There are many different tools to choose from in the field of analytics. Decision makers need to know what the differences are and which tool best suits their business needs. In this article, we present the features and benefits of Tableau BI Tool and why they are the best for your business.

What Is Tableau?
Increasingly large data sets are challenging for businesses, enabling them to use analytic tools and make strategic decisions based on reliable data. One of the most popular solutions is Tableau. Here, relevant data is presented visually and presented in the form of interactive dashboards and stories.
Tableau has the particular advantage of customization options and security. User-friendly interfaces and intuitive features such as drug-and-drop make it easy to work with, even for less experienced users. In addition to Tableau Desktop, packages and licenses can be extended to include Tableau Server or Tableau Online if required. Tableau Server is particularly suited for managing mission-critical data, while Tableau Online is a cloud-based option that can be used and portable without special hardware.
What Features Does Tableau Offer?
Data Connectivity
Tableau offers a number of useful features for users. These include a high degree of data interoperability, as Tableau can access data from Google Analytics, MySQL or Excel, for example. Extensive use of data makes sense in BI and analytics environments, as more data allows for deeper insights and more reliable data.
Tableau also provides access to specific data sources that traditional connectivity is not available. Tableau also provides suggestions for future updates.
Data Integrity
Tableau provides users and administrators with a range of options to ensure data security, such as access and authentication. Data security is particularly important when highly sensitive information is being transmitted. Authentication options include SAML, Kerberos or OpenID. Depending on user rights, you can also hide certain values in Tableau.
Reports
Reports are also very important for data generation. Tableau offers automatic and ad hoc reports. There are also several options for displaying reports, such as tables, graphs or bar charts. Reports can be downloaded to a dashboard or are available in the most common file formats.
Visualizations
Real-time data visualization is important in analytics and BI to present complex problems in an understandable way. Tableau is known for being very easy to use. Users benefit from options such as data queries or filters that clearly highlight certain information. For dashboards, you can use the ready-made templates on the Home Dashboard tab or create your own dashboard.
Analysis
Tableau uses VizQL to analyze data and better understand business processes and relationships. This allows users to quickly find answers to a wide range of questions. Again, drag-and-drop functions and queries are easy to use, especially since formatting queries is simple.
Forecasts
In the analytics area, Tableau enables advanced analytics, i.e. the integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning. This makes it particularly accessible for analyses that require much more manual work. Advanced analytics can also be used to predict future process flows.

Benefits Of Using Tableau
In addition to useful features such as visualization, reporting, analytics, forecasting and privacy options, Tableau also impresses with a number of system-wide benefits such as integrated analytics, IoT analytics or the ability to use mobile devices. The later is available for Android and iOS
All dashboards and key indicators are available wherever you are. Features such as scrolling, searching and highlighting make it easy to work with prepared data.
As an added benefit, Tableau offers a 14-day free trial. This gives unsure users the opportunity to try it out for themselves and see how practical the analytics solution is for their purposes. Interested users can choose between Tableau Server and Tableau Online. Tableau Desktop comes with both options as standard. Tableau Public also offers a free unlimited trial.
Sum It Up
Tableau BI Tool offers many interesting analysis features and has an overall intuitive user interface. Tableau has become one of the top BI solutions, along with Power BI and SAP BusinessObjects. However, as the general differences between these solutions are more in the details, a pragmatic approach is recommended when choosing the right business intelligence tool.