Tableau — When to use & When Not to use
By: Rohit Thakur
Tags: Self Service Bi, Data Visualization, Drag And Drop, Tableau, Data Science

Tableau is a very powerful data visualization tool. The remarkably intuitive drag and drop interface of Tableau makes the process of creating useful dashboards very easy.

For deployment across any organization it’s imperative to understand the capabilities of Tableau and associated use cases and then evaluate these in light of your requirements. To do this you should have a good understanding of features offered by Tableau.

Let’s talk about the scenarios where Tableau could be useful. If your answer to most of the questions listed below is “Yes” then Tableau is definitely is the tool for you.

Are you looking to present data in the form of charts/graphs? Are you looking to create an engaging way of presenting data?

The primary objective of data analysis is to extract meaningful insights from data i.e. convert data to information. Representing data in the form of graphs and charts makes it easier for users to understand and draw inferences.

Additionally, you can create interactive dashboards with ease for e.g. a dashboard with drill down capabilities where users can navigate to the desired level of detail by simple click. This enables the users to narrow down the scope of analysis and present findings in terms of data.

2. Do you want to make the process of converting data to information “Agile”?

Traditional BI includes heavy involvement of IT for setting up database and providing the required information which is utilized by business users for analysis.

Tableau includes functionality to connect to multiple data sources and visualize data which can be easily done by any business user without major involvement of IT. The whole process of connecting to the data source and representing it in dashboards is streamlined, thereby enabling a faster process of converting data to information.

Involvement of IT is only during the initial setup phase and to the extent of maintaining the backend server required for sharing across the organization.(during steady state)

3. Are you looking for a BI tool that is intuitive and can be used easily by the Business Users with minimum intervention from IT?

To start, no specific technical skills are required to create impressive graphs and charts. The drag and drop interface of the tableau is easy to use and understand. Although some training is required, the effort isn’t more than that is required for learning excel. The effort is far lesser as compared to that required for learning any other programming language.

This eliminates the involvement of IT to set up and provide data in a format that Business users can use for answering various business queries. The simple and intuitive interface enables the business users to understand data and change the level of detail and granularity as per their requirements.

4. Are you looking to create a seamless way of sharing information across the organization? Are you looking to interact with data on different devices such as laptops, mobile, etc without creating separate process for each platform?

The Dashboards created on “Tableau Desktop” (primary tool for creating dashboards) can be published on Tableau server. Users can login to the server and to see the required dashboards.

Same views can be seen on different devices with ease. This feature makes it user friendly and drives adoption across all levels of the organization.