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Director Consultoria at tecnoscala consulting
Real User
Easy to set up and simple to use with good dashboards
Pros and Cons
  • "It's very easy to use and users don't need any IT support to access it as the information is right there."
  • "The solution needs to improve its integration capabilities."

What is our primary use case?

SAP BW , TABLEAU Server an TABLEAU desktop, the Info from SAP were downloaded using SAP Data services and ABAPin a very large Steel Makin company in Latin America

How has it helped my organization?

Better an accuracy info every morning for decision takers regarding sales production and Customers Financial situation 

What is most valuable?

They were considered the gold standard for dashboard development. However, many people also have SAP.

The initial setup is very easy.

It's very easy to use and users don't need any IT support to access it as the information is right there. 

What needs improvement?

There were a lot of dashboards everywhere in the organization, however, when the company wanted to get the operational databases they were not connected.

The solution needs to improve its integration capabilities.

The performance and security could be better.

Many people saw Tableau as a silver bullet and it isn't. It's good for small things, however, not for an institutional way of doing things.

I'd like to see better integration with SAP.

I'd like an integrated ETL or some sort of data preparation capabilities. 

Buyer's Guide
Tableau
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
830,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've used the solution since 2013.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

In the past, you couldn't do a full query. You could do the right query or the left query but not the full query. They fixed that n 2016. 

Also, there was another problem in that their selling approach was very aggressive and they were selling to sales directors. However, the problem is that after that you need the Tableau server. You need the deployment of the Tableau server and you have your dashboard. You needed IT buy-in. In order that them to be able to be seen in all the organizations, or even outside your organization, you need to get the Tableau server. With that in mind, companies must have IT people or training in the Tableau server, and then the dashboard is just developed in the desktop so you can upload them to the server. With all of that comes a lot of issues around security, modelization, and performance theses issues were not approached or considered in any by the users 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalable in the sense of a very good performance in te Tableau Server , nevertheless the info must be prepared or downloaded in a very well defined DataWarehouse

How are customer service and support?

We had a lot of trouble with Tableau at the beginning. There were issues that nobody had dealt with in the past.

There was an issue that was open for about two months. They couldn't reach a resolution. We started the Tableau server in an English version server, however, it was decided to install the Spanish version instead. We defined success criteria for our developments, our systems. In the analysis and the scope of work, we decided that every Tableau dashboard or whatever was going to have an acceptable loading time of six to a maximum of eight seconds. The problem was that it took 30 to 60 seconds. Technicians from Tableau, from Brazil, from the USA, came and looked at it. In the end, it was the Spanish version that was causing performance issues, and therefore we had to install the English version again.

They had the Portuguese, French, or Spanish versions behind in terms of updating all their software. That was the problem. There was a bug in the Spanish version that in the  English version didn't exist.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I'm also familiar with Power BI, SAP, and QlikView as well as Snowflake

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. You can install it on your computer and you can start to do a lot of dashboards. They have a gateway for many databases and you can get to the information in a very easy way. 

The thing is if you don't provide it with a very good ETL design you have the problem that all the fields are going to be dashboards. That's pretty common. Many organizations have a kind of operational database. With specialized databases. It's updated daily. The information is validated and confirmed and authorized. Whatever you do with Tableau is your problem. They install Tableau in that new server and the users go to that information. 

They make a copy of the transactional databases. They put it there and the users start to work. It's very easy.

In terms of deployment, for the desktop, you can have a visualization of information and you can get copies of the data on your personal computer. That can happen in minutes. It takes minutes or maybe half an hour to get going.

The problem is that you have to have some training. The training is going to take one week or so. In another week or two weeks, although you are not an expert yet, you start to understand Tableau. You don't have to be technical. If you understand Excel well, you will find Tableau pretty straightforward. 

You only need one or maybe two people to deploy the solution. You need a technician mostly for security.

What about the implementation team?

The vendor team were sales especialist, not consultants 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated in 2013 QLICKVIEW . 

What other advice do I have?

We're consultants. 

We're using the most recent version of the product. What we do is download the on-premises for testing in order to see the new capabilities.

It's a very mature tool with a lot of enhancements in the last two or three years. Our advice is that, if you are going to use it as an end-user, it's a very beautiful tool. If you are going to use it in an institutional way, you have to take good care of your ETLs and you have to design a very good data warehouse. That's what they don't do. That's what many, many, many organizations don't do. I don't know if that's the case with Snowflake or Microsoft Power BI.

You must take care of your warehouse information if you are going to have a very good design, granularity, and time framing after three months to one year of information.

The dashboards and the ETLs must do more work than Tableau. If not, you're going to crash. One of the problems that we had was due to the fact that Tableau said that you could reach the SAP information and that was not true. You need a third-party developer. That's an additional cost and additional training. However, with a solution like QlikView, they have a very beautiful integration with SAP.

I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We are a solution consultant and regarding BI we mainly work with Tableau

PeerSpot user
Owner at Richard Duggan Pty Ltd
Real User
Top 20
Powerful visualizations, easy to use, and stable.
Pros and Cons
  • "It is very good for data visualization. It has very powerful visualizations and is easy to use."
  • "I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing. Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training."

What is our primary use case?

I am using it for personal and organizational purposes. Most recently, we used it to collect and analyze the personal and geographic data input by people over the web.

How has it helped my organization?

Makes analysis fast and easy, providing insights that could be missed otherwise.

What is most valuable?

It is easy to use with very powerful data visualizations.

What needs improvement?

I am not a frequent user of this solution, so I am not sure what they've been doing recently. The last time when I used it, I had to use other tools with it for data extraction and cleansing.

Its price should also be improved. It is more expensive than Power BI. In terms of training, there is generally better online training for Power BI, but I am not sure of that. It would be helpful to know from where to access its training.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution off and on for four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable if you use it with other tools. I have used it with other tools.

I am a freelance consultant. I use it myself. My clients have hundreds or thousands of users.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don't have any experience with their support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I also use Power BI. Tableau is very comparable to Power BI.

How was the initial setup?

If I remember it correctly, it was easy.

What about the implementation team?

I can do it on my own.

What was our ROI?

My clients don't measure an ROI, they are interested in getting insights faster and when the get past the basics right then modelling scenarios. If you invest in BI tools it is part of a journey requiring investment. Analysis often helps to increase revenues and reduce costs. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is expensive when you compare it with Power BI. It should be cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have looking at SAP SAC and Oracle / Essbase for a client.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. I would rate Tableau a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
December 2024
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2024.
830,526 professionals have used our research since 2012.
reviewer1494948 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager Analytic & Insights at a hospitality company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A powerful, secure, and flexible end-to-end analytics platform
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau is easy to use and it has great predictive features."
  • "It would be nice if we could export more raw data. Currently, there is a limit as to how much data you can export."

What is our primary use case?

We use this solution to process and create reports for management. 

Within our organization, 10 people in marketing use this solution.

How has it helped my organization?

With Tableau, we can create our own reports which in turn, saves us tons of time as we don't have to wait for IT to do it.

What is most valuable?

Tableau is easy to use and it has great predictive features. 

What needs improvement?

It would be nice if we could export more raw data. Currently, there is a limit as to how much data you can export.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for roughly three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau is very stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is pretty good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is quite straightforward. It's not too complex.

What about the implementation team?

We deployed this solution on our own.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of this solution could definitely be lower. It's quite expensive. We're on a monthly subscription — I am not sure exactly how much we pay.

What other advice do I have?

Tableau allows us to go deep inside the data — other solutions, like Excel, don't allow you to do that.

As a BI tool, I would give Tableau a rating of eight out of ten — it's one of the easiest BI tools available; however, it's not that easy to manage orders. It's really user-friendly for individual users, but it may not be suitable for large organizations.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller

PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Manager, BI & Analytics at Perceptive Analytics
Real User
The visualizations bring out patterns buried under a mountain of data. The tool offers unparalleled flexibility in terms of the types of visualisation that one can create.

What is our primary use case?

I've used Tableau primarily to visualize data on asset performance. These visualizations pertain to reliability engineering and I've created charts and dashboards showing key performance indicators such as mean time between failure for different asset components, trend/pattern of asset behavior (different types of events occurred in the asset) prior to failure and asset grouping based on their health and performance.

Tableau is so flexible as to enable the user to show events that have occurred over the entire lifespan of each asset. Normally, this requires a bit of data-wrangling but in my experience this graphic has found a lot of favor with multiple clients.

All of these visualizations were created in a local environment (at the desktop-level) using data from .xlsx and .csv files.

How has it helped my organization?

In our line of work, we primarily use Tableau Desktop/Server to visualize data based on our clients’ requirements. Once, while dealing with a procurement scenario, we found that the client could save $2.00 on each unit of Part A if they ordered it from Supplier X rather than from Supplier Y.

In another case, we designed dashboards that showed data from different sensors located throughout a building. This kind of an application could enable stakeholders to monitor building climatic conditions in real time and adjust thermostats according to CO2 levels and occupancy, thereby driving efficient consumption of power.

In this way, Tableau visualizations can be used to take more intelligent decisions as they bring out patterns buried under a mountain of data.

What is most valuable?

I believe the most valuable feature of Tableau is the flexibility it offers with regard to the types of visualizations the user can create. A lot of other products in this space offer limited chart types and work in a way that provide little room for customization, if any. But Tableau allows the user to work with its predefined templates such that the end result can be a visualization that is highly customized - in terms of the design, colors, sizes, shapes and the overall visual appeal. This is an invaluable feature as it enables one to communicate more powerfully from the data.

I would also consider the ‘Create Calculated Field’ feature as very valuable. It’s one that I’ve used quite extensively. Most of the time, the data we work with will not have all the necessary features that enable us to tell a good, convincing story out of it. Therefore, it becomes imperative that we create them and extract the maximum amount of information possible from the data.

Formatting charts - colors, lines etc. - is also simple and there are a lot of options for customization.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see the inclusion of a template to create a speedometer chart. I can understand that Tableau doesn’t have it as one of its default chart types because it’s not a good way to represent the data. Indeed that’s true, but speedometers are quite popular and once we had a client who was insistent on having highly-customizable speedometers and I had to spend a good amount of time to create them via multiple workarounds. In my experience, I've seen many customers who do not want to consider alternatives to speedometers.

I’ll address these two points:

  • Speedometers/dial charts are a not-so-good way to represent data
  • I had to resort to multiple workarounds to create a speedometer in Tableau

First, I’ll give you a few reasons as to why speedometers are not considered to be a good way to visualize data:

  1. Low data-ink ratio: ‘Data’ here refers to the data that you want to show on your chart/graph and ‘ink’ refers to the aesthetic elements of the chart such as lines, colors, indicators or any other designs. A low data-ink ratio implies that the quantity of ‘ink’ on the chart is very high relative to the small quantity of ‘data’ that is present on the chart. What does a speedometer or a dial chart do? It shows you the current state (value) of any system. Therefore, the data shown by the chart is just one number. Let’s come to the ‘ink’ part. Needless to say, there is a lot of ‘ink’ on a speedometer chart – so many numbers all around the dial, the dial itself, a needle that points to the actual number etc. The fundamental principle of data visualization is to communicate information in the simplest way possible, without complicating things. Therefore, best practices in data visualization are aimed at reducing visual clutter because this will ensure that the viewer gets the message – the right message – quickly, without being distracted or confused by unnecessary elements.
  2. Make perception difficult: The human brain compares lines better than it does angles – information in a linear structure is perceived more easily and quickly than that in a radial one.Let's say I’m showing multiple gauges on the same screen. What's the purpose of visualizing data? It's to enable the user to derive insights - insights upon which decisions can be taken. The more accurate the insights, the better the decisions. So, its best that the visualization does everything that helps the user understand it in the easiest possible way. Hence, the recommended alternative to a dial chart is a bullet chart
  3. Occupy more space: Assume that there are 4 key process indicators (KPIs) that I need to show on screen and the user needs to know whether each KPI is above or below a pre-specified target. If I were to use dial charts I’ll be creating 4 dials – one for each KPI. On the other hand, if I were to use bullets, I’ll be creating just one chart where the 4 KPIs will be listed one below the other and each one in addition to showing its actual and target values, will also show by how much the actual exceeds/falls short of the target in a linear fashion. As real estate on user interfaces is at a premium, believe me, this is definitely better.

Now, let me come to my situation where my client would not accept anything but a speedometer. As I’ve mentioned in the review, Tableau doesn’t provide a speedometer template by default. So when I was going through forums on the Internet I saw that people usually used an image of a speedometer and put their data on top of that image and thereby creating speedometers in Tableau.

This would not have worked in my case because my client wanted to show different bands (red, yellow and green) and the number of bands and bandwidths varied within and between dials. For example, one dial would have 2 red bands (one between 0 and 10 and the other between 90 and 100), 1 yellow band and 1 green band while another would have just one yellow band between 40 and 50 and no red or green bands. Also, these bands and bandwidths would be changed every month and the client needed to be able to do this on their own. Therefore, using a static background image of a dial was out of the question.

So, here’s what I did: I created an Excel spreadsheet (let’s call it data 1; used as one of the 2 data sources for the dial) in which the user would be able to define the bands and bandwidths. The spreadsheet had a list of numbers from one to hundred and against each number, the user could specify the band (red/green/yellow) in which it falls. The other data source (data 2) was an Excel sheet containing the numbers to be indicated on the dials. Then, in Tableau, I created a chart which had 2 pies – one on top of the other. Both the pies had numbers from 1 to 100 along the border, providing the skeleton for the dial. The top pie used data 1 and had the red, yellow and green bands spanning the numbers from 1 to 100. I then created a calculated field having an ‘if’ condition: if the number in data 2 matched the number in data 1, the field would have a value ‘yes’. Otherwise, it would have a value ‘no’. This will produce only 1 ‘yes’ and 99 ‘no’s’ because there will be only 1 true match. I put this calculated field onto the ‘Color’ shelf and chose black for ‘yes’ and white for ‘no’ – this formed the content of the bottom pie. So the bottom pie had 99 white colored slices (which looked like one huge slice) and just 1 black slice (which looked like a needle). I made the top pie containing the red, yellow & green bands more transparent and this gave the appearance of a needle pointing to the KPI value, also indicating into which band the number fell, thereby enabling the client to gauge their performance.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've not directly contacted the tech support team of Tableau Software myself but whenever any clarification was required regarding the creation of a particular visualization, I've found many discussion forums and blogs, the contents of which have been extremely helpful.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have also worked with Microsoft's Power BI and I've found Tableau to be far more flexible and user-friendly in terms of the variety of visualizations it allows you to create.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Sr Business Intel at WestJet Airlines
Real User
Intuitive and user-friendly UI helps naive users easily click and connect, drag and drop, and build fantastic visualizations
Pros and Cons
  • "It has been the best tool to work with from a self-service point of view."
  • "Licensing and pricing options could be made better so that more users would be able to use it."

What is our primary use case?

This product is for non-technical users who know, or may not know, what they need but would like to automate their processes.

How has it helped my organization?

It has been the best tool to work with from a self-service point of view. The explorer capability in Tableau allows analysts to connect to data sources published on the tableau server, build their own product and customize reports.

What is most valuable?

The extremely intuitive and user-friendly UI helps naive users easily click and connect, drag and drop, and build fantastic visualizations. Of course, the back-end data structure needs to be strong for them to be able to do that, but it saves them a lot of time.

What needs improvement?

Licensing and pricing options could be made better so that more users would be able to use it. The biggest concern any organization has is its budget when trying to implement a new product. Tableau is an extremely powerful tool and hence expensive, but if there was a way to cut down the cost they would end up attracting more users.

For how long have I used the solution?

Seven years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Director, BI & Analytics at a leisure / travel company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
If you're evaluating Tableau as a potential data visualization solution, consider these points.
Pros and Cons
  • "Visualization attributes: Marks – Color, Size, Label, etc.. Easily Accessible and Intuitive."
  • "Small multiples (a.k.a. Trellis charts) are possible only through very hacky means. Update: Still remains a challenge."

***We've upgraded to 2018.1 So I've updated the Pros and Cons accordingly!"

I've been working between Tableau and Qlikview (depending on use case) and have been jotting down Pros and Cons of each as I come across them.  Many of these, but not all, are centered around some fairly specific UI functionality and limitations that I've come across while trying to deliver on various dashboard solutions.  If you're evaluating Tableau as a potential data visualization solution, some of these points might help with your evaluation, or at least I'm hoping so!  One caveat I will apply to the "Cons" section is some of these may in fact be resolved in the latest version, or may be achieved through some means that I'm just not aware of (though I do generally research pretty extensively before throwing in the towel).  

Pros/Strengths

  • Multi-dimension Graphs, side by side bars
  • Formulas/Calculations are a familiar structure to many  (IF..THEN.. ELSE)
  • Visualization attributes:  Marks – Color, Size, Label, etc.. Easily Accessible and Intuitive
  • Very good Geo/Mapping capabilities
  • Built in Table Calculations (% of Total, Rank, etc..) Update:  Even more intuitive now.  
  • Publish to PDF.  Despite trying to encourage users to interact with the live tool, there seems to always be some need for this. 
  • Story Creation for presentations.  
  • Free Tableau Reader – You can create ‘Packaged Workbooks’ and those with Reader can open the file and manipulate the dashboard.  (No ability to refresh the data)
  • Easy Cube Connection.  Though it can still be quirky and limited relative to using other data sources.  You can't for example, use LOD calculations.  If you plan to use Cubes as a data source, be sure you thoroughly understand the limitations.  
  • Tool Tips (Hovers).  Easy to add all kinds of additional data to hovers.  Update:  The Viz in tooltip feature is fully baked and in certain circumstances, very useful!   
  • Adaptive sizing based on display resolution.  Also something Qlikview does not do - you must develop for particular display size/dimensions.  Update: I've since learned that it generally makes life easier if you still used fixed dimensions for your dashboard.
  • Drag and Drop Hierarchy creation
  • Device Layouts (Mobile, Tablet, etc.).  Update: Rumor has it Tableau is currently working on a better Mobile solution.
  • URL Actions - Allow you to enable workflow between Tableau and other Applications through click-throughs and parameter insertion in URLs.  

Cons

  • Small multiples (a.k.a. Trellis charts) are possible only through very hacky means.  Update:  Still remains a challeng
  • Sparkline Tables are not supported.  There are tutorials on how to accomplish this, but as with small multiples, it is hacky and limited. Update: Still remains a challenge.
  • Heavy data prep needed.  Blending within the tool is clunky and causes performance hits.  Some functions are limited or unavailable when using blended data (e.g. LODs) Update:  Blending has improved but it is still generally a better practice to do all your data prep prior to ingestion.  Tableau Prep now exists to help with this, but it is still very much in its infancy.
  • Sorting on joined data requires hacks.  Update:  Unchanged
  • No easy ‘Clear’ to remove applied filters and/or Exclusions/Keep Only, which makes it sometimes easy to lose sight of how exactly the data has been filtered. Update:  Unchanged
  • Combo charts unavailable without Date dimensions  Update:  Unchanged
  • Dynamic column headers/aliases difficult and hacky.  I find this limitation particularly frustrating.  Example use case:  I have two columns - Current Month, & Previous Month.  As these will always be dynamic, I want them instead to display the actual Month as it changes (e.g. Apr-2016, Mar-2016).  Update:  Very unfortunately Unchanged.  
  • Can’t format a single measure column in a table (e.g. make one bold or conditional format)  Update:  I've heard rumors that this is now easier, but have yet to identify how.
  • Image thumbnails in tables not supported.  In my last two roles this has been a fairly large impediment.  I'm likely not the only one.  Qlikview, SSRS, & Even MS Powerview/PowerBI are able to support this. Update:  Unchanged 
  • Large Table reports with many filters (our case was 14 columns, 300K rows, and about 8 quick filters)   to narrow the data set – Don’t bother!  It will be excruciatingly slow even on the server. Tableau will likely say this is not what it is intended for anyway (it's a Data Viz tool, not a Report tool), which is fair, but sometimes it's necessary as part of a larger solution. Update:  This seems to have improved some though you still run into the limitation of 16 columns.  Rumor has it, this will be done away with in future releases.

  • Any questions, or comments?  All feedback is welcome.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
it_user952008 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user952008SEO Executive at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User

Starting from the fundamentals such as getting familiarized with Tableau Desktop, connecting to common data sources and building standard charts; you will walk through the nitty-gritty of Tableau such as creating dynamic analytics with parameters, blended data sources, and advanced calculations. onlineitguru.com

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it_user338343 - PeerSpot reviewer
Advisor at a retailer with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Provides Dynamic Adjustments Of Measures And Dimensions And GUI Makes It More User-Friendly

What is most valuable?

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.

How has it helped my organization?

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

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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).

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not a lot here. Pretty scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would rate it as between very good and excellent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

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.

How was the initial setup?

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.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:

PeerSpot user
it_user72435 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution Architect at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Excellent for visually exploring data with unknown questions.

What is most valuable?

Ease of use, polished visualizations, all data elements are treated as discrete, the story-telling feature, self-service, excellent for visually exploring data with unknown questions.

How has it helped my organization?

Tableau is used in our Platform-as-a-Service offering for data visualization/exploration, seeking to retire a larger BI platform using it, good customer adoption/feedback.

What needs improvement?

Metadata/reuse, performance/scalability at high data volumes + high user concurrency, disparity between desktop vs. web versions – need to address enterprise requirements in general.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Tableau for two years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues with deployments/stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It does not perform well when you cross into TBs+ of data and thousands of users.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

For our PaaS data discovery needs at the time, we reviewed MicroStrategy 9.4 Visual Insight, which was not up to the capabilities/ease of use that Tableau had at the time.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward, it is not a complex system to install.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house, limited to no need for external assistance.

What was our ROI?

The ROI is unknown.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Licensing costs continue to increase in Tableau and in QlikView, which we also use, forcing us at some point to consider consolidating to one and/or turning some existing/owned MicroStrategy licensing inward to replace, if the upward pricing trend continues.

What other advice do I have?

Pick the right tool for the job/consumers of the products. There is not a single product that can cover all personas/use cases well or there would be only one product out there commanding the world – and there’s simply not just one. Tableau is great if the targeted users want highly polished visualizations of the data and from an exploration use case, the question(s) for the data are unknown.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
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Updated: December 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.