Tableau software is a data visualization tool that is used by Business Intelligence Analysts (BIA) to create reports and dashboards.
It is used by the BIA’s to transform the raw data into reports that are visually pleasing and understandable.
By why do Business Intelligence Analysts use data visualization tools ?
Data visualization tools are tools that are used to present visually pleasing analyzed data.
Representing data visually is better because it is easier to understand and more engaging than using only textual data.
So why do BIA’s use Tableau ?
Some of the reasons why BIA’s use Tableau include the following :
- Data visualization: Tableau can perform complex calculations that are needed to create customs reports and dashboards that the stakeholders need. These reports are used in analysis and can help the executives to make strategic decisions.
- Interactive reports : BIA’s can create interactive reports by using the built in functionalities of Tableau. Tableau has standard functionalities that make it easy to use and understand.
- It can handle large amounts of data: Tableau can easily handle a huge amount of data without compromising on its performance. It works by connecting to a data source such as SQL in order to pull the data that is used to create reports and dashboards.
- Scripting language capability : The BIA’s can incorporate scripting languages such as Python and R in Tableau. This helps enhance the built in functionalities in Tableau and enable the BIA’s to create powerful reports.
- Mobile Support functionalities : Tableau reports and dashboards are responsive and can automatically make adjustments based on the device being used.
So how does Tableau work exactly ?
Once the Business Intelligence Analyst (BIA) is ready to create their reports and dashboards, they would launch the Tableau desktop application which is used to create and modify the report and connect to the data source using a data connector .
Tableau works by connecting to a data source and extracting its data. It has built in connectors that can pull data from numerous data sources including the following :
- Microsoft Excel
- Text File
- Microsoft Access
- JSON File
- PDF File
- Spatial File
- Statistical File
- Other Files
- Tableau Server or Tableau Online
- Actian Matrix
- Actian Vectorwise
- Alibaba AnalyticDB for MySQL
- Alibaba Data Lake Analytics
- Alibaba MaxCompute
- Amazon Athena
- Amazon Aurora for MySQL
- Amazon EMR Hadoop Hive
- Amazon Redshift
- Anaplan
- Apache Drill
- Aster Database
- Azure SQL Synapse Analytics
- Box
- Cloudera Hadoop
- Databricks
- Denodo
- Dropbox
- Esri ArcGIS Server
- Exasol
- Firebird 3
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
- Google BigQuery
- Google Cloud SQL
- Google Drive
- Google Sheets
- Hortonworks Hadoop Hive
- IBM BigInsights
- IBM DB2
- IBM PDA (Netezza)
- Impala
- Intuit QuickBooks Online
- Kognitio
- Kyvos
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
- MapR Hadoop Hive
- MariaDB
- Marketo
- MarkLogic
- MemSQL
- Microsoft Analysis Services
- Microsoft PowerPivot
- Microsoft SQL Server
- MonetDB
- MongoDB BI Connector
- MySQL
- OData
- OneDrive
- Oracle
- Oracle Eloqua
- Oracle Essbase
- Pivotal Greenplum
- PostgreSQL
- Presto
- Progress OpenEdge
- Qubole Presto
- Salesforce
- Splunk
- SAP HANA
- SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse
- SAP Sybase ASE
- SAP Sybase IQ
- ServiceNow ITSM
- SharePoint Lists
- Snowflake
- Spark SQL
- Teradata
- Teradata OLAP Connector
- TIBCO Data Virtualization (Cisco Information Server)
- Vertica
- Connector Plugin
- Web Data Connector
- Other Databases (JDBC)
- Other Databases (ODBC)
Experienced BIA’s can also create their own connectors if they are knowledgeable enough.
Once the connection is made, then the BIA can prepare the data for analysis and create the reports and dashboards. Once the reports are ready, they are published using the Tableau server.