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Daria Maslovets - PeerSpot reviewer
Analytics Lead/Tableau Integrator at SOFTICO
Real User
Top 5
Real time analysis, reliable, and easy to set up
Pros and Cons
  • "Technical support has been responsive."
  • "There are not enough language options. It needs to be offered in more than just English."

What is our primary use case?

Our company uses dashboards to understand how much we can improve the situation, track performance in real-time and help managers react faster to non-obvious things.

For our clients, we carry out system integration, and pilot projects, develop first dashboard layouts, provide system support during integration and post-sales service, and provide training to our clients. The main goal of customers is to understand whether they will get profits in the future or not and be able to influence the situation right now.

How has it helped my organization?

Tableau helps the company to see insights. It will allow profit or loss to be predicted, but very flexible to react to changes.

Tableau's dashboard allows teams to see what's going on at a high level. Our company sells software licenses and it's very important for us to be able to track license expiration dates that may expire in the near future and to be able to contact customers and ask them to renegotiate contracts or to warn customers in time about possible license renewals or additional purchases of new licenses.

Instead of going deep into the CRM in detail, we can do it directly from the dashboards generated by Tableau, saving ourselves time and increasing our productivity.

Other customers can use the solution to check the duration of certain transactions. They can see how quickly they are completing transactions in a call center, for example. They can look at targets and get alerts to help them improve results.

What is most valuable?

Users don't have to wait for monthly reports, Tableau allows users to view numbers to make real-time decisions. It is easy and intuitive to use and has quick access to analytics, high performance even for very big data, and a built-in ETL tool to clean and prepare data.

Both web and mobile versions are supported. Updates take place at least once every three months. We always get the latest version with the latest features.

There is a huge community of Tableau users - 99.9% of questions are answered.

The solution integrates well with Python and R. The solution scales well and it is very stable.

The setup is quite easy and the technical support has been responsive.

What needs improvement?

Despite the number of available interface languages, I would like to see as many languages as possible represented in Tableau. So many companies really want to use this program and it suits them better than any other similar programs, but due to the lack of understanding of English, it is difficult for them to decide to integrate this particular product.

In addition to the existing set of common data types, Tableau Desktop has such a wonderful thing as a union of data on the principle of relationships for Multi-table. This type of union is very easy to work with the data source itself and does not overload the system.

At the moment, this type of union only exists for connections from databases. It would be nice if Tableau added this type of merging for data sources that are on the Tableau Server/Tableau Cloud.

Every three months, Tableau adds new features. There are always new features coming up.

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Tableau
January 2025
Learn what your peers think about Tableau. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2025.
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For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable. It's reliable and has a good security program. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is very easy to scale. The Blueprint methodology shows how large companies can successfully implement and develop it.

We are a small company. Right now we have about eight users of the solution. Part of them prepare analytics and manage the solution on the server side as the analysts, architects, and solution engineers, and the rest are people who use the solution as users, viewers, and explorers.

How are customer service and support?

We have full technical support for our clients. When we get a new client, we provide full support and handle pilot projects. We can also provide dashboards. We have a community for clients that are new to the solution.

Our company would like to improve the culture of data in our country. We're working to provide learning resources and free YouTube lessons to help new users understand the product. 

As a company, we provide Tableau support for our clients. If our company cannot find any solution ourselves, we contact the brand's technical support, and they respond very quickly. Depending on the complexity of the problem, a solution can be delivered within two to three days up to a week.

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

In the past, I have also used Excel and some Power BI.

In our company we like to say that there is no perfect BI, only the tool that suits you and your goals. Therefore, most companies choose to work with a different set of tools, sometimes combining several different ones. The main thing is that they all work towards your main goal and the achievement of your results.

Despite the fact that the company sells both Tableau and Power BI, we mainly use Tableau.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very easy. That said, it's best to prepare your system. You need to understand how your system will be able to integrate with it. You also have to understand your data.

It can be set up by one person if it is a small company and he is well versed in the product and in his system. However, if the company is large and the process is complex, then of course a team of several people may be needed to share the integration process between working with server setup, analytics department, and working with clients.

The service can be set up completely automatically. This will depend on the server the company uses and whether additional add-ons for working with Tableau are enabled. Automation makes it easy to check data flows and dashboards, simplifies server operations and monitors errors that occur, and sends alerts or warnings if they occur.

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

The price is still quite high for many Tableau customers. That said, the company understands the value the solution provides. That, and the integration process is so much easier with Tableau. Even with the licensing being so high, it is worth it due to the simplicity and finally, they see the financial return of using the product.

What other advice do I have?

I'm an analytics lead. I'm an integrator of the product.

We work with Tableau Cloud and with the Tableau Server.

Make sure you are really ready to integrate with Tableau. That will make the deployment go much more smoothly. Users that are fully prepared will be able to get the most out of it. If they are not prepared, they will not use it to the fullest extent possible. Sometimes you have to change not just the tool; you have to change the entire company's process. The product implementation needs to be considered at all steps, both within the company and for all stakeholders.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Integrator
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Global Data Architecture and Data Science Director at FH
Real User
ExpertModerator
A flexible and easy-to-learn solution with excellent visualizations, good design, and a community version
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau is very flexible and easy to learn. It has drag-and-drop function analytics, and its design is very good. It is a very good tool, and it basically brings life into data with good design. We have been creating a lot of interactive visualizations and dashboards. It has a public version. There are public communities from where you can get a lot of examples for practice."
  • "Its price should be improved. Its price is much higher than Power BI and QlikView. Programming is not easy on Tableau. For programming, you have to have a separate model. They should include programming directly on the web portion of the Tableau desktop so that people can write Python or JavaScript code for customizations instead of using a different model. Currently, Tableau Data Prep is a separate application that you have to purchase. It would be helpful if they can include Tableau Data Prep and programming languages such as R, Python in the next version. Tableau Public, which is a community version, doesn't allow you to save your work on your desktop. They should allow it. Currently, you can only upload it in the community."

What is our primary use case?

I have used Tableau in the past with other clients for enterprise-level data visualization for financial and manufacturing industries. I have also used it for documents dashboard and different kinds of KPI visualizations. I'm currently using it for academic purposes. In my current organization, we are not using Tableau. We are using Power BI.

What is most valuable?

Tableau is very flexible and easy to learn. It has drag-and-drop function analytics, and its design is very good. It is a very good tool, and it basically brings life into data with good design. We have been creating a lot of interactive visualizations and dashboards.

It has a public version. There are public communities from where you can get a lot of examples for practice.

What needs improvement?

Its price should be improved. Its price is much higher than Power BI and QlikView.

Programming is not easy on Tableau. For programming, you have to have a separate model. They should include programming directly on the web portion of the Tableau desktop so that people can write Python or JavaScript code for customizations instead of using a different model. Currently, Tableau Data Prep is a separate application that you have to purchase. It would be helpful if they can include Tableau Data Prep and programming languages such as R, Python in the next version.

Tableau Public, which is a community version, doesn't allow you to save your work on your desktop. They should allow it. Currently, you can only upload it in the community.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Tableau for almost eight or nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable. They have a cloud version, and you can implement it on the cloud.

How are customer service and support?

Their technical support is good. Our own IT can also manage it, and I can also get support from Tableau.

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

We also use Dimension, Power BI, and QlikViewDomo is also there, but Domo is a little bit more expensive. Microstrategy is also a little bit more expensive, and it has different media storage.

How was the initial setup?

Its installation is straightforward. It is a one-click installation. 

What about the implementation team?

I installed it myself on my laptop.

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

Its price is higher than Power BI and QlikView. Tableau costs around $70 per user per month, whereas Power BI is around $8 to $9. QlikView is around $30. 

Tableau has various prices for various models such as Creator, Designer. 

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution if you do not have budget constraints. It is a very good solution with excellent visualizations. I plan to keep using it for academic purposes.

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
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.
Fintech Project Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good for personal usage and small setups
Pros and Cons
  • "A valuable feature of Tableau is that it is a useful tool for small setups. I shuffle between Tableau and MicroStrategy, so I use Tableau for personal purposes more than enterprise. I like the light version of Tableau for personal usage and doing some use cases on my own. When it comes to something small, I use Tableau for setups, rather than any other tool."
  • "I think Tableau could be improved with cheaper or more flexible licensing, though this is a generic improvement and applies for any product. It would be better if they had more flexible payment and licensing plans so that they could suit small- and mid-sized organizations."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of Tableau is to elaborate and demonstrate output from our big data solution. For example, we use it for finding out the best location for cases, such as fraud cases. Presently, we are using Tableau to find out the original fraud case, the initiator of the fraud process, and the network. Tableau is used with our big data solution, so it's embedded there, before Oracle even. 

Tableau is deployed on-premise. In my organization, we have a very strict environment, so we don't have a policy for having anything on cloud. 

What is most valuable?

A valuable feature of Tableau is that it is a useful tool for small setups. I shuffle between Tableau and MicroStrategy, so I use Tableau for personal purposes more than enterprise. I like the light version of Tableau for personal usage and doing some use cases on my own. When it comes to something small, I use Tableau for setups, rather than any other tool. 

What needs improvement?

I think Tableau could be improved with cheaper or more flexible licensing, though this is a generic improvement and applies for any product. It would be better if they had more flexible payment and licensing plans so that they could suit small- and mid-sized organizations. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau since 2016. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't had any issues with stability. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Theoretically, Tableau is scalable, but I haven't tried to scale it yet. 

How are customer service and support?

I have never contacted technical support. 

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

I shuffle between available tools—I also use MicroStrategy, Microsoft Power BI, and Qlik. 

Before using Tableau, I used Oracle BI, Oracle ODI, and Teradata. 

How was the initial setup?

The installation was an easy process, and I've done it myself twice. I'm a technical guy, so I didn't need a technical team to help with deployment, I did it on my own. 

What about the implementation team?

I implemented this solution myself. 

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

We pay for the enterprise license for Tableau. The licensing could be cheaper and more flexible. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Tableau an eight out of ten. I recommend Tableau, and I even recommend it here in my organization. Their plan was to replace it with Qlik, but I did an assessment and advised them not to pay extra costs for other tools when Tableau was already in place in our organization. 

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
reviewer1621350 - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Analyst at a media company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A lot of complex visualization features that can make the visualization powerful
Pros and Cons
  • "The geospatial maps representation and the visualizations are nice."
  • "If you wanted to create something without making it an extra column in the data set, you can't just rename it to a more user-friendly short name."

What is our primary use case?

Right now I use Tableau for learning purposes, such as open data sources, trying to learn the various visualizations that can be done on it.

What is most valuable?

I liked the representation of the geospatial map. It was really cool to have that visual and be able to create hierarchies using the geolocation cities, states, just wording those names into appropriate provisions on the map. So that's really something nice. I feel the visualizations come out very pretty.

What needs improvement?

The price is definitely a point that can be improved because smaller firms, like my bank firm, don't use Tableau because it's an expensive tool. If there were an option that catered toward smaller firms, that would be great because Tableau does in fact help with a lot of different kinds of data sources. For instance, it lets you upload CSV on Excel. However, other tools that we currently use, such as Looker, do not let you upload Excel files for ad hoc analysis. So, definitely, this is something price-wise that can be catered toward smaller firms.

Creating variables, creating new fields in Tableau during analysis, actually adds columns to the data. That's something that could potentially give us an option. Do you want it as a column added to the data set or do you want it ad hoc in the visualization sheet? So if you create a measurement or a dimension, that creates a new column, but if you try to create a new filter directly on the visualization, it doesn't let you rename it. Basically what you see is just the calculation that you put in there. If you wanted to create something without making it an extra column in the data set, you can't just rename it to a more user-friendly short name. An improvement would be adding the ability to rename ad hoc creations if you do create a mark or a filter on the visualization. That doesn't really get added to the actual data fields.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Tableau for a few months now as a learning, research activity rather than a day-to-day activity at work. So I primarily was going to a Tableau Public Learning.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

As of now, I haven't had any issues with the stability of the solution. Not any glitches.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Given that it's Tableau Public, I don't feel I could give the right answer to that. However, given that you could share your visualizations on a server without sending a file to people, scalability seems like a good option here.

How are customer service and support?

I have not used their tech support, but I did refer to a textbook to learn how to use Tableau.

Tableau has resources for learning using videos as well.

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

My company currently uses Looker, not Tableau. I've been working on Tableau on my own time outside of work, trying to learn their free application, Tableau Public.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was pretty straightforward. It doesn't take much to get it all set up.

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

Tableau is an expensive tool for smaller firms.

What other advice do I have?

Do take time to learn the solution, because Tableau has a lot of features, a lot of complex visualization features that can make the visualization pretty powerful. I would advise people to learn it completely so they can use Tableau to its full extent rather than just ad hoc simple visualizations.

I would rate Tableau right at 8.5, leaning toward 9.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

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

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Managing Partner at Data Pine
Vendor
Data analysis that is easy to use, straightforward and flexible
Pros and Cons
  • "Tableau has improved my organization in a variety of ways, one of its uses being that of data analysis. A feature I have found most valuable is the ease of use and straightforwardness, in addition to the flexibility of Tableau."
  • "An area needing improvement involves the complexity of the product should you need to alter a lot of parameters. If you have technical servers, much interface, different providers and more serious processes, that will be time consuming."

How has it helped my organization?

Tableau has improved my organization in a variety of ways, one of its uses being that of data analysis. It provides a server platform for sharing information. We use it for internal collaboration, as well as other tools for data catalog, for creating the dashboards, for preparing the data in preparation of creating the dashboards, called an ETL extract, and as a tool to transform and load. Tableau is a platform that has several products, perhaps four or five, that average for the fifteen of big data, data evaluation and data collaboration. No specific aspect can be used for this and it can be employed in marketing and finance. It serves the needs of data analysis and providing an algorithm for machine learning. For instance, you can have a logistic regression to analyze whether a specific customer is a good bet or not, such as a bank that is contemplating the loan of money. It allows you to visualize and analyze your data no matter what it may be, though it can be used for an alternate solution.

What is most valuable?

A feature I have found most valuable is the ease of use and straightforwardness, in addition to the flexibility of Tableau. I like the fact that Tableau can connect to a wide variety of databases, be on cloud or on-premise. Tableau can connect to over 100 database types, including structured and non-structured databases. Tableau can connect to a PDF and extract all the tables you have in that PDF. Suppose you have a one hundred-page PDF containing sixteen tables of data. Tableau can connect to that PDF and extract its data. Tableau can connect to Google Drive, to a host of marketing portals on the internet, to cloud companies such as AWS or Alibaba and to many different types of databases. That's one huge advantage of the tool.

While it can be complex if you need to alter a lot of parameters, it provides simple installation. It is very easy. All you would need to do if you have only one Tableau running server is to employ the maximum connection and install a license column in Adobe Reader. 

What needs improvement?

An area needing improvement involves the complexity of the product should you need to alter a lot of parameters. 

Definitely speaking, it's straightforward and it's very easy. Implementation problems can be dealt with by the client, in place of the user consultant. Let me give you some examples of things that could take long in a Tableau implementation. Suppose you have five different business areas in your company: marketing, supply chain, finance, HR and procurement. Let us suppose that access to HR salaries is not company-wide but is limited to only a select number of people in HR, such as the manager or the director of the department. Yet, I want people in the supply chain to be able to see and access different data from different areas. While this would not be technically difficult it would be time consuming if the businesses are very particular. There may be many policies involved in access authorization, in data availability and the like.

This can involve a very strict security process using an outside identity provider. Instead of just logging in your username and password, you may have different technologies which are more safe and secure that need different providers to interface in Tableau. Depending on the need, this will be time consuming. For instance, while I don't know how this would be in your country, suppose you have an identity provider, in Brazil, marketing in Tableau. If you go to Asia, you may sometimes have a bio-metric identity that your hand or fingers employ which is going to get back at you. In that circumstance, they are going to send you a number or a code in your cellphone, requiring two steps, one to enter the bank and the other to withdraw your money. So, these things we call an outside identity provider, meaning a different vendor or different companies who manage the servers of managing identities. These would entail an integration with Tableau and these outside companies for security purposes. This would involve them sending me files and me sending them back in order to authenticate the user into the Tableau server.

This can be time-consuming because they involve or require a different partner. Tableau is made for basic needs, such as requiring a user and a password to log in to the server; an unsophisticated architecture; or use of a single instead of a cluster of servers. If you have non-specific data security needs or you just want to analyze and sell data, that can take less than a day. But if you have technical servers, many interfaces, different providers and more serious processes, that will be time consuming. 

While Tableau does integrate with Arc server and Python server, the integration process is slow and the information is integrated in a protracted fashion. Sometimes your data will vary. You may have a vector of data. You may have a matrix of data. For some algorithms we do not use regular data, but a different data structure. Tableau does not work with these different data structures. As such, interfacing with Arc server and Python server, which are still languages that are widely used in machine learning, all happen slowly. It does not happen by a matrix of data and data vector. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for five years. 

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

In the past I worked with Oracle E-Business Suite while working with ERP markets over a thirteen or fifteen year period. Yet for the past five years I've been focusing mainly on artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data and the use of other software, such as  Tableau and Azure for the purpose of developing and building data to create algorithms and visual dashboards to show the data. It's been around five years since I have turned my focus solely to big data and machine learning. 

How was the initial setup?

Definitely speaking, the initial setup was straightforward and very easy. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Another option I evaluated is Power BI from Microsoft. It's cheaper than other solutions and requires fewer different packages. The major competitor of Tableau is Power BI from Microsoft and Microsoft's much cheaper than Tableau. But Microsoft usually requires me to be on Microsoft cloud Azure. You have to buy other solutions for an integrated solution. At the end your cost will be much higher. So Tableau is more flexible. 

In Tableau, I can have a scatter plot with millions of marks. Suppose I have a graph that plots my value against my process and each dot in the graph is a sale that I've made. So I have 30 million dots in this graph reflecting my 30 million sales. Tableau can run this easily and fast. Power BI cannot. Power BI has a limitation of 13,500 marks, meaning Tableau has more capacity in delivering data than its competitors. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Wonjae BAE - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Managing Director at dfocus
Reseller
Top 10
Helps in KPI management and monitoring
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution helps users create dashboards and analyze data without relying on IT or product teams."
  • "The tool's OpenAI integration was announced last year. However, it is late. Tableau is a good solution for end customers. However, there are some concerns regarding the stability and performance of its server architecture, including SaaS services. The server side appears unstable, and performance issues are noticeable, often accompanied by unclear error messages."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for the client's management of KPIs; it involves monitoring various aspects. If they are a manufacturing company, key performance indicators revolve around production and other relevant factors.

What is most valuable?

The solution helps users create dashboards and analyze data without relying on IT or product teams. 

What needs improvement?

The tool's OpenAI integration was announced last year. However, it is late. Tableau is a good solution for end customers. However, there are some concerns regarding the stability and performance of its server architecture, including SaaS services. The server side appears unstable, and performance issues are noticeable, often accompanied by unclear error messages.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Tableau's stability a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our experience spans around 70 customers, covering manufacturing, pharmacy, trading, construction, universities, and the public sector. I rate the product's scalability a seven out of ten. 

How are customer service and support?

The tech support takes too much time to respond.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

I rate the tool's setup a ten out of ten. While setting Tableau servers for customers, we often encounter challenges that vary based on their network configuration and operating systems, such as Windows or Linux.

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

In Korea, the tool's pricing depends on the scale of usage. For instance, it's reasonable for a department with fewer than 50 users to adopt Tableau, like sales. However, the pricing becomes an issue when considering an enterprise solution for a larger user base, say 10,000 people.

What other advice do I have?

Tableau is integrating OpenAI's GPT feature. It will help to create automatic dashboards with natural language. Only ten percent of our customers use Tableau in the cloud since they prioritize their data. They don't want to import their data to the cloud. It is as per their policies and security advice. Traditional companies don't like exporting customer data outside the organizational network. 

Japanese data centers often support Korea. However, the challenge arises from the absence of a federal cloud data center in Korea. Consequently, utilizing Tableau Cloud may result in data being exported outside the country. This is not allowed legally for financial entities such as banks. 

However, the government does not regulate smaller companies like startups. Hence, they are more open to the cloud. This is not the case for public entities. They should install the software in the government's cloud. 

Our clients for Tableau are mainly enterprise businesses. I rate it a nine 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:
PeerSpot user
IT Manager at Glovis Europe
Real User
Enables you to make a dashboard for internal users and generate KPI reports
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that we can integrate with our own database, and it will displays the KPIs. This is highly required from the business side."
  • "It's already using 32 gigabytes of memory, but the performance is not so good. It's very heavy."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Tableau to make a dashboard used by our internal users, and then it is being used for a KPI report. This part is also shared with our customers. The customers access the web, and they check some limited version of the KPI report.

We are using the Tableau server for clients and desktop. The solution is deployed on-prem. We are kind of a 3PL provider, and we are using Tableau to meet the requirements of our customers. We are implementers.

How has it helped my organization?

We introduced Tableau because it provides many features that can be customized by users. We provide training to make the dashboard look how our business side wants, and they are manipulating the dashboard for their needs.

On the technical side, we are IT support and sometimes we provide some education and information on how to use the solution.

I think it would be much better if Tableau provided some API-based integration. I did try to integrate the Tableau web page and web dashboard into our own application. Some parts were successful, but other parts have some open points. If Tableau provided this kind of package with some integration, it would be much, much better.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that we can integrate with our own database, and it will display the KPIs. This is highly required from the business side.

What needs improvement?

An improvement would be changing the design of the layout of the dashboard from the business side. Sometimes there are requests for the possibility to enhance the performance and the data depending on what they need more of. It depends on the situation.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Tableau for about four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's already using 32 gigabytes of memory, but the performance is not so good. It's very heavy.

We have roughly 20 people using this solution. Most users have the role of logistics operator. Most users are doing their job regarding logistics, and they take more effort to make dashboards.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Currently, we have a strategy to open the reports to all customers, but I think we should develop more business-related skills, not only with the system or in some application terms. Our users do not have enough skills or insights for the dashboard.

How are customer service and support?

We are doing our own technical support by searching the technical Wiki or things like that.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is straightforward because it's a simple concept.

I'm not sure how long deployment takes because this is usually managed by our data engineer. There's no strategy regarding deployment itself. We just make some temporal or test dashboard and then communicate with our users. After confirming, we just announce it with email, and then they start to use it as an official version of the dashboard.

What about the implementation team?

We didn't use an integrator, reseller, or consultant for the deployment. The number of staff required for deployment and maintenance just depends on the case. Sometimes it will be simple, so there are only two or three people to make suggestions. After they apply that, sometimes we officially open it.

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

Basically, we prefer a permanent license. A one-time charge is much better.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't really evaluate other options. Every application provides some concept of a dashboard in using the data in that application. We have our own homemade dashboard and our business application, but users normally don't use it.

I think Tableau has many features for display, like graphs or pie charts. We can change dynamically, but our own dashboard doesn't provide that. It takes much more time if we change the layout there.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10. Tableau has many features, and it's very nice, but it is very heavy. Tableau has to consume a lot of server resources.

It has many options and features but it's complicated. The users are having problems or difficulties to adapt or to learn the Tableau software because there are so many features. The many possibilities means that users should run a lot of it. It takes time to get used to Tableau. From my point of view, it's harder to learn.

For those who want to implement this product, I recommend that they research it themselves.

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
reviewer1620732 - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Is intuitive and easy to install and configure
Pros and Cons
  • "The best thing I like about Tableau is that you don't have to go for creating; it is calculated free."
  • "I have noticed that Tableau is not very compatible with ClickHouse. There's no direct connection to ClickHouse; you have to set up an ODBC connection."

What is most valuable?

Tableau is pretty intuitive. It has a great interface, and you can get multiple visualizations. The best thing I like about Tableau is that you don't have to go for creating; it is calculated free. Unlike Power BI, Tableau has create a calculated column with dimension.

Tableau is quite fast and provides connectivity to 75 plus data connections, which is great.

Also, installation and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau.

In Tableau, it's just the concept of creating one calculated column and one create calculated free. So, it's pretty simple, and it's pretty easy to locate and work on it.

What needs improvement?

I have noticed that Tableau is not very compatible with ClickHouse. There's no direct connection to ClickHouse; you have to set up an ODBC connection.

Tableau's performance takes a hit if you have huge data. The stability and scalability could be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working for almost five plus years on Tableau.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Tableau's performance takes a hit if you have huge data. So in terms of stability, I feel that Cognos would be more stable because you can import all the metadata and store it in the Framework Manager. Tableau has scope for improvement regarding stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Tableau needs to be more scalable. The performance takes a hit if you have huge data. Even if you take an extract and you publish the extract and schedule it to refresh, if the report has multiple tabs, it can take quite a while to go from one tab to another.

We are going to scale the Tableau server so that it can accommodate more processes and can be more process inclusive.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have a Center of Excellence team, and anytime we have an issue, we reach out to them. They then raise an incident or a ticket with Tableau technical support. In the case where we had 1 million rows and the Tableau data was failing to refresh, we shared the log with Tableau Center of Excellence. They came up with the findings that it's more of a database issue and not a Tableau server issue.

How was the initial setup?

Installation and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau.

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

In general, if someone is new and wants to learn Tableau, it's around $70 per month.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have experience working with Cognos and Power BI. Compared to Cognos, Tableau and Power BI are pretty fast. Cognos has the concept of Framework Manager where you can build a framework model. Once you build the model, then you have to release the package, and only then is the subset or the package of data available for reporting. Tableau and Power BI eradicate the dependency on a framework model.

With Cognos, installation and configuration wise the setup takes a bit of time. You have to install and configure and then make the data available. After that, you can do reporting. Unlike that, Tableau is very quick; you can just directly connect to Excel or a file on your desktop.

The connectivity, installation, and configuration are pretty fast and seamless in Tableau and Power BI, unlike those in Cognos.

From a license perspective, I think Cognos is the most expensive, then Tableau, and then Power BI.

If I were to rate these solutions on a scale from one to ten, I would rate Power BI at 7 and Cognos at 8.

What other advice do I have?

You can do a lot in Tableau, and on a scale from one to ten, I would rate it at eight.

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.