makes sharing visualizations across the organization seamless. I don't think I could do my job without it.
- Tableau Server is used to create interactive daily reports, updated automatically and in an interactive style.
- Tableau Server is sometimes referred to as simply Microsoft Excel with a power boost. I understand the reason analysts say this. It is because the software is almost exclusively a visualization software. If you're looking for truly advanced analytics combined with cutting-edge visualization, Tableau Server isn't it.
- Tableau Server limits the type of graphs a user can create. There are numerous workarounds for different graph types, but they are not easy to implement.
- Tableau Server can sometimes be slow to render graphics with lots of data and calculated fields.
Intuitive and easy BI
Tableau has proven to be a great tool for the collection of data from multiple data sources, with varying complexity -- we used spreadsheets, SQL tables as well as Google Analytics connection. The tool was a standard platform in a multinational organization and was used for years, so the data was already linked, including the local eDWH solution, providing support for regular as well as ad-hoc reports.
- Many available plugins, incl. the one I have used for regional analysis (data enriched with addresses / GPS attributes)
- Narratives (story building) is a great tool for creating and sharing your analysis with your audience
- Data visualization is one of the best you can get today
- Supports mobile usage
- Connection to SQL database: by connecting it to a database, one has to employ an SQL specialist to write the script
- No autosave function
- No automatized notification feature (e.g. alert based on value out of range, in a report)
- Very expensive solutions
It is a great tool for any ad-hoc analysis that has to deliver an interactive story to management (client), it will not only deliver nice visualizations, but will also allow for drill-downs to the primary data and proof for your audience that your numbers in the presented graph are correct
Tableau: Powerful, Flexible, Agile
- It's extremely intuitive to use the visualizations. Users can manipulate and construct meaning and additional questions from the data quickly.
- Tableau is very flexible -- it's completely data source agnostic. It will take data from any source.
- Our development team learned it very quickly.
- While it took little time for our data analysts to crank out visualizations, it did take some time(longer than I expected) for our technology operations team to configure the server to share the sizes.
- The server update process is rather cumbersome -- requires a full uninstall/re-install.
- Again, while it took our data analysts next to no time to start creating, I've been in other organizations that have struggled with the feature-rich interface and complexity of the Tableau client. So, it requires the right personnel, with dedicated time, to fully leverage the tool.
Tableau Server - Connecting the visualization
- Access from any device
- Worksheets can be managed online
- Can change and visualize new stuff
- Easy to use
- Public server gives first few lines free of charge
- Free lines are limited to 10 million per single connection
- Premium is expensive
- New data sources cam be published from Tableau Desktop
Tableau Server is the best of the best
- User management; you have a plethora of options built in (LDAP, Domain, SAML, etc.) for SSO and user management.
- Dashboard Hosting; you have the option to host your dashboard in a few different ways. You can embed it as part of a larger web page, have it emailed automatically, or view it directly on the server.
- Web Editing; while not as robust as a full fledged desktop I can see that it is edging that way. The web editing is great for fast, small, on the fly edits during a working session with a customer.
- Installation; the latest iteration was an absolute nightmare to install. It failed to install several times.
- Web Editing; while it is okay at small edits it would be a very nice feature to have an integrated solution that is as robust as desktop.
- User Management; in certain aspects user management could use a small boost. Have a setting that allows Active Directory / LDAP based users be removed/deleted from the server automatically instead of forcing a script be written and deployed. If the user no longer exists in the AD or LDAP group they should be removed vice set to inactive as an option.
Amazing product for sharing actionable insights!
- Allows for easy sharing of data and actionable insights with an extremely user-friendly visual interface
- Acts as an environment to implement and enforce data governance with centralized and certified data sources
- Easy to deploy, scale to our specific needs, and monitor
- Enterprise level implementation is very pricey
- Dashboard layout changes if the screen resolution of the Tableau developer is different from the end user's screen resolution
- Embedding is limited and difficult
Usable Analytics for the Right Price!
- Summarize complex data in an easy to understand format.
- Very fast idea/need to realization timelines.
- Ability for end users to interact with data sets, giving them filters, groupings and other tools to get the data they need.
- Tableau's mapping capabilities are "almost there". We would love to have Tableau able to function as our sole GIS product. Each version of Tableau brings us closer to that goal.
- We would like to have the ability to schedule data transfers. The new Data Prep tool is step in that direction.
- We still have need to produce lists of summarized data. Making this process a little more straightforward would be nice.
- Tableau is an easy to use yet powerful analytics tool. We have created 100+ dashboards for our clients in a short time.
- Tableau supports multiple data connectors to pull data from almost any database, and CRM tools. We are able to pull data into Tableau from multiple databases.
- If your business is looking at a tool to put data in the user's hands and avoid IT requests overhead around reporting, Tableau is the tool.
- It is not easy to subscribe to dashboards or send e-mails outside of Tableau users. We have to use open source solutions like VizAlerts to make this happen. I believe for a tool like Tableau this should be an out of box solution.
- Even though Tableau is an easy to use tool, there is still a solid learning curve to get familiar with the use of Tableau. One should invest a good amount of time to get an organization to adapt to Tableau, especially if the organization hasn't already used similar tools already.
- Tableau Desktop is powerful. Tableau Web Portal provides a lot of the same functionality as Tableau Desktop, yet there are lots of gaps.
- Data blending is one of the more powerful features. However, this only works with limited data. If you are blending a million rows of a data source, we found it very difficult to blend.
Tableau - One Stop Shop for Visual Analytics
- Tableau Server is a must-have if you want to easily foster an environment of collaboration of dashboards and analytics built by your end users.
- Tableau Server has a strong and very flexible security model.
- Upgrades and maintenance of Tableau Server are fairly painless.
- Tableau Server provides a one-stop-shop for Tableau Desktop users to find data to work with.
- Content Discovery can be challenging. Unless users have security to data sources or dashboards, they often don't know they are there.
- Tableau Server doesn't natively support the ability to send PDF versions of dashboards to users that aren't Tableau Server users. An open source project was developed called VizAlerts that provides a workaround for this, but it should really just be built into the product.
- There are no phone numbers to call if you need support. The only way to contact Tableau Support is via email. If we have an urgent problem we typically need to reach out to our account executive to get appropriate attention.
Tableau Server is great
- Quick access to data in one place that is easy to find
- Ability for inexperienced users to interact with the data
- Easy sharing, downloading. Everyone can get what they want.
- Management of users is easy
- Editing a workbook in Server has gotten much better, but it would be nice to add even more Desktop-like functionality.
- Not being able to get rid of the Default project is annoying.
- When tasks fail, send an email to the admin instead of just a notification in server.
- Would be great to be able to purchase more licenses within Server.
Tableau Server is a good tool for sharing content within the organization but still has some flaws
- Democratizes information. Any user can share information.
- The community is supportive.
- Auditing has always been lacking. The repository has some information, but being able to see what is clicked and what filters are used is needed.
- The UI has improved over the years, but finding content is still hard. People keep looking at custom portals or embedding content since it is hard to find.
- The 2018.2 upgrade is onerous and we have been putting it off. Not just because of tabadmin to tsm changes but also because o the updater not making the upgrade seamless. I have to reset every configuration.
- Backup and restore is slow.
- if you want answers and interactivity
- self-service
- well formatted and paginated pdf reports to print out
- an Excel replacement
- printing
Tableau Server and IT
- We were using a third party tool to visualize data in SSRS reports. Tableau is very helpful to visualize the data. Tableau visuals are easy to develop and need a very minimal amount of IT support.
- It would be better if Tableau could work like Microsoft SSRS reports work. Through SSRS , we can call the Stored procedures and pass the parameter, but in Tableau there are a few constraints.
Tableau - The One Stop Shop
We also use Tableau to pull data for some of our third-party applications, since Tableau provides so many options for connecting to different data sources. We also use Tableau to create reports for data that resides in Microsoft SharePoint. It has basically become the one stop shop for all our reporting needs. We are looking forward to Tableau adding a scheduling feature to produce extracts from their application someday soon, wink, wink! =-)
I will also say that the software, from an administrator level, is very simple and easy to maintain. There are a few maintenance items that must be completed such as running tab admin - cleanup, since there is so much information that is stored in the cache of the Tableau Server, but you can schedule that to run on its own. It easily integrates with Active Directory, making it easy for us to manage user permissions to the various projects in Tableau. We manage all permissions at the project level and we do not go below that as it becomes a nightmare if you were to do that at the report level. Save yourself some time and headache by managing it at the project level.
Tableau allows you to set up a PROD, QA and DEV environment under one license, which is nice. When we perform an upgrade we will normally copy our PROD server and rename it to a QA server to perform the upgrade. Once the QA environment is upgraded we have a few of our analysts from different parts of the organization perform rigorous testing to ensure reports, functionality, processes, and so on, are working correctly in order to avoid any interruption to the business. Once everything has been signed off by the testers, we perform a back up of our PROD server, and after that we perform the upgrade. We haven't had any issues with our Tableau Servers ever, and we are always on the latest releases for Tableau. We perform two to three upgrades in a year in order to take advantage of all the latest and greatest that Tableau has to offer in order to give you an idea of how easy it is to upgrade to Tableau.
- Various connections to different data sources all in one product. We have so many different data sources within our organization. Tableau makes it easy for us to have all of our reporting in one place.
- The ability to leverage the software with the company's growth. We have acquired three companies in the last 3 years. Our company has grown from 800 to 1500 plus employees in that short amount of time. Our Tableau Server is the same from day one when we purchased the software, and that was 6 years ago. We haven't need to buy additional cores as we have eight cores right now and we are doing extremely well for an organization with such large growth.
- The process of how one manages permissions to the different projects saves IT time and resources.
- I would really like to have the ability to schedule a report as an extract (TXT, CSV, Excel, PDF, or other) that I can either email, place onto a network share, or other transfer method.)
Tableau review for in home medical visit company use.
- Geo-mapping
- Data drill-down
- Sharing dashboards online
- Better ways to move dashboard items, like when all items need to be moved 2 x or y radius to the right, down, etc.
- More Graphs and Charts
- Better color customization
- Maybe a search bar for tools or other items
Experience with Tableau
Most of the departments like Finance, Supply Chain, Airline customers, etc., use Tableau. The only department that I see we are lagging in is HR. HR is looking forward to automating the dashboards, but due to connectivity issues with Workday (as Tableau doesn't have a Workday connector,) we are unable to automate the dashboards.
The Supply Chain department is very much impressed with the tool, as they have had a lot of work reduced at their end. Also, they have better tracking of the vendor details & gap analysis of the stock purchase, which saves a good amount of money for the company by avoiding penalties for late delivery.
- Saves plenty of time in Development Work.
- Better Visualization
- Flexibility to connect to plenty of databases, if not create your data set, using WDC functionality
- Easy Server maintenance & very quick releases by Tableau.
- Workday connectivity will help easy integration for HR department & this will encourage more usage in our company
- Enabling the XML format of the dashboard will help easily share the dashboard, like in COGNOS
As HR data is a larger chunk of data, we are unable to automate using R Script and have security issues with Workday. This would be a scenario where we'd have to look into alternatives.
Tableau Server Review
- Visualizations
- Ad-hoc Analysis
- Self-service analytics
- Easier functionality for external facing server
My Tableau server review
- Architecture of the Tableau Server is very simple and easy to implement. It can be easily scaled up/scaled down based on the business needs
- The licensing concepts of user-based/CPU core based is best in standards. We can choose based on our needs
- Tableau DB connectors. It connects all types of data sources available and it is also made very simple and powerful
- Too many releases of Tableau Server products. Maybe it could be half yearly so that we can plan for the upgrades of our server as needed
- Two Node installation should support high availability by making the repository in both nodes