Tableau Software Review
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Who they are
Tableau is a company with its roots in cutting-edge technology development. Stanford Professor Pat Hanrahan took on a DOD project designed to boost information analysis capabilities. Together with computer specialist Chris Stolte their research led to the development of VizQl, a technology that provides in-process data Visualization. After data analyst Christian Cabot joined the team, the three took their innovative technology and formed Tableau.
What Tableau does
Within a year of its launch date Tableau was named Product of the Year and its first customer, Tom Walker, became the company CFO. Tableau has 500,000 users in 90+ countries and is committed to technological innovation that helps people.
Satisfied Customers
Bank of America, Barclays Global, Citigroup, Clorox, Heineken, Procter & Gamble
Cornell University, DePaul University, CBS Sports, Disney Interactive Media Group,
ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Halliburton, Barnes & Noble, Safeway, Bayer CropScience,
Dow Chemical, Bear Stearns, Charles Schwab, Alaska Airlines, ToyotaTableau Business Intelligence Product(s)
- Tableau Desktop (for Anyone)
- Tableau Server (for Organizations)
- Tableau Digital (for Public Websites)
- Tableau Public (for Bloggers)
Tableau Software Key Features
Access data from the rest of your systems quickly and easily
Compile information in easy to understand graphics instantly
Ask questions and get answers as you go
Share your graphics on the web easilyTableau Software Technology
VizQL is a patented innovation which expresses the answers to your database questions in
easy to understand graphics. The technology creates immediate visual representations of your data in graphs, maps and interactive formats. This makes information retrieval, presentation and understanding work up to 100x faster than traditional data analysis methods. It is simple to use requiring no special training.Bottom Line
Tableau software is fast, easy to use software that builds on a person’s ability to think visually. Columns of data which before had to be compiled, organized and displayed can be instantly accessed and presented in formats which make the information clear while deepening the understanding. Displays are responsive to the questions asked in real-time. Drag and click features mean that users need no special training. Data Engine technology means that companies with larger databases can perform similar functions with the same speed and ease on their PC.
5 comments:
Laughing BoyI am a Tufte-devotee who has worked mostly in printed display media. I'm investigating how to present data via a web dashboard to execs monitoring production facilities. I want an app that will query the db and generate graphs to my specs and push them out to the users desktops.
As a rank novice to the web-distribution aspect, it seems Tableau would be great for an analyst to use, but not exactly what I need as a producer (not consumer) of visual information.
I'd appreciate any guidance you could provide and what solutions are the most cost-effective and flexible.
Thanks.
10:22 AM
David Raab Most if not all of today's business intelligence software can generate a Web dashboard. Their default designs will not be very Tufte-like, but you should be able to get them to do most of what you want unless you really want something specific like charts within a matrix ("small multiples").
Your post says you ant to "generate graphs to my specs and then push them out to the users desktops". That's a different function than a Web dashboard, which is something they would log into. The "publish and push" approach is probematic for a dashboard because you need to keep republishing the dashboard each time the data changes, and it's harder to do any kind of drill-down. If you have a real need to do it that way (e.g., many disconnected users), you'll have to look a bit harder. (For what it's worth, QlikTech does have a Publisher module to do that sort of thing.)
I don't think Tableau itself has a Web access feature, but could be wrong. If anybody from Tableau reads this, please clarify.
Hope this helps.
12:31 PM
Austin Tableau does have a new product, Tableau Server, that allows users to view graphs or dashboards via a web browser.
Austin Dahl
(Tableau Employee)12:32 AM
Mark The only big thing missing in Tableau is the concept of hierarchies. It sees them from multi-dimensional sources like SQL Server analysis services, but Qliktech finds those relationships automatically.
Proclarity is great at using these hierarchies in its data decomposition tree.
If Tableau added automatic and user created hierarchies, data decomposition tree, and some light, but usable GIS features with basic included maps, I'd be in heaven.
2:47 PM
Austin One of those features, light GIS with built in maps, was added in the 4.0 release of Tableau.
Austin Dahl
9:48 AM
« Dear God | Main | The Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs »
January 05, 2006
The Top Ten Lies of Venture Capitalists
Venture capitalists are simple people: we've either decided to invest, and we are convincing ourselves that our gut is right (aka, “due diligence”) or there's not a chance in hell. While we may be simple, we're not necessarily forthcoming, so if you think it's hard to get a “yes” out of venture capitalist, you should try to get a conclusive “no.”
This is because there's no upside to communicating a negative decision. Entrepreneurs will simply hate us sooner--instead the game is to string along entrepreneurs in case something miraculous happens to make them look better. (An example of a miracle would be Boeing approving a $5 million purchase order.)
Alas, entrepreneurs are also simple people: If they don't hear a conclusive “no,” they assume the answer is yes. This is an example of the kind of breakdown of communication between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs that causes much pain and frustration for entrepreneurs.
To foster greater understanding among the two groups, here is an exposé of the top ten lies of venture capitalists.
- “I liked your company, but my partners didn't.” In other words, “no.” What the sponsor is trying to get the entrepreneur to believe is that he's the good guy, the smart guy, the guy who gets it; the “others” didn't, so don't blame him. This is a cop out; it's not the other partners didn't like the deal as much as the sponsor wasn't a true believer. A true believer would get it done.
- “If you get a lead, we will follow.” In other words, “no.” As the old Japanese say, “If your aunt had balls, she'd be your uncle.” Well, she doesn't have balls, so it doesn't matter. The venture capitalist is saying, “ We don't really believe, but if you can get Sequoia to lead, we'll jump on the pile.” In other words, once the entrepreneur doesn't need the money, the venture capitalist would be happy to give him some more--this is like saying, “Once you've stopped Larry Csonka cold, we'll help you tackle him.” What entrepreneurs want to hear is, “If you can't get a lead, we will.” That's a believer.
- “Show us some traction, and we'll invest.” In other words, “no.” This lie translates to “I don't believe your story, but if you can prove it by achieving significant revenue, then you might convince me. However, I don't want to tell you 'no' because I might be wrong and by golly you may sign up a Fortune 500 customer and then I'd look like a total orifice.”
- “We love to co-invest with other venture capitalists.” Like the sun rising and Canadians playing hockey, you can depend on the greed of venture capitalists. Greed in this business translates to “If this is a good deal, I want it all.” What entrepreneurs want to hear is, “We want the whole round. We don't want any other investors.” Then it's the entrepreneur's job to convince them why other investors can make the pie bigger as opposed to re-configuring the slices.
- “We're investing in your team.” This is an incomplete statement. While it's true that they are investing in the team, entrepreneurs are hearing, “We won't fire you--why would we fire you if we invested because of you?” That's not what the venture capitalist is saying at all. What she is saying is, “We're investing in your team as long as things are going well, but if they go bad we will fire your ass because no one is indispensable.”
- “I have lots of bandwidth to dedicate to your company.” Maybe the venture capitalist is talking about the T3 line into his office, but he's not talking about his personal calendar because he's already on ten boards. Counting board meetings, an entrepreneur should assume that a venture capitalist will spend between five to ten hours a month on a company. That's it. Deal with it. And make board meetings short!
- “This is a vanilla term sheet.” There is no such thing as a vanilla term sheet. Do you think corporate finance attorneys are paid $400/hour to push out vanilla term sheets? If entrepreneurs insist on using a flavor of ice cream to describe term sheets, the only flavor that works is Rocky Road. This is why they need their own $400/hour attorney too--as opposed to Uncle Joe the divorce lawyer.
- “We can open up doors for you at our client companies.” This is a double whammy of lie. First, a venture capitalist can't always open up doors at client companies. Frankly, he might be hated by the client company. The worst thing in the world may be a referral from him. Second, even if the venture capitalist can open the door, entrepreneurs can't seriously expect the company to commit to your product--that is, something that isn't much more than a slick (10/20/30) PowerPoint presentation.
- “We like early-stage investing.” Venture capitalists fantasize about putting $1 million into a $2 million pre-money company and end up owning 33% of the next Google. That's early stage investing. Do you know why we all know about Google's amazing return on investment? The same reason we all know about Michael Jordan: Googles and Michael Jordans hardly ever happen. If they were common, no one would write about them. If you scratch beneath the surface, venture capitalists want to invest in proven teams (eg., the founders of Cisco) with proven technology (eg., the basis of a Nobel Prize) in a proven market (eg., ecommerce). We are remarkably risk averse considering it's not even our money.
- I'm at a Starbucks in Hawaii writing this blog. I've been at it for ninety minutes. I don't have my charger with me. My PowerBook is out of gas. You're going to have to be happy with the top nine lies of venture capitalists until “Dear God” ships the PowerBook Vaio.
Written at: Starbucks Ward Center, Honolulu, Hawaii.
January 05, 2006 | Permalink
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Abhi 09 Jan 06
>> “Gartner says our market will be $50 billion in 2010.”
As a small company, there is limited bottom up research we can perform. We have to rely on external resources like Gartner and IDC to make certain projections.
Don’t VCs or any other rational set of people need numbers to quantify the potential return?
I may be extremely passionate, but if the market size of my product is limited, why would any one care?
How are projections like fortune telling? Projections are just that, predictions. Based on what we know today, this is likely to happen. Projections have to be updated regularly, based on new knowledge.
You can look at someone’s projections and understand the amount of effort they have put into understanding the product and the target market.If someone uses 2002 data to make projections about handheld devices in 2010, that is inaccurate. Though, 2003 projections can be compared with 2005 actuals and you can see a trend and reasonably predict 2006/2007 numbers.
I love Point 6 about where the game is won...
Tour
The heart of the site is a collection of data visualizations. You may want to begin by browsing through these collections—if you'd rather explore than read directions, take a look! On Many Eyes you can:
1. View and discuss visualizations
2. View and discuss data sets
3. Create visualizations from existing data setsIf you register, you can also: 4. Rate data sets and visualizations
5. Upload your own data
6. Create and participate in topic centers
7. Select items to watch
8. Track your contributions, watchlist, and topic centers
9. See comments that others have written to youView and discuss visualizations
All the visualizations on Many Eyes have an attached discussion forum. As you explore a visualization, you may find a view that you'd like to talk about or share. If you post a comment, your "view" is saved along with your comment so others can see what you're seeing.Each visualization lets you select data items by clicking. Your selection will be highlighted in a bright color, so that you can refer to those items in your comments. This simple feature is very convenient: it's much nicer to say "Look at the circled part of the graph" than "look at the thing sort of at the upper right".
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Interactive visualization
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Comments about this visualization
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Form for posting a new comment
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Detail of a comment contributed by anonymous user
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Screenshot showing part of the collection of visualizations on the site
View and discuss data sets
All visualizations in Many Eyes are based on a collection of shared data sets held on the site. You'll see that many data sets and visualizations are the subject of an active discussion. Anyone can browse the list of data sets.![]()
Screenshot of list of data sets uploaded to the site.
Create visualizations from existing data sets
One of the most exciting features of Many Eyes is the ability to create interactive visualizations from any of the data sets on the site.Finding the right way view your data is as much an art as a science. The visualizations provided on Many Eyes range from the ordinary to the experimental.
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Detail of the process of creating a visualization.
Rate data sets and visualizations
Rating data sets and visualizations is a helpful way to let users quickly find some of the best content on Many Eyes. Each time you rate an item, you attach a "plus one" or a "minus one" to it. Many Eyes ratings also have a qualitative aspect, which allows you to express whether, for instance, you like a visualization because it is funny or because it is beautiful.
You may also want to flag a data set as being either a "test" or having a "suspicious source."![]()
Interface for rating a visualization
Upload your own data (registered users only)
After you register, you can upload new data sets to Many Eyes. Seeding the site with shared data is an important part of being able to engage others in collective sensemaking and insight sharing.
You may also want to refer to our Data Format & Style page,
that covers all the intricacies of formatting and uploading.
Create and participate in topic centers (registered users only)
Topic centers are a great way of organizing content around a theme of interest to you. They function like small portals where you can collect all visualizations and data sets that are related to your theme. You can also start discussions in a topic center.
All registered users can create and join topic centers. Only members can contribute visualizations, data sets, and comments to a topic center.
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Screenshot of the collection of items in a topic center: list of discussions
at the top, visualizations in the middle and data sets at the bottomSelect items to watch (registered users only)
Users with an account can choose to be notified when there is new activity around a visualization or a data set of interest to them. To monitor items of interest, simply click on the "watch this" button. You can stop monitoring any visualization (or data set) by simply clicking on the "quit watching" button (or by going to your user page, which lists the "quit watching")
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Below each visualization (and data set) you will find a "watch this" button
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Watchlist on user page, showing new activity around watched itemsTrack the visualizations and data sets you have contributed (registered users only)
As a registered user, you can keep track of all your activity on Many Eyes. This also makes it easier for others to interact with you on the site because your activity history creates your identity here.![]()
Screenshot of a registered user's activity.
See comments that others have written to you (registered users only)
Registered users automatically get a "user page" that compiles all of their activity on the site (as well as the activity in their watchlist). Others can leave messages to a user by using the "Messages" feature at the bottom of user pages.The owner of a user page has mediation privileges over messages left on their user page: they may either delete or reply to messages left for them.
Could we partner with this IBM project to produce our visualisations? My instinct is not (as it seems to be more of a 'playground' than a professional service) but I might be missing something...
API FAQ
What formats does your API support?
The Huddle API is a simple HTTP service secured via SSL. XML and JSON are supported as request and response formats. The format used is specified in the path of the API endpoint; to use JSON the path should start with /v1/json/; to use XML the path should start with /v1/xml/.
How does authentication work?
All API requests require authentication. We use standard HTTP Basic Authentication where email address (or Huddle username) and password are sent as base 64 encoded clear text. All API calls are protected by SSL so that your details remain secure.
HTTP header example:
GET /v1/json/files/12345 HTTP/1.1 Host: api.huddle.dev Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNzWhat functionality does your API currently support?
The API currently provides methods to work with files, tasks and discussions, as well as workspaces and newsfeeds. See the API documentation for the full list. We’re constantly adding new methods so check back often.
Are there any legal things to be aware of?
Use of the Huddle API is governed by section 6 of our Terms of use.
Great case study in building a platform that businesses can develop on top of. Loads of learnings from huddle here. I will be leverageing my relationship with the founders...
Sales Funnel graphic