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Radical BI

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Blogger Nicholas Goodman writes that Tableau’s visual analysis tool is not actually radical or revolutionary. He trivializes it as if it were a Coke machine with a cool new button.

For now, let’s not quibble about the meaning of radical, revolutionary, or button. Let’s not worry about the title of Nicholas’s post, “Sexy vs. experience,” stated as if the two don’t mix. Let’s not even consider the post he refers to, titled “Is it just sexy?” and written by L. Wayne Johnson, which supposedly disagrees with “Tableau is the new Apple” but doesn’t.

Let’s just ponder love of good, simple tools that free your mind.… Read the rest “Radical BI”

Tableau is the new Apple

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I watch Tableau Software CEO Christian Chabot demonstrate Tableau visual-analysis and I can’t help think of Steve Jobs and Mac OS X. Chabot has the same bright stage presence, and his product has the same simplicity and elegance. Like Mac, Tableau makes you love it.

In Monday’s keynote, Chabot couldn’t pace. The conference’s overflow crowd left little room for the tiny stage. His address had none of the self-conscious cool of a Jobs production and more reason and humor. This is a business crowd, not a consumer one, and he connected.

The world will be at Tableau’s doorstep soon enough—though I can’t quite understand why it’s not there yet.… Read the rest “Tableau is the new Apple”

User conference with a view

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I often have to suppress a question while I listen to pitches for BI “solutions.” I want to interrupt and ask, “Hey, isn’t most of what you’re saying just bullshit?”

I’ve found an exception. That voice didn’t even make a peep Sunday as the three-day Tableau Software user conference unfurled in Seattle. Last night at a reception at the Edgewater Inn overlooking Puget Sound on a rare sunny day, I listened to Tableau staff tell me about their visualization software. Not once did I feel that restless need for more air.

They’ve got something good, really good. The quick stories I heard, sometimes barely, in cocktail-party shorthand ring true: for example, the heavy-hitting analysts who’ve been combing through rows and columns suddenly find they have a lot more time to plumb the data; the anti-terror people who can examine not just a handful of factors at once but a dozen or more; the consultant who feels he’s “stealing” from clients who demand Excel-based solutions who would benefit much more from Tableau; the anti-fraud guy who bought the software on his credit card and within a few hours found something so alarming he had to alert his boss.… Read the rest “User conference with a view”