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Business IntelligenceAdvantages and Disadvantages of Tableau

Tableau Software as a data visualization tool for non-dev users. In this article, we show you its' advantages and disadvantages.
Updated at12.01.2024
Published at02.09.2019
Stanislav Naborshchikov
Stanislav Naborshchikov

Solutions Specialist

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Conclusion

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Introduction

We live in a world of data — IDC Study says that by 2020, there will be 5,200 GB of data for every person on Earth. Data accessibility gives unbelievable possibilities for us as users and especially for our business industry. The first app, people have started to use for working with data was Excel, but when you have tons of data to work with, and especially if you or your employees aren’t data experts, it becomes being harder and harder to use Excel in your everyday work. And then it happens — you find Tableau, which not only improves and makes easier to work with data for non-pro users, but also helps to visualize your data and makes it simple to present and explain your report to your colleagues and boss.

But what is the real reason for people loving Tableau Software?

Why do you have to use it and maybe why you actually don’t?

Let’s see Tableau advantages and disadvantages and if you already use it — how it is possible for you to improve your working process.

Advantages of Tableau

It’s for everyone!

Data is in all areas of our life and any business or government-industry: university, hospital, bank — everywhere.

Tableau would be a really good entry point into data learning. It’s easy to learn, but with Tableau, you’re in a halfway to understand how data analysis is working.

Also, Tableau often has campaigns to promote data learning and to show how data is a part of our everyday life.

The last one was “data + music” campaign, which was made to collect visualizations from the Tableau community and to highlight the data behind the music. You could just download your data from Spotify and paste it in Tableau Public app, which by the way is fully free. Then you get a visually perfect dashboard with data of music you’ve been listening to the most since the last year, sorted through months, genres, playlists and etc.

It’s easy to use!

There are a lot of people that work in the business analysis industry and use Tableau in their work every day and they don’t actually need any knowledge in BI or IT. Within a couple of clicks, you can connect to almost any data source. The dashboard has an intuitive look and the drag-and-drop tool in Tableau allows non-developers users to use the application in full functionality. And the most advanced user you become — the most possibilities you get to use as a professional such as table calculations with which you can create advanced expertise analysis and more.

It’s mobile-friendly!

You can use it on the go because Tableau has a modern looking and usable application for leading mobile platforms such as Android and iOS. So, traveling somewhere on a business trip or waiting for a train, everywhere you are, whatever you are doing — you can comfortable working with Tableau.

It’s cloud-based!

Tableau is the part of “data gravity” generation, so all of your analytical reports move from data warehouses to cloud computing in a few seconds. That means that you can use Tableau with cloud services like Google BigQuery, Google Analytics, and Amazon Redshift. You can even still be using Excel, but then just export your spreadsheets to Tableau and make it more aesthetically skillful with Tableau visual dashboards. Also, a few days ago Salesforce has bought Tableau and now you have compatibility with their system too. For now, Tableau can be connected to more than 40 different sources, but Additional services and online features always continue to appear, so we can wait for new benefits and possibilities in a very short period.

It’s responsible!

With a special feature that Tableau has, you can customize dashboard concretely for a certain device such as smartphone, tablet or laptop. Tableau understands from which device your user is viewing the report and automatically makes adjustments to be sure that the right viewing format is showing on the right device.

It takes time to become a pro-user by your own

It’s easy to use basic Tableau features and possibilities, but as Tableau Sofware is a professional data tool so it has almost unlimited visualizing data potential, that for a pro-user is a great opportunity and for a non-dev one — just an unrealistic option. There are tones on learning information on the Tableau website but reading and learning it alone without any specific knowledge is almost unreal.

There are also many online courses and some short-video lessons on YouTube, but the most effective way to become a pro-user in a really short time, especially for a group of employees, is to take a training course from a Tableau partner agency, which will help you to get to know all of the features and possibilities of Tableau Software and will support you through the whole knowledge journey.

Disadvantages of Tableau

It happens to have poor after-sales support

Actually, this one depends on who is your Tableau partner. That’s not a Tableau disadvantage, but many companies’ clients complain about being a client before buying a software product and after. They’re just being treated in 2 different ways.

Well here we have a great solution — as Mobile Reality is official Tableau Partner, we give the highest service for our clients and the most high-rated online support, so you can always be sure that whenever you get any trouble with Tableau services, we’re always near to help on the phone, in all social media platforms and in online chat support on our webpage.

Conclusion

As you see that’s almost impossible to find a real disadvantage of Tableau Software if you’re a pro-user. So in the next articles, we’re going publish some Tips&Tricks articles about learning Tableau faster and becoming a real pro-user in a short period of time.

Also, don’t forget to follow us, sign up for our Tableau Tips&Tricks newsletter to read more knowledge content and leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Read also our other articles in this theme: Tableau vs Power BI and Tableau vs Qlik

Did you like the article?Find out how we can help you.

Matt Sadowski

CEO of Mobile Reality

CEO of Mobile Reality

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