With 53 partners and counting, Tableau Software, Inc. is in the process of constructing an ecosystem to help them integrate, innovate, and better meet customer needs. Among other undertakings, Tableau and its strategic partner MarkLogic Corp. are currently working together to deliver MarkLogic’s Bi-Temporal project, which is designed to help customers make better data-driven decisions.

MarkLogic’s Global Director of Technology Partners, Paul Lilford and MarkLogic’s VP of Product Development were both at the Tableau Conference. They sat down together with theCUBE’s Jeff Kelly to talk partner ecosystem and customer empowerment.

How Tableau selects its partner ecosystem

Lilford explained that Tableau chooses its partners by finding “where there’s gaps in the market, and supply that need.” Often, Tableau will work with several providers of the same service, so client’s aren’t locked into just one set of tech assets.

Partners, Lilford dais, also need to fit with Tableau’s customer-centric culture to better offer a continuum of service. In fact, Lilford shared that he was a former Tableau customer that came to work for the company because he was so impressed with the company culture.

Tableau partner incentives

What Tableau partners get out of the deal is a tool that enables their clients to get “the most out of their data.” Tableau is a leading name when it comes to deriving value from data.

In the emerging Big Data space, Pasqua cited that “80 percent of the world’s data is unstructured.” MarkLogic’s schema-agnostic approach is designed to provide customers with a more comprehensive view of unstructured content.

In combination with Tableau, MarkLogic’s tools provide customers with valuable functionality, like the ability to “go in from Tableau, but then enter a search term to narrow the query,” shared Pasqua. This is especially relevant to industries that collect massive amounts of data that may not always be easy to manipulate. Pasqua used the example of “doctors notes” and Lilford mentioned “the body of an email,” as opposed to subject lines. With Tableau alongside MarkLogic, Pasqua said, the enterprise is empowered to put their data in context.

Using Partners to court the enterprise

Working with enterprise-level clients is “fundamental” to Tableau’s mission, said Lilford. Because, Lilford said, “Success occurs at an implementation level,” Tableau looks to partners to provide a host of on-the-ground services that include “reselling, consulting alliance, technology, and original equipment manufacture.”

Sometimes, Lilford added, Tableau will combine services from technology partners “integration partners with database partners…social providers with data providers.” Tableau’s strategy, Lilford shared is “to triangulate,” meaning it makes sure to connect with “people who are best at what they do.”

Tableau conference brings customers together

When asked why the Data 14 Customer conference is so important to Tableau, Lilford replied that he sees it as a “celebration of customers” that empowers them at the same time.

From the partner standpoint, Pasqua shared that he’s energized by the amount of people who “are hungry to find ways of using Tableau to get more out of their data.” He sees customers “all figuring it out together,” swapping stories and being exposed to use cases “they didn’t even realize [were options].”

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