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Tableau Software

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Tableau Software, Inc.
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustrySoftware
FoundedMountain View, California, U.S. (2003)
FoundersChristian Chabot
Chris Stolte
Andrew Beers
Pat Hanrahan
SuccessorSalesforce Edit this on Wikidata
Headquarters
Seattle, Washington
,
U.S.
Key people
  • Mark Nelson (CEO)
  • Christian Chabot (Chairman)
ProductsBusiness intelligence
Data visualization
Analytics
Revenue877,000,000 United States dollar (2017) Edit this on Wikidata
5,873,000 United States dollar (2014) Edit this on Wikidata
Number of employees
4,181 (2019) Edit this on Wikidata
ParentSalesforce
Websitetableau.com

Tableau Software (/tæbˈloʊ/ tab-LOH) is an American interactive data visualization software company focused on business intelligence.[1][2] It was founded in 2003 in Mountain View, California, and is currently headquartered in Seattle, Washington.[3] In 2019 the company was acquired by Salesforce for $15.7 billion.[4] At the time, this was the largest acquisition by Salesforce (a leader in the CRM field) since its foundation.[5] It was later surpassed by Salesforce's acquisition of Slack.[6]

The company's founders, Christian Chabot, Pat Hanrahan and Chris Stolte, were researchers at the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University.[7] They specialized in visualization techniques for exploring and analyzing relational databases and data cubes,[8] and started the company as a commercial outlet for research at Stanford from 1999 to 2002.

Tableau products query relational databases, online analytical processing cubes, cloud databases, and spreadsheets to generate graph-type data visualizations. The software can also extract, store, and retrieve data from an in-memory data engine.

Software products

Tableau products include:[9][10]

  • Tableau Desktop[11]
  • Tableau Server[12]
  • Tableau Prep Builder[13] (released in 2018)
  • Tableau Vizable[14] (consumer data visualization mobile app released in 2015)
  • Tableau Public (free to use)
  • Tableau Reader (free to use)
  • Tableau Mobile[15][16]
  • Tableau Cloud[17]
  • Tableau Prep[18]
  • Tableau CRM[19]

Functionalities

2
3
4
Some visualizations created by Tableau Software.

Tableau offers drag and drop and other features such as multiple chart formats and mapping capabilities.[20][21]

Map functionalities

The software is able to plot latitude and longitude coordinates and connect to spatial files[22] like Esri Shapefiles, KML, and GeoJSON to display custom geography.[23] The built-in geo-coding allows for administrative places (country, state/province, county/district), postal codes, US Congressional Districts, US CBSA/MSA, Area Codes, Airports, and European Union statistical areas (NUTS codes) to be mapped automatically. Geographies can be grouped to create custom territories[24] or custom geocoding used to extend existing geographic roles in the product.[25]

Data sources

Tableau Software can connect to data sources such as regular text files (.txt, .csv), Microsoft Excel (.xlsx), Microsoft Access (.accdb), import from Tableau workbook (.tbm) or Tableau Table data Extract (.tds).[11]

Data Type

Tableau express automatically data types and fields. Tableau will make use of the data type that the data source has defined if it exits, or it will choose a data type if the data source does not specify one. In Tableau, the following data types are supported[26]

  • Text Value
  • Data Value
  • Data and time Value
  • Numerical Value
  • Geographic Values (Latitude and longitude used for maps)
  • Boolean Values (True / False Conditions)

History

While at Stanford, founders Hanrahan and Stolte, as well as Diane Tang, created the predecessor to Tableau, named Polaris; Polaris was a data visualization software tool, built with the support of a United States Department of Energy defense program, the Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI).[27][28] ASCI was formed to facilitate the simulation and modeling of nuclear weapons.[29]

Tableau was formally founded in January 2003 by Pat Hanrahan, Christian Chabot, and Chris Stolte, and moved its headquarters to the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, Washington, the following year.[30][31] The company has since expanded its Fremont headquarters and announced plans in 2016 for an auxiliary campus in suburban Kirkland, Washington.[32] A new headquarters building opened near Gas Works Park in Wallingford in March 2017 and was followed by a new building in Fremont that opened in 2018.[33]

In August 2016, Tableau announced the appointment of Adam Selipsky as president and CEO, effective September 16, 2016, replacing co-founder Christian Chabot as CEO.[34]

In June 2018, Tableau acquired Empirical Systems, a Cambridge, Massachusetts based artificial intelligence startup, with plans to integrate the company's technology into the Tableau platform. Tableau also announced plans to establish an office in Cambridge as a result of the deal.[35][36]

On June 10, 2019, Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in an all-stock deal worth over $15 billion.[37]

In March 2021, Tableau announced the appointment of Mark Nelson as president and CEO, replacing Adam Selipsky.[38]

Notable Tableau employees include Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Phil Carter and computer scientist and author Leland Wilkinson.[39][40]

Finances

On May 17, 2013, Tableau launched an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange,[41] raising more than $250 million.[42] Prior to its IPO, Tableau raised over $45 million in venture capital investment from investors such as the NEA and Meritech.[42]

Tableau's revenue grew significantly from 2010 through 2013, reporting $34.2 million in 2010, $62.4 million in 2011, $127.7 million in 2012, and $232.44 million in 2013.[43] Profit from 2010 to 2012 was $2.7 million, $3.4 million, and $1.6 million, respectively.[44]

Community

Tableau has a large and active community of users and developers. The community includes over 3 million users who have created over 2 million public visualizations.[45] Tableau hosts an annual visualization contest called Iron Viz, modeled after Iron Chef. The winners of the qualifier round of Iron Viz compete live on-stage at Tableau's annual conference.

The Tableau Community Forums are a great resource for getting help with Tableau, sharing tips, and collaborating on projects. The forums are divided into different categories, such as general discussion, data visualization, and development.

The Tableau Iron Viz contest is a great way to showcase your data visualization skills. The contest is open to all Tableau users, and the winners receive cash prizes and the opportunity to have their visualizations featured on the Tableau website.

The Tableau Conference is an annual event where Tableau users can learn about new features, network with other users, and attend workshops and presentations. The conference is held in a different city each year.

Wikileaks and policy changes

On December 2, 2010, Tableau deleted WikiLeaks' visualizations about the United States diplomatic cables leak, stating it was due to direct political pressure from US Senator Joe Lieberman.[46][47]

On February 21, 2011, Tableau posted an updated data policy.[48] The accompanying blog post cited the two main changes as (1) creating a formal complaint process and (2) using freedom of speech as a guiding principle.[49] In addition, the post announced the creation of an advisory board to help the company navigate future situations that "push the boundaries" of the policy.[49] Tableau likened the new policy to the model set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and opined that under the new policy, Wikileaks' visuals would not have been removed, as "the underlying data were statistics about the cables, not the cables themselves".[50]

Awards

In 2008, Tableau was named a Codie award winner for "Best Business Intelligence Solution" by the Software and Information Industry Association.[51]

The company was recognized as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for ten consecutive years between 2013 and 2022.[52]

References

  1. ^ Patrizio, Andy (October 8, 2021). "Top Data Visualization Tools". eWEEK. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  2. ^ Rhodes, Margaret. "A Dead-Simple Tool That Lets Anyone Create Interactive Maps". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved January 23, 2023.
  3. ^ Hardy, Quentin (June 13, 2014). "Tableau Software Helping Data Become More Visual". Bits Blog. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  4. ^ Levy, Nat (August 1, 2019). "Salesforce completes $15.7B acquisition of Tableau Software, creating new enterprise tech force". GeekWire. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
  5. ^ "세일즈포스, 빅데이터 분석업체 태블로 18조원에 인수". 매일경제 (in Korean). June 11, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2021.
  6. ^ "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Slack". Salesforce.com. December 1, 2020. Retrieved December 2, 2020.
  7. ^ "How To Get a 20 Million Dollar Pre-Money Valuation for Series A: Tableau Software CEO Christian Chabot (Part 3)". sramanamitra.com. One MIllion by One Million by Sramana Mitra. March 5, 2010. Retrieved April 23, 2014.
  8. ^ "Christopher R. Stolte: Ph.D. Candidate @ Stanford". stanford.edu. Graphics.stanford.edu. Retrieved November 16, 2011.
  9. ^ "Difference between products". passingbi.com. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  10. ^ "Tableau Desktop Pricing". tableau.com.
  11. ^ a b Murray, Daniel (2013). Tableau Your Data. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley. pp. 3–33. ISBN 978-1-118-61204-0.
  12. ^ Locker, Brandi (2021). Maximizing Tableau Server. Birmingham UK: Packt. ISBN 978-1-80107-113-0.
  13. ^ "Project Maestro". Tableau Software. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  14. ^ "Tableau: Business Intelligence and Analytics Software". Tableau. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  15. ^ "Tableau Mobile". App Store. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  16. ^ "Tableau Mobile – Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  17. ^ "Tableau Cloud". Tableau. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  18. ^ Allchin, Carl (August 3, 2020). Tableau Prep: Up & Running. "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". ISBN 978-1-4920-7959-0.
  19. ^ Dignan, Larry (October 6, 2020). "Tableau integrates Einstein Analytics, becomes the analytics bridge in Salesforce ecosystem". ZDNet. Retrieved October 7, 2020.
  20. ^ "Maps". Tableau. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  21. ^ "Best Dashboard Visualization Tools According to 30 Experts | Databox Blog". Databox. August 15, 2022. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  22. ^ "Create Tableau Maps from Spatial Files". onlinehelp.tableau.com. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  23. ^ "Plotting Geographic Data Using Custom Longitude and Latitude Values | Tableau Software". kb.tableau.com. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  24. ^ "Create Territories on a Map". onlinehelp.tableau.com. Retrieved December 12, 2017.
  25. ^ "Custom Geocode Your Data". Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  26. ^ Murray, Daniel G. (2016). Tableau Your Data (2nd ed.). Indianapolis, Indiana: Wiley. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-119-00119-5.
  27. ^ "Polaris: Database and Data Cube Visualization". graphics.stanford.edu. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  28. ^ Stolte, C.; Tang, D.; Hanrahan, P. (January 2002). "Polaris: a system for query, analysis, and visualization of multidimensional relational databases". IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 8 (1): 52–65. doi:10.1109/2945.981851. ISSN 1941-0506.
  29. ^ "Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Program Plan [FY2000]". January 1, 2000. doi:10.2172/768266. OSTI 768266. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  30. ^ Levy, Ari (May 16, 2013). "Seattle's Tableau raises $254M in year's biggest tech IPO". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  31. ^ Huang, Gregory T. (September 8, 2008). "Tableau Raises $10M in Second Venture Round, Wants To Be the "Adobe of Data"". xconomy.com. Xconomy.
  32. ^ Lerman, Rachel (January 13, 2016). "Tableau confirms big Kirkland expansion, plans to hire 1,000". The Seattle Times. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  33. ^ Coombs, Casey (March 23, 2018). "Tableau Software opens 110,000-square-foot Fremont building". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved April 22, 2019.
  34. ^ Lerman, Rachel (August 22, 2016). "Seattle Times". Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  35. ^ "Tableau gets AI shot in the arm with Empirical Systems acquisition – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  36. ^ "Tableau acquires MIT AI spinoff Empirical Systems, opens new R&D center in Boston area". GeekWire. June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  37. ^ "Salesforce Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Tableau". investor.salesforce.com. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  38. ^ Avidon, Erik (March 24, 2021). "Tech Target". Retrieved May 19, 2021.
  39. ^ "News". Significance. 19 (1): 2–3. 2022. doi:10.1111/1740-9713.01602. ISSN 1740-9705.
  40. ^ "Phillip E. Carter". Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  41. ^ Pisani, Bob (May 17, 2013). "Big Data's IPO: Tableau Software Is a Big One". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved May 9, 2023.
  42. ^ a b Lunden, Ingrid (May 17, 2013). "Big Data Analytics Specialist Tableau Software Raises $254M In IPO". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 29, 2014.
  43. ^ "Financial Statements for Tableau Software Inc - Google Finance". google.com/finance. Google Finance. Retrieved April 29, 2015.
  44. ^ "Forms S-1". SEC. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  45. ^ "2 million data visualization authors and counting".
  46. ^ Arthur, Charles; Halliday, Josh (December 3, 2010). "WikiLeaks cables visualisation pulled after pressure from Joe Lieberman". The Guardian. London.
  47. ^ Fink, Elissa (December 2, 2010). "Why we removed the WikiLeaks visualizations". Tableau Software.
  48. ^ "The Data is In: New Policy & Advisory Board for Tableau Public". Tableau Software. February 21, 2011. Retrieved April 7, 2015.
  49. ^ a b Fink, Elissa (February 21, 2011). "The Data is In: New Policy & Advisory Board for Tableau Public". Tableau Software.
  50. ^ Kosara, Robert (February 22, 2011). "Tableau Public's New Data Policy". EagerEyes blog. Retrieved March 13, 2013.
  51. ^ "2008 Codie award Winners" Archived 2010-02-11 at the Wayback Machine. SIIA.net.
  52. ^ "Tableau, a decade as a Leader". Tableau Software. Retrieved August 12, 2022.
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