theCUBE Live At Tableau Now14 Event

InterWorks, Inc. started doing work with Tableau Software, Inc. seven years ago and witnessed its evolution from, as its competitors used to describe it, a tool not fit for the enterprise to one that has garnered a kind of following that could rival that of Apple, Inc. In an interview for theCUBE at the Tableau Conference, InterWorks Director of Business Intelligence Dan Murray and Business Intelligence Consultant Thomas Minnick discussed their views on Tableau’s past, present and future.

According to Murray, Tableau was like a bandit tool a few years ago. Up until version six, the server product didn’t have the ability to scale massive data. He said that most of the conversations that InterWorks had were with marketing, sales and operating people who used their own data and found Tableau to be an easier way for them to do analysis. That started changing three years ago when Tableau came up with an extract engine that gave it the ability to scale. Additionally, Tableau has a good data governance model and can connect directly to or extract from a data source. “So, they’ve addressed all those issues that their competitors used to use against them. Those are no longer valid arguments,” said Murray.

Another thing that Murray believes Tableau has done brilliantly is maintain its user experience. He said that it looks near identical to the way it did when he started using it eight years ago. Although the back end has gotten to be more complex, the front end is still simple because the data is at the center of the attention.

Regarding Tableau’s recent announcement of its focus on mobile, Minnick thinks that the use cases around it differs depending on the customer. Some organizations, like banks, don’t want their data to go outside the building, so a mobile strategy wouldn’t be a good fit. However, there’s a clear opportunity for mobile with companies like Salesforce.com, Inc., where people on the field need the ability to interact with information in real-time. Essentially, Tableau’s mobile strategy suits a front-line worker doing specific tasks, rather than a CEO who’s looking at big picture trends.

In terms of Tableau’s heavy investment in R&D in the next two years, Murray considers it to be a good strategy as the company has been maintaining a difficult development pace for the past eight years. He believes that the reason why Tableau is a leader is because it’s the only software company he’s seen in the last 30 years making major product releases every 12-15 months. “I believe that Tableau is years away from cresting. I mean, it’s going to grow at this pace for a long time.” said Murray.

See the entire interview below.

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