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PeerSpot user
Head BI SBU at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Leaderboard
Active Online Community Provides Guidance, Decreasing Learning Curve

What is most valuable?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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.

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years.

Buyer's Guide
Tableau
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None at the moment.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

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.

How are customer service and support?

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

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

None.

How was the initial setup?

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.

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

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.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

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.

What other advice do I have?

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.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior HR Analyst at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
The ease of blending data from multiple sources has allowed us to bring a different level of questions to the meeting table.
Pros and Cons
  • "The data blending capabilities is a huge factor for our team."
  • "Formatting controls could use some improvement."

What is most valuable?

The data blending capabilities is a huge factor for our team. The ease of blending data from multiple sources has allowed us to generate new insight and bring a different level of questions to the meeting table. The type of dashboards we have been able to create have made it easier for individuals who are not use to looking at data to navigate and drill into their own material to find answers or ask questions they never thought to ask in the first place.

How has it helped my organization?

We’ve been able to replace several manual spreadsheet reports that took hours for individuals to complete. With Tableau Server and some automation processes put in place, those reports are now automatically delivered to the end users, saving time and money. We can also develop reports much faster than in the past plus provide an interface to a database which in the past might not of been used as much due to the lack of technical skills to write the queries.

What needs improvement?

Formatting controls could use some improvement. We’ve found that to be the most confusing part of developing reports, at least until you get use to where all the controls are at and how to use them. Ideally, making a user-friendly interface for formatting the worksheets and dashboards would be a big improvement and time saver. Recent version upgrades have added some new features such as being able to change the format for your entire workbook all at once. Still a work in progress though.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used it for eight years and sever administrator for 2 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Deployment and stability have been flawless so far. We’ve not encountered a data set that has slowed the software down and we use records with millions of rows. There is no clear-cut line of determining when best to consider switching over to an enterprise-wide model vs. per license, so there could be a better way of informing their customers on when to flip that switch.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have never experienced an issue with the server software or any technical problems with the desktop or interactor licenses.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Once others in the company start seeing what it can do they immediately ask what needs to happen so they can get a license. We started down the path of looking at core enterprise licensing but were told the company is moving away from that model and sticking with a per user/license structure. Depending on how many in the company want to start using the software plus needing the additional interactor license to access the server the purchases can add up quickly.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Very little need to contact their customer service but when I did they were professional and quick to respond.

Technical Support:

Both customer service and technical support have been excellent. Sales reps have been very nice to work with and you don’t end up with that used car salesmen feel. In fact, we typically meet with our reps about 3-4 times a year and have been extremely supportive.

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

No - most of our reporting was done between MS Excel and MS Access.

How was the initial setup?

Setup was extremely easy. Essentially a plug-and-play right out of the box.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented it in-house. Implementation was easy in comparison to other systems we’ve worked on in the past. QA testing was seamless and found no integration issues.

What was our ROI?

We’ve found quite a bit of savings using Tableau, based on the time it takes to develop ad-hoc reports, changes in process due to new insights and report automation.

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

Best advice on pricing is to anticipate the desire for more licenses once the results of this product are acknowledged in other parts of your company. Note that for others to interface with a published report on your server, they need what’s called an interactor license. We acquired several guest interactor licenses in order to lend out to departments so they can see the benefit of accessing their reports on the server vs. static reports. This encourages them to purchase their own interactor licenses or at least plan to purchase when preparing their budgets for the following year.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated several potential software systems such as Visier, Lumira, and Qlik, but found Tableau the easiest to use for individuals who did not need to have a programming background. Plus, the freedom to develop from a blank canvas with data that could be from any corner of the company appealed more to our team than working with a set of canned metrics to one specific department.

What other advice do I have?

The annual Tableau customer conference is a huge learning opportunity for new and seasoned users alike. The week-long conference provides a large number of workshops to help increase your skills and many of these sessions are hands-on training. Also a great way to network with other users and see how they are using Tableau.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Tableau
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user494277 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director, Strategic Data Analytics at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We were able to shorten the delivery of data visualization and analysis projects.

What is most valuable?

  • Ease of use
  • Efficiency
  • Integration with sources
  • Amazing way to view your data

How has it helped my organization?

Data visualization and analysis used to take much longer; we were able to shorten the delivery of the projects by 60%.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see improvement in licensing. It is expensive to provide licenses beyond the 10 we already have.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for four years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Our deployment issues are related to cost.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No, very stable product

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Yes. licensing costs are an issue

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is 9/10.

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

We didn’t have a data vis solution beyond Excel and MSRS before. I used Spotfire in my business school work.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was straightforward. I created a data mart, plugged in Tableau and started creating dashboards.

What about the implementation team?

A vendor team implemented it. Implementation was pretty straightforward – but our data was cleaned and well thought through. I would say, 80% of time should be spent on designing your data mart (if that’s the route you are taking) with clean data and valid data sources.

What was our ROI?

We haven’t calculated ROI, but we know that we shortened the delivery timeline by 60%.

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

Make sure you plan it into the 5 year plan - how many licenses you will need, etc.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When time came to select a tool for my work, I did thorough research. I downloaded trial versions of both products and selected Tableau based on my user experience and the ratings (Gartner quadrant).

What other advice do I have?

Beware of licensing costs, but it shouldn’t deter anyone from using this product. Even if you just use Tableau desktop to provide static data vis’s, it’s worth it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Director, Business and Clinical Analytics at a healthcare company with 201-500 employees
Real User
We manage an immense amount of data and it helps us quickly correlate multiple data sources to aid decision making.

What is most valuable?

Ease of use, speed to develop and deploy solutions. The ability to quickly develop solutions is invaluable. We are managing an immense amount of data and can more quickly correlate multiple data sources to aid in our decision making. We don’t need a large team of technical staff to develop tactical solutions to support executive decisions makers, while also developing robust work queues to aid staff in prioritizing their work or improving health and outcomes of our patients.

How has it helped my organization?

We are much more nimble in our ability to provide tactical data and deploy scalable enterprise dashboards/visualizations to staff within the organization. It has allowed non-technical staff to build solutions to aid us in our decision making or improving clinical care for patients across the enterprise.

What needs improvement?

- More advanced capabilities to format dashboards
- More advanced data merging from multiple data sources
- More advanced management of data extracts

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for 5+ years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

I did not encounter any deployment, stability or scalability issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

I rate the level of technical support at medium. Staff are responsive when there’s a major technical issue, but getting answers to trivial questions are handled via forums and can take time or might not match your environment or configuration.

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

Qlik and Business Objects were used previously. Tableau was selected based on feedback from staff and other peers that are using the product, as well as all of the success we have experienced within our organization. The benefits and speed to develop were key decision factors. Licensure costs was also a key factor in selecting Tableau.

How was the initial setup?

Initial server setup is very easy and does not take a significant amount of technical expertise.

What about the implementation team?

An in-house team implemented it so we could gain expertise in configuration and how to perform upgrades.

What was our ROI?

ROI is not easy to quantify at this point, but we have gained efficiency through some initial self-serve data and faster time to discover.

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

Licensing can be expensive, so it’s best to determine scope and implementation plan.

What other advice do I have?

Utilize the trial version and test out functionality of the product. It’s very easy to get started and as you gain proficiency, you will want to learn more and develop more advanced solutions.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
CEO with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
Top 20
It's an intuitive tool for the average user, yet provides complex and deep analytics for the advanced user. There are, however, some unnecessary redundancies for certain functions.

Valuable Features:

Data Preparation - This is a huge plus for Tableau as so many users have to spend time preparing the data before using Tableau

  • Data Interpreter
  • Splits -
  • Really helps the average user


Drag and drop analytics:

Tableau 9.0 has a new Analytics pane that provides quick and easy access to common analytic features in Tableau.

You can drag reference lines, forecasts, trend lines, and other objects into your view from the Analytics panel. It is now easy to edit, format, and remove the analytic items that you have added, so you can experiment with different techniques as you explore the insights your data has to offer.

Ad--‐hoc calculations:

Ad--‐hoc calculations make it easy to add and edit calculated fields for your analysis. Double--‐click an existing field on the Rows, Columns, Marks, or Measure Values shelf to begin editing, or

double-click an empty area on a shelf to create a new calculation. As you type, a list of auto--‐complete options appears in a dropdown list, making it easier to find and pick the right elements.

Instant analytics:

Instant analytics provides an interactive experience for comparing summary information about a subset of marks to all the marks in your view. For example, you can compare the average for a few marks to the average for all the marks. After you’ve added trend lines, reference lines, reference bands, or distribution bands to your view, select one or more marks to see the new analytical indicators appear for the selection in addition to the analytical indicators for the whole view.

Level of Detail (LOD) Expressions:

New expression syntax in the Tableau calculation language lets you quickly create calculated fields that compute at the specified levels of detail. LOD calculations help you compute at multiple levels of aggregation and make it easier to create fields for analytical comparison (such as cohort analysis and totals or Average across segments), simplifying calculations that previously took several steps.

Improvements to My Organization:

It's both intuitive and complex/deep. For our organization, it's given us opportunities to provide both on-sight and on-line training. We now have an online training product that more than offsets the expense associated with days of training. With Tableau, our customers more analytical.

It even has a connection to R and SAS for advanced users.

Also, it has given us the ability to collaborate with the Tableau servers, which is robust and can handle tens of thousands of users.

Tableau Server can now scale for unlimited users Enterprise scale brings with it the need for Governance. Data sources and workbooks must be vetted before they are "out there" to see except for the intended content consumers

Room for Improvement:

The basic design of Tableau has some features that could be modified.

* There is no need to have five (5) ways to add a new worksheet. Brevity is rewarded - new users have so much to learn that 2 ways would do the job

* How to render time - When performing analysis, no single issue is more important than time series data. Tableau uses visual clues in many places - When one uses the pull down option for time that could be visualized better as a continuum. those selections should be presented in green to be visually consistent. Those above in blue.

Cost and Licensing Advice:

If you're making a structured, strategic purchase, make sure that you have a plan for professional training.

Other Advice:

  • Go slow and methodically
  • You must consider size of the company and types of users
  • Desktop Plus server users - understand the constraints on the backend, and make sure you have enough CPU power
  • There's lots of free stuff on their website that's great for the average user.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
GaryM - PeerSpot reviewer
GaryMData Architect at World Vision
Top 5LeaderboardReal User

So tell me why I should buy Tableau (which is quite expensive) over just using free PowerBI Desktop which seems very similar and also built into and integrates with Office365? Seems Tableau made sense a year ago but no longer. Same with Qlikview.

See all 2 comments
it_user3768 - PeerSpot reviewer
Consultant at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Straightforward installation and modern interface, but not cheap for personal use

I spend most of my time with clients trying to get more out of their existing tools, more often than not some combination of an ERP tool (JDEdwards, SAP etc.) a selection of more “pure” databases such as Oracle, Access, SQL and a lot of spreadsheets.

All of these tools have well understood strengths and weaknesses. One common issue is the effort required for data visualisation. Just to be clear, when I say data visualisation, I mean the presentation of data in a graphic format so that trends, insights and results can be easily and quickly extracted by the reader.

Excel is fine, especially as most of us are very familiar with it, but it has definite limitations. Try putting 10,000 data points on a scatter plot or add interactivity to your chart and you’ll see what I mean.

I’ve taken a look at three tools that really caught my eye when looking for a client solution. There are 20 players in the 2011 Gartner review of BI tools. Many of these are 400lb gorilla solutions, like Cognos, some are more sector specific and others tend to be strongest in certain geographic areas.

Being a Brit, who wanted something strong on visualisation, quick implementation and didn’t want to build a data warehouse, the shortlist came down to:

  • Tableau
  • Qlickview
  • LogiXML

In this blog I’m going to look at Tableau. Over the next few days I’m going to add short reviews of Qlickview and LogiXML.

I’m not Gartner, so there may be some other contenders out there, but life is short so it’s these three that I’ll be testing over the next few blog entries.

Just to set expectation, I’m a data professional, but I’m not a coder or database specialist. I come to this as an “IT competent” management information specialist. I know the sort of output I want to see but I don’t like reading manuals or spending ages building things – much like my clients.

Installation

Installation of Tableau is pretty straightforward. You need to register on their site to get a two week trial period. You download a 51MB .exe file, double click it and in a few minutes you have a working installation of Tableau. It’s a Windows only affair. For this review I ran it as a virtual installation on a Mac which didn’t seem to cause any issues

First off the program asks you to connect to a data source. For ease I used one of the ready-made databases, but the connectors on offer look pretty comprehensive.


Tableau asks you to connect to a data source, including Excel of course

Interface

The interface is fairly busy, with a number of different areas on the interface. It’s all quite clean, logical and modern. There’s a tabbed workspace concept which anyone from an Excel background with instantly be comfortable with.


The chart creation interface will be very straight forward to anyone who has used Excel pivot tables

Applying the “man test”

Like many slightly vain middle aged men, I’m not too keen on tutorials and manuals. I dived into Tableau without reading any of the documentation. Within 15 minutes I’d figured out how to produce and tweak some pretty good looking graphs. I used the sample data provided by Tableau, which may have helped things along a bit.


Flashy geographic mashups are a doddle


This dull looking bar chart has hidden depths - you can click to drill down. It didn't require any configuration


Charts like this heatmap are quick and simple to create

To create a chart you just drag and drop the data items from the panel on the left into a simple table. It’s a lot like creating a pivot table in Excel, only a bit less impenetrable.

Another 10 minutes and I’d figured out how to produce a quite credible looking dashboard. So in terms of “ease of use” I’d give it 10 out of 10. I think it goes as far as you can with usability before you need to start throwing features overboard to simplify it further.


Not a great design by me, but it is a very quick and simple job to create this live dashboard

Features that really stood out

Creating charts: It’s so clearly the “sweet-spot” of this package that it’s easy to overlook the ease with which charts are created.

Drill down: It’s trivially easy to rollup or drilldown through data in the appropriate graph type

Unusual charts: Tableau can create charts that are either difficult or impossible to create in Excel. Heat-maps, graphical mashups (see this dental decay graphic one for a good example) and interactive charts are all possible. You can then post these on the inter/intra net for others to view.

Tableau was dismissed by one of its rivals salesmen as having “pretty graphs”. After a few hours with Tableau I think it’s fair to say that it has some of the best conceived “template” graphs I’ve seen in any package. Their blurb on their web site talks about “visual best practices are baked-in“ and they aren’t kidding. There’s minimal design clutter, clear layout and very spare use of colour. No 3d bars, shading or gridline clutter here. The type of design approach championed by Stephen Few has rarely been executed so well and consistently.

Sharing

The samples on the Tableau web site shows a good selection of ways you can share:

As a web page – you can drop a javascript code snippet into a page to create a web page or share a link

As an image, data download, crosstab or print to PDF

A download to the free Reader application

Samples

To get a good impression of what Tableau can do it’s worth having a look at their excellent selection of demo graphs. Although it’s not always obvious what purpose these graphs serve, there are some outstanding examples of rich, intelligent chart design. I particularly like this dental decay graphic and this flight delay graphic.

The key thing for me is that I actually enjoyed using this software and started working out whether I could justify the cost of a personal copy. Pricing is $999 for a desktop copy that can’t access databases, $1999 for the pro version that can plug into just about any data source – so for personal use it’s not cheap. As with most vendors, there’s no mention of the client-server version software costs, but it’s likely to be industrial grade pricing, like their competitors.

Where I see Tableau (and data exploration tools in general) really delivering value is in encouraging managers and analysts to take the terabytes of data that already exists in most organisations and spin it in new and insightful ways. So rather than just looking at the classic complaint volumes and complaint ages (for example) bar charts, why not start looking at complaint severity and customer segment, or complaint source by geographic source within the production area – as a visual heatmap' Many organisations have allowed their tools to define their ambitions for their analysis, with a tool like Tableau it’s an opportunity to be a bit more ambitious.

I’d recommend downloading a trial and giving it a spin.

Note: I have no commercial relationship with Tableau, so my view is as independent as they come.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1062786 - PeerSpot reviewer
MBA, MS Business Analytics at a consultancy with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Complex, with long load time, but is good in terms of resources
Pros and Cons
  • "When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources."
  • "People are migrating to Microsoft BI due to the speed, which is quite slow to load, and the lack of visualization options."

What is our primary use case?

It's similar to what we do with Power BI. It is used for dashboarding as well as a few analyses.

What is most valuable?

When compared to Power BI, Tableau has more readily available resources. In any kind of material, learning material, or if I find a new chart and decide I want to do it, Tableau is more easily available than Power BI.

What needs improvement?

It's a little more complicated than Power BI.

More visualization options, but not the same as in Power BI, where there are simply more options. I see very few options here. Many of these must be customized and custom-built, which is a lengthy process.

I would like to see more options in visualization customization.

People are migrating to Microsoft BI due to the speed, which is quite slow to load, and the lack of visualization options. There are a few default options in Power BI that Tableau does not have.

I would like to see the added visualizations and possibly an easier way to process data, which are useful now that we all have Power BI, there is a whole power query interface that directly links to Microsoft BI, whereas with Tableau, I would have to go through an entirely different process for it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for one year.

We use the latest version.

It can be deployed both on the cloud and on-premises.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau is very stable, but it takes too long to load.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability has been fine. So far, I believe it has served our purpose.

We have more than a hundred users in our organization.

It is being extensively used, but it is getting to be lesser now.

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

We have also used Power BI.

We found Power BI to be more useful than Tableau.

How was the initial setup?

Tableau was already set up when I arrived.

What other advice do I have?

It is purely a visualization tool, as opposed to Power BI, which has connectivity to the entire Microsoft product suite, including your Excels and other tools, which Tableau does not.

I would rate Tableau, a five out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1545645 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Management and Analytics Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Expert SQL skills not required, easy to use, and flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is easy to use, flexible, our clients enjoy seeing the data on maps, and you do not need to be an expert in SQL to use it."
  • "There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to allow management the ability to create dashboards for our data center.

What is most valuable?

The solution is easy to use, flexible, our clients enjoy seeing the data on maps, and you do not need to be an expert in SQL to use it.

What needs improvement?

There could be improvements on the mobile application, it is lacking features. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for approximately one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found the solution to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good, we have 100 users using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and technical support?

I am not satisfied at all with the support response, it takes a lot of time. Some tickets will take more than 10 days to have an answer, this is not helpful. There is some documentation that is very useful on their site. This is the worst support I have experienced, the support could definitely be faster.

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

We were using Qlik Sense before this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is straightforward. The time it took for the installation was approximately four hours. However, the configuration takes a lot longer but it is not a problem with this solution it is common for configurations to take a while.

What about the implementation team?

We did the deployment ourselves. We have a team of two administrators doing the maintenance for the solution and a team of four for the development of the dashboard. 

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

There is a license required, we pay an annual license which is priced fair.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend this solution to others. We are satisfied with the solution and are going to keep using it in the future.

I rate Tableau an eight 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
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Tableau Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.