Tableau
Tableau gives report builders the most freedom: live connections, parameters, animations, and interactive dashboard actions.
Overview
Tableau is a strong BI tool focused on advanced data visualization, interactivity, custom visualizations, and data storytelling. Tableau gives users the most freedom when it comes to building reports. Among other things, it offers intuitive dashboard actions, parameters, and animations, giving users flexibility and room for creativity for BI professionals.
Tableau is one of the most widely used and fastest-growing BI systems in the world. It offers solutions at different scales and budgets, making it a fit for companies ranging from startups to large enterprises. Tableau Software was founded in 2003 in California. Its founders, Christian Chabot, Pat Hanrahan, and Chris Stolte, laid the groundwork for the company back in 1999–2002 while working as researchers at Stanford University. Their specialty was visualization techniques for exploring and analyzing relational databases.
Tableau presents data visually, as charts, tables, and maps. Visualizing data makes it much easier to grasp and analyze large volumes of information, and it helps you understand trends, patterns, and other relationships. Using Tableau doesn't require any coding skills.
Tableau is also used, among other things, to combine and share data, for up-to-date data analysis, and to import and manage large volumes of data. However, it isn't the best tool for these particular needs, which shows up as slow report loading times and considerable effort required to build new reports. Data gathered from multiple sources is best combined in a data warehouse first; that way, you avoid putting query load on source systems or calculation logic on the BI tool itself. Beyond speed and reliability, the benefits are significant for reporting flexibility and future development.
Pricing
Comes at a separate cost. See Tableau's website for more information on pricing. A trial is available for two weeks only, for the desktop and cloud versions.
Food for thought
You need to invest time in learning Tableau. If you're only using it for pivot tables or creating simple tables, it's probably not the best option. That said, help, examples, tips, and advice are widely available in the Tableau community and on Tableau Public.
Tableau apps
Development tools
for designing and building dashboards, reports, charts, and other visualizations.
Tableau Desktop : for creating and editing reports and charts, and assembling them into finished report views. In Desktop Personal, work happens in private mode with restricted access, meaning workbooks are for personal use only; you can use Tableau Public to publish them. Desktop Professional users have full access to all types of data, and publishing happens through Tableau Cloud.
Tableau Public : a development tool for users with a smaller budget and for sharing ideas. Workbooks you create can't be saved locally; they're stored in Tableau's cloud service, which the public can access. Public isn't really suited to internal company reporting, but rather to visualizing and sharing already-public data through websites, for example.
Sharing tools
for making the report views and visualizations built with the development tools available to others.
Tableau Server : shares workbooks, reports, and visualizations created in Desktop across the whole organization via servers. Tableau Server has a high level of security and enables fast, efficient distribution of data to the users who need it within the organization. However, maintaining and updating the server is the organization's own responsibility and requires technical expertise and time. Self-service use can lead to slow reports and an expensive setup if the server isn't managed according to best practices from the start.
Tableau Cloud : serves the same purpose as Tableau Server, but the servers are Tableau's own cloud servers. Tableau takes care of updates and security, making it a considerably more hands-off option than running your own server.
Tableau Reader : an application for viewing reports, dashboards, and visualizations. Views are easy to filter, for example, but actual editing capabilities are limited.
Data preparation tools
Tableau Prep : a module for editing and preparing data for reports; you can use it to filter and group data, duplicate, clear, and rename fields, and change their data types, among other things. Prep is included in the same license as Desktop and Cloud.
What's behind Tableau's popularity
Interactive visualizations
Tableau is especially known for its versatile, striking visualizations, and they're also relatively quick and easy to build. Once you connect your most common data sources, Tableau automatically generates the report views that have proven most useful. Reports and charts are interactive, and you can switch chart types on the fly. You can drill down into chart content to a fairly granular level. There's no automation for this, though; more advanced analysis has to be built by hand.
Connecting data
Tableau lets you combine different types of data into compelling visualizations. You can bring in data from sources such as Excel, MySQL, or Google Analytics. In practice, though, connecting data sources directly to Tableau (as with any BI tool) isn't the best approach. If your goal is reliable, smooth, and transparent reporting, it's worth implementing your integrations through the data warehouse built by Kaivo, developed by QuickBI.
Advanced data processing and analysis
Tableau's well-designed parameters let report readers, for example, run simulations and what-if forecasts by entering values such as a growth rate directly into the report. Varying the visualization lets you examine the same data from several different angles, and it's easy to dig deeper into whichever angle interests you.
Effortless, agile reporting
Tableau includes version control, so it's easy to check how a report has changed since the last time. Being able to run queries as text speeds up reporting and analysis. Report distribution is made smoother by letting users in the organization subscribe to the reports they need directly by email. Reports can also be personalized by user group, and you can build alerts based on the data.
Embedded analytics
Tableau report views can be embedded in a company's own programs and applications, with extensive customization options. Each embed can be managed separately in terms of users, content, and presentation. User data security is ensured with a strict security protocol. All data connections, server content, and user activity are recorded in a log.
User-friendliness
One of Tableau's biggest strengths is that using it doesn't require any coding experience or technical skills. The interfaces of Tableau's applications are designed and built so that anyone can learn to use them. Most functionality works through drag and drop.
So using finished reports is easy, but building reporting takes expertise. Creating the first reports in particular is a challenging and critical step. Once a professional has built the foundations, it's easier for users to edit reports, create new ones by copying, and change the angle of their analysis. QuickBI's service offering includes expert Tableau consulting.
The Tableau community
Tableau's online community offers not only support and ideas for reporting and its challenges, but also huge practical value: you can browse and study visualizations made by other users online and download them freely for your own use.
Platforms
Tableau software can be installed on both Windows and Mac. A mobile app is also available for browsing reports and running searches within them.
QuickBI helps with Tableau
So there are clear reasons behind Tableau's popularity, but is your company getting the full value out of this tool and the data it processes? We recommend bringing all your important data sources together with a modern data warehouse. That's the key to data-driven leadership, and from there, to competitive advantage and growth.
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