Tableau- The Data Visualizer
Updated February 25, 2018
Tableau- The Data Visualizer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Tableau Desktop
We are using Tableau Desktop for creating dashboards for MIS reporting. These dashboards are being used by stakeholders and managers for their decisions process. They can see the changes over time and graphs, top performing agents and several similar details which are shown geographically or by state. We usually get requirements to update the dashboards as per their need so that it is easily understandable and conveys more information.
- Graphs and charts are built very easily.
- Tableau is very good at showing data visually
- Easily help make a decision by looking at the pattern
- The ETL part is missing in Tableau.
- For huge and ambiguous data-sets, Tableau Desktop is not good.
- Before analysis data preparation is mandatory.
- QlikView and SAP Business Objects
1. As compared to SAP Business Objects, Tableau is very easy to use and quick in terms of implementation. Although SAP BO is reporting tool but both tool servers different purposes. SAP BO is a huge enterprises tool used mainly for creating large tabular reports while Tableau Desktop is a dash boarding tool used for visual representation of data.
2. When comparing QlikView with Tableau both are kind of similar tools, because the purpose of both tools are visual representation of data using dashboards. Although both tools are different at several points like QlikView has very good ETL and features compared to Tableau, while Tableau is very user-friendly and offers drag and drop features which makes it very easy for business users as well.
2. When comparing QlikView with Tableau both are kind of similar tools, because the purpose of both tools are visual representation of data using dashboards. Although both tools are different at several points like QlikView has very good ETL and features compared to Tableau, while Tableau is very user-friendly and offers drag and drop features which makes it very easy for business users as well.
Tableau Desktop Feature Ratings
Using Tableau Desktop
100 - Most of they either prepare Tableau dashboards for their clients or they support tableau for their clients
3 - In my own project we have three people who are providing tableau support
- For their own Decision making process
- For business forecast
- For Reporting purpose
- To see dynamic dashboards for visual analysis
- For decision making process
- Earlier we were using SAP Business Objects for reporting purpose in which even a little change takes up a lot of time, but now after moving to Tableau it has become quite easy and time saving.
Evaluating Tableau Desktop and Competitors
Yes - Tableau replaced SAP Business Objects is my project, this was because for interactive visualization purpose business objects was not good, so we have to go for some visualization tool and Tableau was best to be considered due to its easy to use, less training and quick setup features and obviously business requirement.
- Price
- Product Features
- Product Usability
- Product Reputation
- Analyst Reports
- Third-party Reviews
The main factor in Purchasing tableau was its usability and quick setup, minimal training.
The evaluation and selection process would be kind of similar, although for big dataset I would like to choose some tool which uses in-memory technology for faster data retrieval.
Tableau Desktop Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - Data Source and Data Preparation
Setting up 4 environments(Dev, Build, UAT and Prod)
Setting up connection and creating Tableau extracts
building dashboards
Publishing, Security and maintainance
Setting up 4 environments(Dev, Build, UAT and Prod)
Setting up connection and creating Tableau extracts
building dashboards
Publishing, Security and maintainance
Change management was a big part of the implementation and was well-handled - This was very important part of the project, as it was an agile project the requirements for an update was frequent, so maintaining the projects change
requests were very important. So every request has to go through a change request and approval only after that the changes use to go live.
requests were very important. So every request has to go through a change request and approval only after that the changes use to go live.
- Several change requests were raised parallely so maintaing the que was getting difficult.
- We have to come up with a change window only when changes could be applied.
- We have to keep the timeline of changes so that it doesn't overlap with the previous request of the same dashboard.
Tableau Desktop Training
- Online training
- Self-taught
Without training also Tableau can be mastered by you will have to give more time to practice the concepts and also need to go through online resources.
Tableau Desktop Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team No escalation required Immediate help available Support cares about my success | Need to explain problems multiple times |
No - Basically, Tableau has very good and active user community and any question are answered very quickly. Multiple times i had situations where i had to post on tableau community about my issues and community users were so active that I got 2-3 answers within 2 hrs.
Yes - There was an issue publishing data online, in that case, contact support although that was not a bug.
During the time of setting up tableau online they were really helpful, I would say that was kind of exceptional support but it could have been faster.
Using Tableau Desktop
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
Like to use Relatively simple Easy to use Technical support not required Well integrated Consistent Quick to learn Convenient Feel confident using | None |
- Building basic charts from already available show me is one of the quickest and easiest thing in any BI tool
- connecting to data is quite simple we don't need to write long queries(unless we want to).
- arranging sheets in the dashboard and using filters are just clicks away, anyone can do it by first chance only.
- Using calculated fields for special functionalities
- Understanding and using LOD functions can be cumbersome for new users
- building advanced graphs require a deep understanding of several advanced tableau features, which comes from regular uses.
Yes - The best thing is you can see your published content from a mobile client at your ease.
Apart from this tableau features mobile specific dashboard building, like based on mobile screen size and resolution you can create your dashboard.
Apart from this tableau features mobile specific dashboard building, like based on mobile screen size and resolution you can create your dashboard.