Item: Tableau Desktop
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Tableau Desktop is being used across the organization as our main Dashboard reporting tool. We, as department create tableau reports, which are then accessed and used by the organization as a whole. The main problem it addresses is providing accurate, on-time reporting on our KPIs, which users can filter on to just get the data they need.

Pros and Cons

Dashboard and Tile creation
Having various data sources connectivity
Support for various way of displaying the data
Good documentation support

Dashboard display speed once user selects a filter can be super slow depending on how much data the dashboard is displaying
Not all the data sources are supported natively, for some others we have to find work-arounds
License is expensive

Return on Investment

Positive long term ROI, estimating that initial investment paid for itself in 6 months
Had to hire for Tableau expertise
Had to make changes in infrastructure to accommodate

Alternatives Considered

Looker

Looker has the benefit of being owned by Google and seamless interface with BigQuery. We didn't use BigQuery at the time, so the benefit wasn't realized. However, we are starting to use it more and more, and will be evaluating Looker again.

The main drawback of Looker compared to Tableau Desktop is that using Looker requires a special mark-up language Looker ML, which takes time to learn. Tableau Desktop on the other hand does use a mark up language.

Key Insights

Do you think Tableau Desktop delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Tableau Desktop's feature set?

Yes

Did Tableau Desktop live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Tableau Desktop go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Tableau Desktop again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Google BigQuery, Amazon Redshift, MongoDB

Usability

Tableau Desktop is easy to learn and fairly easy to implement. We really like the visuals Tableau Desktop creates. It is an expensive tool, so smaller companies should see if it's cost-effective for them to purchase, especially if there aren't multiple data sources involved. If there are various data sources, Tableau Desktop is a good choice to use, since it has a lot of built in support for various data sources.

Support Rating

Tableau Desktop is fairly quick to get back to us when we have questions. Also there is an extensive knowledge base on the Internet, both by Tableau and by the users. We often Google the questions we have to get the answer, and contact support in only the most extreme cases when nothing else works.

Likelihood to Recommend

Tableau Desktop is well suited for a large organization with a sizeable budget, since it's a fairly expensive tool. It's not suited for a lean start-up which is worried about costs. Also, IT support can be required for some of the larger projects, which means extra stuff. Also, if the company has one type of data source, other cheaper alternatives can be explored.

Tableau - a good tool for big companies with multiple data sources

Overall Satisfaction with Tableau Desktop