Visualizing Data
Software Maker Turns Data into Visualizations That People Can Use
by Terence Finan
Products and
Technologies Used:
• Office Business
Applications
• 2007 Microsoft® Office
system
• Microsoft Dynamics™
• Microsoft SQL Server™
2005
The introduction of Microsoft® Office desktop software in the early 1990s was hugely
influential in the “democratization” of the workplace. Tasks such as typing letters,
sending memos, and creating financial worksheets were no longer the province of
special groups of employees, such as secretaries or accountants. Anyone who had
Microsoft Office programs on his or her PC could now do the work.
• SQL Server 2005
Analysis Services
But this revolutionary change that brought easy-
The ambition of Tableau Software is to bridge
to-use computing tools to the desktop did not
the chasm. The company grew out of an
affect one important area of the workplace—
extensive research and development project at
working with the huge amounts of information
the Stanford University Department of Computer
that resides in a broad array of databases.
Science. Sponsored by the U.S. Departments of
“Data has been stuck on the other side of the
chasm in the back office,” says Kevin Brown,
Vice President of Alliances and Partnerships for
Tableau Software in Seattle. “Over the past
Defense and Energy, a team of Stanford
researchers took on one of the most difficult
problems in computer science—helping people
see and understand information stored in
databases.
decade, working with data has become part of
almost every job performed by information
The result, the Tableau visual analysis and
workers. You cannot pick up a job description
reporting solution, provides a fundamentally
for information workers these days without
new way of interacting with the relational and
seeing the word ‘data’ or ‘analysis.’ Yet the
online analytical processing (OLAP) databases
tools for getting at, understanding, and
that form the backbone of the global database
managing data are still, for the most part,
and business intelligence markets. The Tableau
owned and managed by the IT department.”
product —available in three versions that vary
by methods of database connectivity—
creates a fundamentally different way for
helps people see and understand
business users to do reporting and
information in their organization’s
analysis. And we designed it so this
databases by making it possible for them
activity can be done interactively with
to drag and drop selections of their
[Microsoft] Office applications and
business data to create all kinds of visual
Microsoft Dynamics™ applications, and
representations.
connect to all the Microsoft data types
Crossing the “data divide” was a big
undertaking. Brown says a key decision
including [Office] Excel®, [Microsoft
Office] Access®, SQL Server, and SQL
Server Analysis Services.”
in designing Tableau so it could make
the leap was to integrate it with
Tableau has had little problem
Microsoft® Office software. “Our software
persuading customers to sign up. The
is by definition an Office Business
company’s client list includes well-known
Application (OBA),” he says. “The
names in almost every major industry,
targeted user of Tableau is the
including telecommunications, financial
information worker. And the most
services, government, shipping and
important tool for today’s information
logistics, construction, manufacturing,
worker is Microsoft Office.”
and utilities. Many of its customers are
Tableau’s core products take advantage
of Microsoft technologies, particularly
Microsoft SQL Server™ 2005 database
household names, such as Capital One,
Federal Express, Bell South, Motorola,
Verizon, the World Bank, and the U.S.
Department of Defense.
software. The core technology in Tableau
is VizQL, a patented database
“We’ve been successful because, as an
visualization language that provides a
Office Business Application, Tableau
fundamentally new architecture for
makes it easy for people to do tasks that
database interaction. Brown explains that
used to be perceived as the province of
what the SQL language does for
experts, such as database administrators
database interactions in text form, VizQL
and IT pros. Traditionally, organizations
does for database interactions in visual
have had entire departments set up to
form.
“The standard approach when
organizations develop analysis systems
is to provide a set of precanned
templates, using bar charts or scatter-plot
“The Office Business
Application model… opens
the way to a huge potential
market with new and
untapped opportunities.”
objects, and a charting wizard,” he says.
“Our VizQL approach is to provide a
visual building-block set that lets users
create their own data visualizations. It
Kevin Brown
Vice President of Alliances
Tableau Software
‘do data.’ But data has become so
example, see a peculiar pattern in a
pervasive now that it’s grown beyond the
Tableau-generated line chart, and then
scope of what departments can manage.
burrow into the pattern by clicking the line
And information workers will not sit still
chart to open the data in an Excel
for this anymore. People want the
worksheet. If they want to turn that
information, and they want it in the
information into a report, they might
Microsoft Office software that they use
export the information into a Word
every day,” says Brown.
document or PowerPoint slide.
Brown cites a good example of Tableau
“Data analysis is not always a straight
at work in the Microsoft Office desktop
line,” Brown says. “It is often a
environment. One of the company’s
zigzagging, experimental process in
clients is a digital marketing agency with
which you test ideas, try to introduce
a long list of customers that are leaders
possible answers to questions, and,
in their respective industries.
hopefully, zero in on a new insight. The
“Their information workers spend their
days gathering massive amounts of
information, digging through different
combination of our software and the
[Microsoft] Office programs is designed
to let information workers do that more
easily.”
digital marketing activities and
databases, analyzing search data, and
As the Microsoft Office technologies
looking for patterns in marketing
advance, the Tableau product line
campaigns,” Brown says. “Imagine all the
becomes even more compelling for
different marketing campaigns and the
customers. “As the Office product line is
data that emanates from clicks and form
enhanced—as with the 2007 Microsoft
completions and conversions. This is
Office system—and information and
truly multidimensional data.”
analysis become more accessible for an
ever-widening audience of information
Once the data is captured, Tableau then
helps transform the information into
workers, that benefits us enormously,”
Brown says.
meaningful insights that the employees
convey to each other through Office
programs, particularly Office Excel
spreadsheet software, Office Word, and
the Office PowerPoint® presentation
graphics program.
From there, the organization’s employees
can see patterns, trends, and anomalies
that would not be easily visible using
standard analytical tools. They can, for
“People want information,
and they want it in the
Microsoft Office software
that they use every day.”
Kevin Brown
Vice President of Alliances
Tableau Software
Learn more about
Tableau Software at:
www.tableausoftware.com
“In the business intelligence software
industry, there are a handful of
specialized products that are designed
for IT pros and departments,” he
continues. “Our solution is created for the
people doing everyday tasks within
Office. They just have problems to solve
and data to look at every day, and they
want answers.”
The ideal vehicle for providing that ability
to look at data and manipulate it is the
OBA. Microsoft Office products enable
information workers to do the work of
business intelligence themselves; that’s
why Tableau Software designed its
product around Microsoft Office, Brown
notes.
“The Office Business Application model
has created an ocean of opportunity for
us,” says Brown. “Building our product
with the [Microsoft] Office environment as
the platform opens the way to a huge
potential market with new and untapped
opportunities.”
This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.
Document published: August 2007