Tableau Reviews

It's ability to connect to multiple data sources, easy and intuitive interface, and analytics functions.

Yes. We use Tableau dashboards in Tableau Server (connected to our ERP system) in our weekly executive sales meetings. The data is almost real-time, allowing a better decision making process.

We also use Tableau to identify data quality and cleansing related issues.

Custom formatting and layout.

Three years.

Only with SAP BW data sources.

Not yet.

An eight out of 10.

Yes. SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards/Xcelsius. Switched because of easy adoption of Tableau, and minimum knowledge required.

It was very easy.

To consider that MS Power BI, which costs less, requires MS Office 365 subscription. Therefore, the investment in Tableau is less.

Yes, Microsoft Power BI, SAP Lumira, and BOARD.

• Define clear objectives and outcomes.
• Proper sizing if Tableau Server is needed.
• Follow Tableau Drive Methodology.

Tableau's strength is visualization. If a report/dashboard is presented in visualization, the end user can easily connect with the data compared to a tabular format.

We created a dashboard that displays booking and shipping orders with month-to-date rolling. Executives get a better understanding of the organization as soon as they open this dashboard everyday.

There is lot of improvement needed on Tableau extracts. Right now, Tableau doesn't support updating extracts with only changed records. We are doing full extracts everyday, which is utilizing a lot of resources.

More than two years.

No.

We are limited with the Tableau extract functionality, which is causing an overburden on resources.

Technical support is very helpful and prompt on their service, a very knowledgeable support team.

No.

Follow the documentation provided. It is a very straightforward setup.

If the user base is huge, try getting enterprise level licenses. If not, you can get desktop licenses for power users.

Evaluated a few options: QlickView and OBIEE.

First try a proof of concept with one data set using Tableau. Present it to the user community. Try to work with an implementation partner. Training is essential for power users.

The most attractive feature for our users is the ease of visualizing data in a meaningful manner. The ease of experimenting with different visualizations is also very useful.

The ability to load and work with large volumes of data without requiring very high level of system resources is also valuable for us.

Key users of Tableau are from the Internal Audit team. Introduction of the tool has allowed the team to move away from data sampling to working with the entire data population in most cases. More importantly, the ability to present the analysis results in a visual manner to stakeholders, which has enhanced the ease of communicating the impact of the audit findings.

Improvement is required in the way filters operate when applied on large data sets. Having the ability to select and deselect filters without having to retrace the original path would make it easier to demonstrate the results.

More than two years.

The maximum volume of data we have connected is approximately six million records each having about 130 data fields. We did not encounter stability issues when connecting to a pre-downloaded copy of the data. However, on trying to access the live data (a flat file system), the operation was very slow.

No.

With reference to the issue stated above, we noted that Tableau did not attempt to provide any resolution for the issue. We felt that they just left it with the local vendor to sort out the issue (which was never resolved).

We have used (and continue to use) ACL for data analytics. However for simple analytics, and in particular, data visualization, we prefer to use Tableau. We have also seen that users are able to understand Tableau faster than ACL.

The initial setup was for the desktop version of the tool connecting to Excel files and stand-alone databases at the back end. We did not have any issues with this.

However, on attempting to move to the server version, we faced issues with data connectivity for our core ERP which were not resolved. Attempting to connect to the Oracle HRMS module went without a hitch, and within a few seconds, we were able to perform live data analysis without any degradation in performance. Connecting to our core ERP (Kerridge Autoline, now known as CDK Autoline) failed due to ODBC driver version issues (we presume).

The Desktop and Professional version pricing is straightforward. Cannot comment on the Server licensing aspect.

Qlik Sense and ACL.

Thoroughly test your data connectivity requirements to make sure everything works well.

From an end user perspective, it is a very easy tool to use.

1. Possible to access various data sources (data base, etc.).
2. Based in memory for functional implement.
3. Easy to use if user is not an IT engineer.
4. Function for suggesting various view with mixed dimension and fact.
5. Easy to create trend information for recent years.
6. Function for helping to calculate summary easily related to statistics.

1. We can compose indicators about sales and properly reset our goals for each level.
2. Maximizing the marketing effect to analyze customers acting with various angles.

1. About Tableau Server, it has to access various OS, not only Windows' server.
2. When extracting data, it can perform tasks about the update.
3. Needs tuning for slow work blending technology between dissimilar systems.

Since July 2011. Almost about six years.

There is no issue with the stability.

There is no issue with the scalability.

Really good for technical support.

Yes, I did. It had the same functions with a value of four questions.

There is no need to initially setup Tableau software. But, it needs to be setup right before scheduling to use Tableau.

It would be the best to request them to Tableau Software.

This is a powerful product that allows users to analyze themselves rather than viewing the report. I hope you can master it and become an advanced data analyst.

1. Ability to do self-service
2. Drill down
3. Publishing capabilities
4. Security features of Tableau Server

1. It changed the way in which the data was consumed internally by enabling the business leaders to reduce the time for data discovery.
2. Increased the dependence on data.
3. Brought transparency for clients: They were able to look into our processes independently.
4. Improved data discovery for other data science projects.

Number of out-of-box visualizations can be increased.

Five years.

None.

Yes, but I was able to quickly deal with the issue.

Amazing. Anytime I needed help with Tableau Server and evaluation. I got sufficient support from the sales team and the support team.

I have tried multiple solutions so far, and this is by far the best and fastest.

Setting Tableau server was easy, and I was able to do the setup myself for the organisation. Tableau Desktop is super-easy to deal with.

It is definitely worth it.

I had evaluated Qlik, and for our purposes, Tableau was better suited both technically and commercially.

Just go for it, and you will not regret it.

• Data Interpreter: Which can identify issues or potential errors with your imported data.
• Split: When you need to split columns.
• Pivot: Good for changing date columns.
• Metadata: This selection can clean up field names, especially after a pivot.

• Data Interpreter: Can rid your data of null value fields.
• Split: Click on the column you want to split, identify how you want to split it, and where you want to split the data.
• Pivot: Great when you have many columns of dates. Just highlight your date columns, then right click and select Pivot. That's it. Now, your totals and region data will be based on any particular year.
• Metadata: You can select the second icon above your previewed data source. You can select the dropdown arrow for each Field Name you would like to change and you can split the names here as well, or double click on the Pivot name and correct the name where it makes more sense for the type of data you are using. You can create alias names as well.

Tableau is always good at improving, but I typically get so busy with utilizing what is there, I have not had any needs yet for improvement.

More recently in the past few months.

No deployment issues.

No stability issues.

No scalability issues.

I have not had to use customer service for Tableau. I just go online and google my needs typically.

I have not had to use technical support for Tableau yet. As with customer service, I just go online and google my needs typically.

I really like the user-friendly (usability, user experience) layout of Tableau. The visual layout for me is very appealing.

It is really straightforward, but I can see if someone has issues with the download and setup, you may want to contact technical support.

Implementation was in-house on my own. It was easy.

I have not measured this, but the time saved by allowing the tool to make the necessary changes instead of going back to the spreadsheet is definitely worth my time and the company's money.

Not sure about this, except that Tableau can be costly (but this can be indefinable, such as user experience vs. cheaper etc.)

Again, this was more based on learning curve and user experience for me. I've worked with MicroStrategy and BusinessObjects (learning curve is higher for me for these, then Tableau). Big thing here is the user experience for less savvy or non-technical people (from my experience). I'm sure MSTR and BO are good tools, just not my preference.

As I had mentioned above in regards to improvements, I believe every tool or application or databases for that matter can always use improvement. That's why we work in the field of data and/or IT, it's ever changing and improving, so we need to change and improve as well. Keep abreast of new things in the market and the improvements of the tools or apps you use on a daily basis. The last thing we want in our industry is to become complacent. Then again, we should never become complacent in any facets of our lives.

The drag and drop in development, design and usage; the Show Wizard feature.

As a BI and data visualization enthusiast and provider, I have compared Tableau against other BI and data visualization tools. It provides tremendous ease of use and a shorter learning curve when compared to the rest. Provides astonishing visualizations as well.

The user interface and ease of use requires a bit of a learning curve to pick up. No drag and drop functionality at the development stage, unlike its competitors.

The data preparation is quite good but not as powerful as the one I use or would recommend for data manipulation and cleansing as well. Tableau seems to focus on the data visualization end and provides, or has partnered with, some other software for data preparation.

Three years.

None at the moment.

Tableau, as noted above, does not provide much in terms of data preparation. Handling of large volumes of data sometimes does not work well with this all-in-one purpose tool making it less ideal for business users.

The Tableau online community is rich and vibrant and provides quick guidance on getting started with the basic use of Tableau.

None.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward for personal use, except when looking at deploying on local premises. Doing so entails some configuration during the installation process.

Tableau pricing and licensing is on the high side for a small company, but it’s competitive among its peers. They offer a monthly subscription for their cloud service.

As a consultant in the area of Business Intelligence and data analytics, I have personally evaluated BI tools such as QlikView, Qlik Sense, Power BI and MicroStrategy.

Invest in the memory and RAM of the PC or server you intend to use with Tableau. Though most database sources are available for connection, you should still ensure you have all the necessary resources and connectors installed for proprietary databases.

Tableau is one of the most intelligent and dynamic visualization tools I have worked with. It provides dynamic adjustments of measures and dimensions. The reason this is useful is that it gives a business user multiple dimensions of data to look through. From these you can infer interesting business operation data characteristics.

Operational improvements have resulted from the efficient creation of ad hoc data visualizations in a timely manner.

The key feature of Tableau that has room for improvement is its performance with structured and unstructured data. I'm not sure I would suggest that Tableau go for a hardware oriented solution for this. Nevertheless, that would not be a bad approach to enhance the product and align with current marketing trends and its competitors.

Three years.

There were few issues with the stability of the product when there were features such as built-in data processing using TDE (Tableau Data Engine).

Not a lot here. Pretty scalable.

I would rate it as between very good and excellent.

Yes, we used MicroStrategy in the past. One of the reasons for the switch was to have more ad hoc data visualization and a more user-friendly tool for business; one which involved less coding and more GUI work.

The initial setup was not so straightforward. We had minor issues installing it across the enterprise, due to diverse technology in different business units. But none were actual showstoppers.

The pricing and licensing are generally high with Tableau. I thoroughly encourage their recent initiative of going to a “Tableau as a Service” business model, which aligns well with enterprises and also small and medium sized organizations. It even works for individuals who would like to learn Tableau and its core strengths.

We did evaluate QlikView. We actually have both in place, for various reasons.

The key point is if you would like to have faster, ad hoc and quick data visualizations, I would strongly recommend Tableau. But for enterprise-wide deployment and migration across different environments, I would say Tableau has room to improve further.