Item: Tableau Server
Rating: 10
Author: Brett Mendes

Overall Satisfaction with Tableau Server

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it as a part of an Analytics-as-a-Service offering for our clients. Clients purchase the service and we create an analytic database that brings together a number of source systems supporting customer service operations, from that database analyses are run based on various hypotheses and visualized using Tableau Server, which clients have purchased seat licenses to log in to and interact with. The administration is handled by myself and my team. The business problem being addressed is not specific to customer service operations, but we utilize it exclusively within that environment; namely, that 5-6 source systems (Automated Call Distributor, Workforce Management System, Quality Assurance System, Customer Satisfaction Surveys, Customer Relationship Management, etc.) are interdependent and yet exist in silos. While all of them are required to operate a CX operation, one can only look at the effectiveness of an operation through the lens of the individual systems. We design a data model to allow querying of data across systems in order to create a full "customer journey" so that the customer experience can be seen from start to finish.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Set up and administration are very easy. It takes little time to implement and structure according to the business needs.
Broad customization is possible through the use of embedded analytics. Even without that - simple tweaks such as replacing the landing page logo with a company logo and modifying the logos within the standard tableau server interface allow for enough customization to ensure professionalism.
Permission structures are thoughtful. It's not challenging to create groups of users that are able to access only the elements appropriate for them to be viewing.

Cons

.\tabadmin cleanup is an essential function that would benefit from an automated run option through the configuration menu. Currently a batch or bash script must be created and scheduled.
Tableau Server extracts are currently very good, but occasionally if a user needs to run a full refresh from within the server environment it can end up appearing to have worked, but bad data has still made its way through. the only solution for this that we have found thus far is to actually re-publish the workbook with a fresh extract

Return on Investment

We've created an entire revenue stream with Tableau Server as an essential element; a few years ago analytics wasn't even something that clients paid for and now it's several hundred thousand dollars per year in revenue.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's useful as a simple client portal for BI analytics or for sharing analyses across departments; it's also very useful as a repository of common queries and thus helps maintain governance when people may not be as skilled with SQL as one would like. It's not as well suited to data science and I would be hesitant to recommend it in that scenario.

Tableau Server Feature Ratings

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An essential part of our service offering.