Tableau is the perfect solution for our business needs with it's flexibility, ease-of-implementation, and low cost.
Overall Satisfaction with Tableau Desktop
As a freight audit and payment company, Cass Information Systems has provided data visibility through our existing CassPort client web portal for several years; however, our data visualization features are limited (especially compared to tools currently available in the marketplace). Tableau Desktop (for use with Tableau Online) was, therefore, selected as the business intelligence tool to be offered to select Cass shipper clients. As chief data visualization content developer, my near-term goal is to pilot our roll-out effort across a few test clients. If pilot is successful, we will likely transition to Tableau Server and integrate Tableau content with CassPort.
Pros
- Low cost.
- Self-service format, very easy to implement with minimal IT resources needed.
- Flexibility...and data visualization features are much better than expected.
Cons
- If original data sources change (e.g. field name change, field added/removed, file name change), it can be tricky to remap new names to previous ones without disrupting existing sheets, dashboards, and/or storyboards; of course, this issue likely exists with any comparable tool.
- Large datasets require extraction to minimize latency. Extraction can take several minutes. Again, this may be something most other tools encounter.
- Although I previously mentioned ease of implementation as a strength, there is a learning curve using Tableau Desktop. BUT, there are useful online instruction videos...and our Tableau account mgr is available for assistance.
Cass evaluated Domo, QlikView and Birst prior to selecting Tableau. It came down to cost (and by a significant margin); the others have relatively high implementation, hosting and other costs. Additionally, based on a recent Gartner "Magic Quadrant", Tableau exceeds all others based on "ability to execute" and "completeness of vision"...and they appear to have greatest overall brand recognition in the marketplace relative to their competitors.
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