Tableau’s mission is “To help people see and understand data”. Exactly – it starts with “helping people” – that is, who? Tableau’s founders themselves admit that in the beginning they meant analysts working with data, then as the tool evolved – also managers, now – simply any people who get access to a specific set of data (Embedded Analytics).
Tableau Public, a Tableau Embedded Analytics
There are applications of Tableau where the tool can be (and for free!) truly accessible to anyone. It’s Tableau Public, of course – we don’t even realize how many infographics and various data visualizations we see in newspapers and websites (from www.BigQData.pl, www.Gazeta.pl,to the esteemed www.faz.de , or www.ft.com ) are Tableau dashboards embedded (i.e. “emedded”) there. Tableau Public is a non-commercial tool, used to share data and its interactive visualizations with the world. Doesn’t get in the way of commercial projects based on Tableau Public. There are no access controls, permissions, etc. There is also no SLA. It’s really PUBLIC.
Tableau Embedded dashboard- business applications
There are a great many respectable companies and institutions publishing various types of reports in the form of several hundred page pdf documents downloadable from their websites. Why not enhance them with interactive analysis capabilities? This is exactly what Bank Pekao S.A. did with its Report on the State of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Poland, published annually since 2010. It used to be about 400 pages in a pdf, read by about 400 people in a year. we compiled 10 recent reports into 10 interactive dashboards, showing how metrics change over time, space, and many other cross sections, and using Tableau Public embedded them on the Bank’s website. The report is availableat https://www.pekao.com.pl/raport-msp/wyniki-badan- report.html#vizl551714477717 and its reach has increased more than 20 times (over 10,000 people view it annually).
This experience has been used by the Office of Electronic Communications, which annually publishes a report on the condition of the postal and telecommunications market in Poland. It’s a public document, available to everyone, so using Tableau Public makes perfect sense.
Tableau Server Embedded – access to a specific data set
Our employees are usually the people who get access to a particular set of data. A great solution for them is Tableau Server with the ability to automate data refreshes, control permissions, analyze user logins and behaviors, control the performance of the entire solution, etc.
Business partners – suppliers, distributors, dgents, franchisees, customers – are also the people with whom we would like to exchange data. Of course, we don’t want to let them into our corporate network, we don’t want to give them a VPN, etc.
So we can set up a second instance of Tableau Server (called Tableau Server Embedded), place it in a so-called DMZ (demilitarized zone), or in the “cloud” (many clients use Tableau Online for this purpose), publish only the content we want to put there. And dashboards published in the Embedded instance can be embedded into web pages, applications, etc. They can become “part of a larger whole” – such as our Supplier Portal.
Sharing data with Tableau Embedded
Based on this simple ability to share data, entirely new capabilities, entirely new services and business models can emerge – such as:
- Being able to view the inventory of our products with distributors and giving them the ability to view our stock provides incredible opportunities for logistical and marketing optimization.
- Automating the process of answering the supplier’s question “Can I already issue an invoice?” combined with the ability to verify the timeliness and completeness of deliveries (“OnTime &InFull”) is of paramount importance in harmonizing the supply chain and optimizing inventory.
-The possibility of monetizing data by launching a service of access to, for example, sales statistics of products of a given supplier in a chain of stores, trends, shares in categories and geographical markets, shopping cart analyses, etc. gives an opportunity to build a brand new, very profitable service based on a (until recently completely “invisible”) asset, which is our archived data.
- Possibility of monitoring quality and efficiency of the dealer network by providing dashboards analyzing sales, CRM and logistic data to our dealers and their coordinators gives an incredible improvement of work, communication, settlements, and above all – the possibility of disseminating good practices, using benchmarks, etc.
Embedded Analytics application benefits.
These are just a few examples of what Embedded Analytics can give us. Applications of this approach can be plentiful – over the past year a great many Companies have been undergoing accelerated digital transformation. Such communication tools that facilitate fast and secure data analysis are even an essential part of such a project. We talk about them with almost every customer these days – and just a year ago it was treated more like a curiosity….
The Embedded Analytics thread is worth a look – it may look a little different in every Company and Organization. We are happy to help, inspire, discuss, show examples.
Witold Kilijański
Partner | CEO
NDLS sp. z o.o.
