Business Intelligence
with Tableau
Trinh Nguyen
Sales Transformation. Sep 2020
Personal Background
5-year experiences working for FMCG Companies
Current Company: MARICO
Department: Sales – Business Development
Scope of Works relating to BI (40%)
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Collect, Process and Clean Data
Design and build DataMart
Develop Data-Cube for end-users
Build & Deploy BI Dashboard, Reporting for Sales Users
Analytics, Highlight Issues & Supporting BOD/Sales for Action
System Governance & Maintenance
Tableau - Introduction
Tableau: Software Company founded in 2003, HQ in Washington, USA that produces
interactive data visualization products focused on business intelligence
The word “Tableau” derived from French word tableaux which means a group of
models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history
Tableau - Products
Tableau Desktop: Application for Creator to design, analyze & publish dashboard,
reporting or data-source
Tableau Server/Tableau Online: Web-based Interface for Creator/Uses to analyze and
publish data
Tableau Reader (Free): Application for read-only purpose
Tableau Public (Free): Application for trial with limited data source access and only
save workbook to Public Community
Tableau - Features
Tableau - Architecture
Tableau Strengths
1. High Performance - It can handle millions of rows of data
2. Support multiple connection (Flat file, SQL Server, My SQL, Mongo
DB, SAP Hana, Apache, Hadoop...)
3. Data Modeling (Joining, Data Blending and Relationship)
4. Support Data Extract (hyper) and Live Connection
5. Drag and Drop to Create Visualization/Analysis with ease
of customization
6. Highly dynamic dashboard interaction with filter, action,
tooltips & parameter
Tableau Strengths
7. Report/Dashboard Schedule Refresh Easily
8. Story Telling, Dashboard & Worksheet
9. Tableau has no limits for data points so users can create
dashboards of any size
9. Easily to share, publish & collaborate
10. Mobile Apps
11. Tutorials, Free Certification, Community, Tableau Public
Tableau Strengths
12. Multiple Functionality:
Easy Calculated Field
Level-of-detail (LOD) functions: LOD Expressions represent an
elegant and powerful way to answer questions involving multiple levels of granularity
in a single visualization
Window Function
Customized Labelling, Size and Formatting
Action and Set
Alerting Functionality
Table Calculation
Tableau Weakness
1. Not easy for naive users, need a certain skill-set/
features understanding to create visualization and conduct
analysis quickly
2. Need a lot of effort to create advanced chart, formatting
3. No chart saved template or customer visual import for
later uses
4. Limited Cross-Tab with 16 maximum #Columns (raised to
50 with 2019.4 forward), expand/collapse in crosstab need to
create hierarchy
5. Limited Conditional Formatting
Tableau Weakness
6. Static and Single value parameters
7. Do not support copy and paste in dashboard design,
copy and paste formatting sometimes does not work 100%
8. Time & Resource-Intensive Employees Coaching
9. Poor Versioning, rolling previous package is not
available
10. Limited Data Cleaning & Preprocessing
11. Tableau leverage & require high CPU Usage & RAM &
Disk
Tableau Weakness
12. High- Cost
Tableau Desktop/Creator (include Tableau Prep): 70$/user/month
Tableau Server which cost ~ $175,000 for an 8 cores option
Tableau Explorer/View cost $35/12 dollars per user.
Alternatively, we can use Tableau Online which has limited scalability
Tableau Explorer/View cost $42/12 dollars per user
What BI Analyst/Users can do with Tableau
1. BI Analyst/Data Analyst - Tableau Creators:
Clean and Pre-Process Data
Connect to Data Source, Build Data Model
Make new connections to data in the browser
Conduct Analytics & Design dashboard/workbooks (.twb and .twbx files)
Publish data source/data model to Tableau Server/Online
Publish Dashboard/Workbook from the Tableau Server/Online or Tableau Desktop
2. Users/BI Analyst - Explorers can:
Connect to published data sources on Tableau Server/Online to create new workbooks
Edit and analyze data in published workbooks (Save and Save As options vary based on permissions)
Create data alerts and custom views, download content (options vary based on permissions)
The level Explorer (with publish) is an Explorer who can publish new content from Desktop to the site and
create and publish new content from an existing published data source but cannot connect to external data or
create new data sources.
2. Users - Viewers can:
See and interact with published Dashboard/Workbook others have created
Explore the data in dashboard using filters, legends, sorting, parameters and tooltips
Share, comment on, and download content (options vary based on permissions)
Business Intelligence View
1. Business Intelligence is still new and BI Analyst have to face a lot of challenge
in workplace:
Company Culture
Digitalization
Data Driven Making Decision
From Data Analysis/Insight to Action
2. Business Intelligence Analyst need to frequently update, study and expand the
horizon to adapt with the non-stop changes from market/technology
3. Business Intelligence Component:
Business Domain, Sentiment
Tools/Technical Skills
Analytic Skills/Thinking
Soft Skills, Presentation, Persuade, Collaboration
4. Aiming to Full-Stack BI Works
Reference
https://www.absentdata.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-tableau/
https://help.tableau.com/
https://www.tableau.com/
https://tableautraininghq.com/tableau-product-line/
https://data-flair.training/blogs/tableau-features/
https://data-flair.training/blogs/tableau-pros-and-cons/
https://data-flair.training/blogs/tableau-file-types/
https://interworks.com/blog/tkau/2019/12/04/considerations-for-a-tableau-server-to-tableau-onlinemigration/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4maLVtgAQiw
https://www.wholewhale.com/tips/data-culture-nonprofits/
https://www.edureka.co/blog/tableau-lod/
https://www.itbusinessedge.com/business-intelligence/power-bi-vs-tableau-2019-comparison.html
Tableau – File Types
Tableau - Connection
Tableau - Workspace
Tableau - Alert Data