Item: Tableau Desktop
Rating: 6
Author: John Stuchly

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Tableau Desktop is used in conjunction with Tableau Server to provide reporting and analytic content to end users across the company. Desktop is primarily used as a development vehicle by IT to share via on-prem server. However, there is some use of desktop by power users in the business to create ad-hoc analytics.

Pros and Cons

Excellent visualizations.
Initial entry to the tool is intuitive.
Large number of sources supported.

Once getting past the basics, creating more complex structures and calculations can be more challenging and less intuitive than other reporting tools.
Maintaining version synchronization between server and desktop is annoying. Would be better if the server compatibility could be specified in the desktop.
Support for 3rd party olap technologies could be better.

Return on Investment

Tableau was acquired years ago, and has provided good value with the content created.
Ongoing maintenance costs for the platform, both to maintain desktop and server licensing has made the continuing value questionable when compared to other offerings in the marketplace.
Users have largely been satisfied with the content, but not with the overall performance. This is due to a combination of factors including the performance of the Tableau engines as well as development deficiencies.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Power BI, TIBCO Spotfire and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

Tableau was chosen prior to my joining the company, and today I would be hard pressed to choose Tableau over Power BI. This is largely due to the value proposition Power BI represents as it has made leaps and bounds improvements to the tool since its inception. If you are heavily invested in Tableau, making a switch may not be feasible. If you are looking for a visualization tool, it would be difficult to choose Tableau over Power BI based on the overall feature/functionality of both toolsets.

Key Insights

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

Are you happy with Tableau Desktop's feature set?

Yes

Did Tableau Desktop live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Tableau Desktop go as expected?

I wasn't involved with the implementation phase

Would you buy Tableau Desktop again?

Other Software Used

Microsoft Power BI, OneNote, Visual Studio IDE

Usability

Tableau is easily approachable for even a novice data user to get started. Building out a simple dashboard from data pulled from a couple of spreadsheets or other data sources is relatively easy. However, it can get complicated in a hurry, even for BI developers. So initial use and relatively simple use-cases, easy. But the learning curve can get steep as you try to develop more complex calculations and models.

Support Rating

Direct support from Tableau is on par with any major vendor, but it is not top shelf. There is also very good community support. I would say I've generally relied more on the community postings than using Tableau support directly. I generally get answers from the community faster than I do from support.

Likelihood to Recommend

Tableau is a useful tool for anyone looking to provide analytics with good visualizations. It used to be the best tool on the market, but now other competitors have hit parity, or in some areas have surpassed. Spotfire and Power BI both also provide similar feature functionality. Both should be seriously considered when considering a purchase of Tableau. Power BI is probably the best bang for the buck, particularly if just using the desktop version.

Tableau's relatively recent acquisition by Salesforce does potentially make it a good fit for organizations with an existing Salesforce presence. This may become more relevant as time passes and Salesforce integrates Tableau more with their platform.

Tableau - Still Good But No Longer the King

Overall Satisfaction with Tableau Desktop