With the advent of Big Data, different tableau uses come into place. So we decided to share answers to your question, ‘Why Use Tableau?‘ While Big Data can have a variety of definitions, a simple one is ‘Lots of Data, No Insight’. Otherwise, we’d all be talking about Actionable Data or Our Analytics Advantage. Fortunately, Tableau makes it easy to get these.
Before anything, let’s understand what is the use of Tableau. Tableau Software is a tool that helps make Big Data small, and small data insightful and actionable. The main use of tableau software is to help people see and understand their data. After 10 years of daily use of the tool, I’d say they are doing a phenomenal job. Therefore, I’d like to share the best uses of Tableau with you.
The industry, both third-party research firms and clients, seems to agree. Gartner, the leading 3rd party authority on Business Intelligence software, has placed Tableau in their “Magic Quadrant”. Tableau has been featured six years in a row. Here are the latest rankings released this past February.
And here are job trends for the different top BI software platforms out there, as measured by Indeed.com’s Job Trends (% of total job postings over time).
Why Use Tableau?
There are different tableau software uses. Tableau helps you do the following really well.
Bring multiple data sources into one single point of truth
If you have data in Excel and Access, and SQL Databases, and cloud-based applications, like Salesforce, Tableau can bring all of those together in just a few clicks. No code required. This is one of the Tableau uses that helps you see the business holistically and have one definitive source for all business reporting.
Perform basic ETL operations quickly
One of the coolest Tableau uses is performing basic ETL operations fast! If you need to transform data to get it into the format you need, Tableau can do this very quickly with their automated data reshaper tool. Again, in just a few clicks, you can split fields, concatenate fields, join on concatenated or calculated fields, eliminate white space and headers, change data formats. What might take a SQL coder several minutes to write code for, or an business person using Excel a day to do, can now be done in seconds.
Provide beautiful dashboards and reports
One of the uses of Tableau software that we personally love is its visual features. Visual best practices are built in, so even if your end users know little about how to present information effectively, Tableau can go a long way automatically to helping ensure reports are both informative and eye catching, and present information in an understandable way.
Conduct investigative or exploratory analysis at the speed of thought
This is my favorite use of tableau. Just like athletes can get “in the zone,” Tableau enables analysts to experience a state of flow – quickly exploring their data, helping them find answers that lead to new questions which then lead to new insights as fast as they can think of them.
Automate reporting
One of the uses of tableau software is automated reporting. You can easily build a report, then set it to point at a certain data set, have that data automatically refresh and you never have to touch it again. Set it and simply see insights and act on them. No code, no additional time, no additional meetings needed.
Control data, access, user permissions, and dashboards in a secure and scalable format both on-premise or in the cloud
Tableau understands that business users need insights fast, while IT needs to ensure security, uptime, and infrastructure meets their standards. They make it easy for business users to get the insights they need, while allowing IT to meet their governance commitments.
And as a bonus, Tableau has the most engaged user community in the world. Have a question? You can find someone willing to help.
Final words on Why you should Use Tableau
We hope you have found the answer to the question, ‘Why Use Tableau?’ If you want to know, when it is right to use it, be sure to check this blog. Do you want to use Tableau? Data Crunch Corp offers Introductory through advanced Tableau training. We can help you get familiar with the different tableau uses and applications, from basic to advanced, and in the process. Moreover, we can help your team become stronger analysts and provide better, more actionable insights for the whole business. That’s ROI for everyone. That’s making Big Data bite sized.