Tableau was created in 2003. Since its inception, the Spreadsheet tool has been one of the most coveted among analytics professionals. As the program established itself as a market leader, it was acquired by Salesforce in 2019. This tool is identified as a platform for visual analysis that changes the way data is used to solve problems, enabling people and organizations to make the most of their data. Having been a leader for many years, the Tabelau program has amassed one of the largest communities to not only help solve problems, but also to share years of experience.
PROS:
Free for report creator and individual user:
Power BI consists of 3 parts: Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, and Power BI Gateway. Reporting Tool - Power BI Desktop is completely free and works without even signing in to a Microsoft account. So you can create reports both at work and at home using your personal computer. Reports created with Power BI Desktop are stored in a special .pbix format. You are free to share this file with colleagues or friends at no cost to you.
Meanwhile, the Power BI Service, a tool for publishing reports to the WEB environment, is available to Microsoft 365 Business users free of charge. Such user-generated (.pbix) reports can be opened in your account for viewing from your computer, but a Pro license will be required to share the reports with a colleague.
Easy-to-use data processing and visualization tools - low code / no code methodology:
Power BI belongs to the Microsoft Power Platform family. All the tools in this family are designed so that a user who does not know the programming languages can perform the actions that programmers program in SQL Query, Power Query, Python, or R languages.
In Power BI, this methodology applies to both data processing and rendering. For example, to merge multiple tables into each other when processing raw data, you only need to select the simple Merge Queries function in Power BI Desktop, while writing JOIN-level queries in SQL, which can be quite a challenge for a beginner. An even more sophisticated feature such as data prediction on the Power BI platform would also be a few clicks away using Analytics to plot graphs, while the same feature of using a programming language such as Python would require using complex machine learning modules such as sklearn and programming regressions.
Artificial intelligence from data processing to visualization:
The Power BI platform uses powerful artificial intelligence algorithms that provide freedom and convenience to the user. The benefits of these algorithms can already be felt when importing data when creating new columns or processing data from existing columns. Typically, the Power BI Desktop environment uses Power Query syntax for these features. For users who are familiar with Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Access tools, this syntax may not appear new, but may seem complicated to most users. It is for such users that Power BI artificial intelligence rushes to the rescue. With convenient integrated features such as Column From Examples, the user can not only create new columns with the help of a few buttons to record whatever result we want, but also create automatic DAX formulas from Quick measure selections. And with Q&A, Decomposition tree, and more, you can create incredibly interactive and smart reports.
Simple reporting integrity to other systems:
As one of the world's leading software developers, most software vendors are happy to integrate their products into their environment. For the same reason, the Power BI tool is easily integrated into other systems and is known as one of the most convenient analytics tools for such integrations (embeded). In addition, the Power BI system offers a higher level of security than other competitors, making integrity even easier.
Quick response to consumer needs:
In today’s world where businesses are living at a tremendous pace, consumer needs are changing along with the entire market. Microsoft has been appreciating this since the first days of Power BI release, and this tool has been updated every month for many years. The rapidly growing popularity of Power BI now has a huge community that constantly expresses desires and preferences for system upgrades and improvements, and Microsoft is happy to listen to its users and constantly update Power BI to meet market needs.
CONS:
Power BI Desktop is not compatible with MAC (Apple computers):
Because Power BI is a Microsoft product, it is not yet compatible with the MAC operating system. The true Power BI tool can be used on Apple computers after installing the Windows virtual operating system. In this case, the performance of the Apple computer should be evaluated, as in many cases older or less powerful Apple computers do not cope with the need for Power BI for computer resources. Also, new versions of Power BI often do not "communicate" with new Apple processors, just as Power BI will not currently work on Apple computers with the new M1 processors. True, Tableau does not work with these processors yet.
Requires a lot of computer resources and takes a long time to process large data:
Power BI Desktop is much more sensitive to your computer's RAM than its closest competitors. The minimum requirements require 4GB of RAM, but depending on the processor with that amount of memory, the Power BI tool will be virtually unavailable due to very slow speeds. Microsoft pays close attention to this issue and even has a separate Performance Analyzer feature that lets you evaluate which formulas or features are taking the longest to load. However, all this only highlights the problem. It could be said that the Power BI tool is built a little for the future, i. when everyone upgrades computers with ≥i5 processors (at least report creators). Power BI performs well up to approximately 3-10 million compared to its competitors. lines, and when the number of lines is higher, Power BI speeds start to lag far behind their nearest competitors.
No real-time automatic data update:
One of the biggest drawbacks of the Power BI Service when using or monitoring interactive reports is that automatic data updates are available up to 48 times a day or otherwise only every 30 minutes. So if you want to monitor data changes more often than every 30 minutes, Power BI can become a serious hurdle. With the Power BI Premium package, the data update can be justified for up to 2 seconds, but there are additional restrictions and the need to use the DirectQuery data import mode. You can update the True Manual Ways report indefinitely in a Power BI Service environment. If you want real-time reporting and stay with Microsoft tools, choose the Microsoft SQL Server Report Services (SSRS) analytics solution.
Inconvenient paper printing:
The Power BI tool is designed to compete minimally with another Microsoft tool, SQL Server Report Services (SSRS), which is much older in the market and has a significant user base. It is the latter Microsoft tool for creating paper reports. Power BI, meanwhile, is more for electronic interactive reports that can only be printed as an image in PDF or Power Point formats.
Additional reservations for the free version:
Microsoft is increasingly limiting the functionality of the free version as it improves Power BI. As before, in the previous version of Power BI Desktop, visuals created by other users were available for free, and since a certain version of Power BI, this functionality has been restricted to users with Microsoft 365 Business licenses. Microsoft’s evolving licensing policy is so far gaining tremendous momentum, which isn’t always to the benefit of the rogue.
Intuitive user interface:
The Tableau tool is known for its simplicity and intuitive user interface, so users can start using it without any previous experience. Elemental visualizations can be created at the touch of a button and with simple drag-and-drop functionality. This tool will put the right settings and graphics for you in incredibly bright and professionally balanced colors. The user interface is not overloaded, where the necessary tools are conveniently placed.
Processes large amounts of data quickly:
The Tableau tool uses Hyper Memory Data Module technology, which is specifically optimized for fast data retrieval and analytical query processing. This technology works great with large and complex data packets. Included in Tableau version 10.5, Hyper can break down huge amounts of data in seconds. This technology speeds up queries by up to 5 times and increases data scan speeds by up to 3 times. 2010 Hyper was launched as an academic research project at the Technical University of Munich. Tableau acquired this technology in 2016. and it is currently the fundamental foundation of Tableau technology.
Exclusive design visualizations:
Even an inexperienced user can create exclusive design visualizations on the Tableau platform. A feature that makes this task especially easier is Show Me. By dragging or double-clicking on the desired dimensions and formulas, the user can use the Show Me feature to see recommended charts that they can create by simply clicking on the chart types.
With this feature, some charts will be highlighted and some will appear more faded. Highlighted charts are the ones you can use. This is determined by the dimensions, formulas, data samples, etc. that you put into your image. When you hover over each view type, the description below shows the minimum requirements.
Large selection of data sources:
Tableau can connect to all popular data sources that are widely used. The native connections of this tool can connect directly to: file systems such as CSV, Excel, JSON, etc .; relational systems such as Oracle, SQL Server, DB2, etc .; cloud systems such as Windows Azure, Google BigQuery, etc .; other sources that use the ODBC connection.
The Tableau system uses two types of connections to data sources, Live and Extract. Both types of connectors have their place. For example, a hospital that monitors incoming patient data has to make decisions in real time. In such situations, a direct connection to the Live database is required. However, there may be visualizations in the same hospital that monitor daily or weekly trends. For such analysis, the use of an Extract-type connection to the data source helps to process the data faster. It should be noted that a connection to a live database does not imply a live display of the data.
Large community and detailed technical specification:
Founded in 2003, Tableau has grown into one of the largest communities in the world, with a fast approaching 50,000 users. This community is active and friendly, which helps with problems, actively participates in forum discussions, answers questions.
This tool also features a very detailed technical specification where you can find answers to almost any question you may have directly from the program developers. The technical documentation contains a wealth of tips not only on how to use the system, but also on how to create aesthetic and user-friendly reports.
High price:
The price of a Tableau tool for continuous use is much higher compared to its nearest competitors. The trial version of this program is free for 14 days, but after the trial period, the tool is no longer available for free. To continue using this tool, both report creators must pay $ 70 / month and their users must pay $ 15 / month. In the standard price list, this program is quite expensive for a novice user, who will have to pay at least $ 70 / month to use this program. Also, standard Tableau pricing is unfavorable for large organizations, which will have to pay for each report creator and user. It should also be noted that the cheapest Viewer license includes surprisingly few rights, so the minimum price for at least managing report sharing is up to $ 45 / month.
You need to organize your data before submitting it to the program:
It is important to know that the Tableau tool is not intended for data processing, so you will need to process the data in a different environment before submitting it to this system. This can become a serious hurdle when using data sources that do not have a rigorous data structure. In data analytics, data processing sometimes takes up to 70% of the total analysis time, so having to work with another tool most of the time can be very frustrating.
Cannot use multiple tables for a single report:
This is a well-known problem for both savvy users and Tableau itself. This problem is solved, but it is not yet possible to use multiple data source tables for a single report window, which may require the use of a function called blending, which involves combining data from different sources. Using this feature, the data is merged with the data from the secondary data source and displayed along with the data from the primary data source in the visualization. This is different from joining data, which involves matching related data from common fields.
It's hard to paste a report into another program:
Although Tableau has the ability to embed reports in other applications, it is much more difficult than it may seem at first glance. The biggest challenges in this regard are security issues, i.e. how to protect reports from prying eyes, especially when reports are placed on WEB pages. The modern solution to such problems is double user authentication, but the Tableau platform does not yet have a user-friendly and user-friendly interface to solve these problems.
Limited selection of visualizations:
Tableau is a great tool for standard, system-integrated graphics, but it can become very challenging to stand out from the crowd. Unlike some competitors, Tableau does not allow users to create their own visuals and share them with other users. In this way, the tool restricts users to using only visuals created by Tableau developers or certified partners in their reports.
