Five reasons for using Tableau in Business Functions
By: Rohit Thakur
Tags: Data Visualization, Tableau, Data Science, Data, Data Visualization Tools

Five reasons for using Tableau

There are several data visualization tools available in the market today like Tableau, Qlikview, Fusion Charts, Sisense, etc. I would say, Tableau is undoubtedly one of the best.

Many organizations are using Tableau to create engaging dashboards & reports, extracting useful information i.e. converting data to information.

Let’s discuss the top 5 reasons that make Tableau the “go-to” tool for any data visualization need:

Intuitive interface to convert “Data” to “Information”.

It is simple and user-friendly which makes it easy to present data in the form of different types of graphs and charts. Any business user from non IT background can learn and build dashboards from scratch with ease. No coding experience is required!

2. One-stop shop for creating graphs and presentations.

You can create informative and interactive dashboards with ease. Users can easily change the level of detail in any view. The granularity of data can be controlled easily. This enables an engaging way of presenting data and it becomes easier for the presenter to drive the discussions by talking in terms of data at the required level of granularity.

This also support the problem solving/deep dive analysis in any function.

A dashboard in Tableau is a collection of different “Views” (called Worksheets). Designing a “Dashboard” is as simple as arranging these “Views”. Drag and Drop feature again comes into play here.

There is another mode called “Story” in Tableau which gives you the ability to arrange all “Views or Dashboards” in a predefined sequence which can then be presented to the audience with ease.

3. Creating Hierarchies, grouping data

There are several functions in Tableau that give you the ability to create insights with ease. Data can be grouped on the basis of a logic defined by the user.

Hierarchies can be built to show relationship between dimensions. Selection by users can be facilitated by including these hierarchies in filters.

4. Connect to multiple data sources and Handling a large volume of data

Tableau gives you the option of connecting to multiple data sources. This means that you can directly connect to the source of data without having to download data in excel or any other format.

Secondly, tableau works with large datasets as well. Although there is some thought process that should go into the layout of input data but with the right approach, large volume data can be handled easily with tableau.

I have worked with tableau data sources as big as 100 million records!

5. Community Support and Version Management

There is no doubt that “Tableau” is a robust tool, but as is the case with any other tool adoption across any big organization also requires good support. This is all the more important for a self service BI tool such as Tableau. Tableau Community is the best place to learn new tips and tricks of using tableau. It’s the best place for beginners and for others looking to hone their data visualization skills.

Tableau also does a fantastic job of ensuring the new versions are rolled out seamlessly. This is very important to ensure continuity of operations in a large organization.