Tableau is a software product that provides top end analytics and reporting on data from a number of sources both in-house and in the public domain.

It is available as both an in-house or self-hosted package or as an online cloud based service known as Tableau Online.

For the purposes of this mini Tableau review we have concentrated on the cloud based product.

Now, there is no shortage of Reporting, Analytics and Dashboard software out there, some of it costing a lot more than others and some of it being clearly a step ahead of the run of the mill. Tableau is, I suspect, one of those that goes the extra mile and is well worth a look if you need reporting at the boardroom level that can be accessed by anyone, no matter where they are by means of a mobile device or on a desktop.

Tableau Online is an analytics platform that is fully hosted in the cloud and which can be accessed from mobile devices, laptops, desktops and tablets.

With Tableau online you can invite your colleagues or customers to share your reports and dashboards and get detailed insights into your business’ marketing data and other data as well if you wish, e.g accounts, sales etc.

Tableau lets you connect to cloud based databases such as Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery and it can automatically refresh data taken from web apps including Google Analytics and CRMs like  Salesforce.

The level of analysis and reporting provided by Tableau is far superior to most of the lesser packages but it comes at a price and there is a doubt in my mind as to how many organisations really need, or would use such a powerful system. In terms of price, their plans begin at $42 per user per month and they require that you pay annually in advance. In order to let you try before you buy, there is a free trial available which you would be well advised to take before making any kind of longer term commitment.

We have not yet completed our full Tableau review – check in regularly to see it when it’s ready.

There is no doubt that this is a powerful system and, to the kind of organisations that need it the cost is probably not too much of a problem. I would suggest that you set aside a good length of time to really test it out – this is not likely to be a 5 minute quick trial. Check out all of the marketing analytics and reporting products in the Digital Marketing Directory on this link.