Limitations of Business

Intelligence (BI)
1. The limited scope of data analysis:

One of the main limitations of BI is its limited scope of data analysis. BI

tools are designed to work with structured data, which means data that is
well-defined, organized, and easy to analyse. However, in today's
business environment, data comes in various forms and formats,
including unstructured data like social media posts, images, and videos.

To address this limitation, organizations need to invest in advanced

analytics tools that can process unstructured data. These tools can help
organizations gain insights from data sources that are not traditionally
used in BI. Organizations can also consider investing in data preparation
and cleaning tools that can help them clean and prepare their data for
analysis.

2. Inability to handle real-time data:

Another limitation of BI is its inability to handle real-time data. Most BI

tools rely on batch processing, which means data is processed in
batches and not in real time. This can be a problem for organizations that
need to make decisions quickly based on real-time data.

To address this limitation, organizations can invest in real-time data

analytics tools that can process and analyse data in real time. These
tools can help organizations make decisions quickly based on real-time
data. They can also help organizations monitor their operations and
 detect problems in real time.

3. Dependence on IT staff:

BI tools require a significant amount of technical expertise to set up and

maintain. This means that organizations often need to rely on their IT
staff to implement and maintain BI solutions. This can be a problem for
organizations that do not have a large IT department or do not have IT
staff with the necessary skills.

To address this limitation, organizations can consider investing in self-

service BI tools that do not require significant technical expertise. These
tools are designed to be used by business users without the need for
technical expertise. They allow business users to analyse data and
generate reports on their own, without having to rely on IT staff.

4. Lack of context and interpretation:

BI tools are designed to provide insights based on data analysis.

However, they often lack context and interpretation. This means that
users may not be able to understand the insights provided by BI tools
without additional context.

To address this limitation, organizations can invest in data visualization

tools that can help provide additional context to the data. These tools can
help users understand the insights provided by BI tools by providing
visual representations of the data. They can also help users identify
 trends and patterns in the data that may not be immediately apparent.

5. Risk of data overload:

Another limitation of BI is the risk of data overload. BI tools can provide

users with a large amount of data, which can be overwhelming and
difficult to manage. This can lead to users being unable to identify
important insights and making poor decisions based on incomplete
information.

To address this limitation, organizations can invest in data management

tools that can help them manage their data effectively. These tools can
help organizations identify and prioritize important data, as well as
provide users with the necessary context to understand the data.

6. Limited ability to predict the future:

While BI tools are excellent at analysing historical data, they have limited
ability to predict the future. This means that they may not be able to
provide insights into future trends or identify potential problems before
they occur.

To address this limitation, organizations can invest in predictive analytics

tools that can help them identify potential problems before they occur.
These tools use statistical algorithms and machine learning to analyse
historical data and make predictions about future trends. This can help
organizations make proactive decisions and prevent problems before
 they occur.

7. Limited ability to capture qualitative data:

BI tools are primarily designed to work with quantitative data, which

means data that can be measured and quantified. However, qualitative
data, such as customer feedback, can also provide valuable insights for
organizations.

To address this limitation, organizations can invest in tools that can

capture and analyse qualitative data. These tools can help organizations
gain insights into customer preferences, opinions, and behaviours. They
can also help organizations identify potential problems and areas for
improvement.

8. Lack of data governance:

BI tools can generate a large amount of data, which can be difficult to

manage and secure. Without proper data governance, organizations may
be at risk of data breaches and other security threats.

9. Cost of implementation and maintenance:

BI tools can be expensive to implement and maintain. Organizations may

need to invest in hardware, software, and technical expertise to set up
and maintain BI solutions.

To address this limitation, organizations can consider cloud-based BI

 solutions that can reduce the cost of implementation and maintenance.
Cloud-based solutions can also provide greater flexibility and scalability,
allowing organizations to expand their BI solutions as needed.

10. Human bias:

BI tools are designed to be objective and unbiased, but they can still be
influenced by human bias. This can be a problem for organizations that
rely on BI to make decisions. To address this limitation, organizations
need to be aware of the potential for bias in their BI solutions. They
should also invest in tools and processes that can help mitigate bias,
such as automated decision-making and diverse data sources.

Moreover, it's essential to note that the limitations of BI can vary from
one organization to another based on their data requirements,
organizational structure, and IT infrastructure. Therefore, organizations
must evaluate their BI tools regularly to identify any limitations and
develop strategies to overcome them.

different components of BI architecture

A solid business intelligence architecture consists of different layers and
components. These components should run in sync with the processes of the
intelligent organization:

1. Registering data in internal systems, databases, or with sensors.

2. Collecting data, cleansing it, combining it, and aggregating it in a data
warehouse or a data lake.
3. Analyzing using Business Intelligence tools and analytical models.
4. Distribution of insights, reports, dashboards, and analyses using
portals and mobile BI.
 5. Reaction by the organization’s directors: the decision-making process.

Architecture of Business Intelligence

The 7 basic principles of a proper Business Intelligence

architecture
The basic principles relate to the following aspects:

1. Symmetry: the architecture reflects the business processes. This

principle helps in creating an overall picture of the business processes
and a single source of the truth. It also ensures that the Business
Intelligence system seamlessly attunes with both the information needs
and the challenges of the business operations.
2. Granularity: data are submitted as detailed as possible and display
the exact same granularity as the data in the source system(s). This
principle increases the testability and verifiability of data and information
in reports. It also allows for detailed reports because no information is
lost. Information will be lost if concentrated rather than detailed data are
submitted (at a higher level).
3. Synchronisation: the refresh rate of data in both the data
warehouse and reports should coincide with the regularity and
frequency of events in the relevant business processes. This prevents
the organization from missing out on important events.
 4. Maintainability and scalability: the calculations, the intelligence and
the logic behind KPI’s, measured values and dimensions are preferably
recorded in one and the same place – thus also on one single platform.
This greatly improves maintainability and scalability.
5. Hiding complexity for end users: end users should be able to
directly select indicators and dimensions for use in reports or interactive
analysis. This makes quick and easy reporting possible and it protects
the organization from a situation in which each employee needs to (or
can) assemble his own indicators.
6. Flexibility: when we fill the Business Intelligence system, we usually
include relevant surrounding and adjacent data from the source
systems so that users can create as many meaningful combinations of
indicators and dimensions as possible. This increases both the power
and possibilities of the analysis function within the organization.
7. Not depending on tools: an architect constructing a building needs to
take into account which materials are available. Nonetheless, an
architecture should where possible be separate (independent) from the
tools used – or to be used (e.g. ETL and Business Intelligence tools).

ETL Process
• ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) is a
process of extracting data from different
data sources; manipulating them according
to business calculations; loading the
modified data into a different data
warehouse.
• ETL function lies at the core of Business
Intelligence Systems.
• With ETL, enterprises can obtain
historical, current, and predictive views of
real business data.
Importance of ETL in Business Intelligence
https://www.mantralabsglobal.com/blog/etl-in-
business-intelligence/
How ETL Works?
https://www.mantralabsglobal.com/blog/etl-in-
business-intelligence/
ETL Business Applications
https://www.mantralabsglobal.com/blog/etl-in-
business-intelligence/

What is ETL?
ETL, which stands for extract, transform and load, is a data integration process that
combines data from multiple data sources into a single, consistent data store that is
loaded into a data warehouse or other target system.
As the databases grew in popularity in the 1970s, ETL was introduced as a process
for integrating and loading data for computation and analysis, eventually becoming
the primary method to process data for data warehousing projects.
ETL provides the foundation for data analytics and machine learning workstreams.
Through a series of business rules, ETL cleanses and organizes data in a way which
addresses specific business intelligence needs, like monthly reporting, but it can also
tackle more advanced analytics, which can improve back-end processes or end
user experiences. ETL is often used by an organization to:
Extract data from legacy systems
Cleanse the data to improve data quality and establish consistency
Load data into a target database
What is ETL?
ETL, which stands for extract, transform and load, is a data integration process that
combines data from multiple data sources into a single, consistent data store that is
loaded into a data warehouse or other target system.
As the databases grew in popularity in the 1970s, ETL was introduced as a process
for integrating and loading data for computation and analysis, eventually becoming
the primary method to process data for data warehousing projects.
ETL provides the foundation for data analytics and machine learning workstreams.
Through a series of business rules, ETL cleanses and organizes data in a way which
addresses specific business intelligence needs, like monthly reporting, but it can also
tackle more advanced analytics, which can improve back-end processes or end
user experiences. ETL is often used by an organization to:
Extract data from legacy systems
Cleanse the data to improve data quality and establish consistency
Load data into a target database
Learn more

Watch how to build and run an ETL job

6:40 - This link plays a video

Read the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools report

Read the IBM DataStage brief (169 KB)

- This link downloads a pdf
ETL vs ELT

The most obvious difference between ETL and ELT is the difference in order of
operations. ELT copies or exports the data from the source locations, but instead of
loading it to a staging area for transformation, it loads the raw data directly to the
target data store to be transformed as needed.
While both processes leverage a variety of data repositories, such as databases,
data warehouses, and data lakes, each process has its advantages and
disadvantages. ELT is particularly useful for high-volume, unstructured datasets as
loading can occur directly from the source. ELT can be more ideal for big data
management since it doesn’t need much upfront planning for data extraction and
storage. The ETL process, on the other hand, requires more definition at the onset.
Specific data points need to be identified for extraction along with any potential
“keys” to integrate across disparate source systems. Even after that work is
completed, the business rules for data transformations need to be constructed. This
work can usually have dependencies on the data requirements for a given type of
data analysis, which will determine the level of summarization that the data needs to
have. While ELT has become increasingly more popular with the adoption of cloud
databases, it has its own disadvantages for being the newer process, meaning that
best practices are still being established.
How ETL works

The easiest way to understand how ETL works is to understand what happens in
each step of the process.
Extract
During data extraction, raw data is copied or exported from source locations to a
staging area. Data management teams can extract data from a variety of data
sources, which can be structured or unstructured. Those sources include but are not
limited to:
SQL or NoSQL servers
CRM and ERP systems
Flat files
Email
Web pages
Transform
In the staging area, the raw data undergoes data processing. Here, the data is
transformed and consolidated for its intended analytical use case. This phase can
involve the following tasks:
Filtering, cleansing, de-duplicating, validating, and authenticating the data.
Performing calculations, translations, or summarizations based on the raw data. This
can include changing row and column headers for consistency, converting
currencies or other units of measurement, editing text strings, and more.
Conducting audits to ensure data quality and compliance
Removing, encrypting, or protecting data governed by industry or governmental
regulators
Formatting the data into tables or joined tables to match the schema of the target data
warehouse.
Load
In this last step, the transformed data is moved from the staging area into a target
data warehouse. Typically, this involves an initial loading of all data, followed by
periodic loading of incremental data changes and, less often, full refreshes to erase
and replace data in the warehouse. For most organizations that use ETL, the
process is automated, well-defined, continuous and batch-driven. Typically, ETL
takes place during off-hours when traffic on the source systems and the data
warehouse is at its lowest.
The benefits and challenges of ETL
ETL solutions improve quality by performing data cleansing prior to loading the data
to a different repository. A time-consuming batch operation, ETL is recommended
more often for creating smaller target data repositories that require less frequent
updating, while other data integration methods—including ELT (extract, load,
transform), change data capture (CDC), and data virtualization—are used to
integrate increasingly larger volumes of data that changes or real-time data streams.
ETL tools
In the past, organizations wrote their own ETL code. There are now many open
source and commercial ETL tools and cloud services to choose from. Typical
capabilities of these products include the following:
Comprehensive automation and ease of use: Leading ETL tools automate
the entire data flow, from data sources to the target data warehouse. Many
tools recommend rules for extracting, transforming and loading the data.
A visual, drag-and-drop interface: This functionality can be used for
specifying rules and data flows.
Support for complex data management: This includes assistance with
complex calculations, data integrations, and string manipulations.
Security and compliance: The best ETL tools encrypt data both in motion and
at rest and are certified compliant with industry or government regulations, like
HIPAA and GDPR.

What is OLTP?
OLTP (online transactional processing) enables the rapid, accurate data
processing behind ATMs and online banking, cash registers and ecommerce,
and scores of other services we interact with each day.
OLTP, or online transactional processing, enables the real-time execution of
 OLTP, or online transactional processing, enables the real-time execution of
large numbers of database transactions by large numbers of people, typically
over the internet.
A database transaction is a change, insertion, deletion, or query of data in a
database. OLTP systems (and the database transactions they enable) drive
many of the financial transactions we make every day, including online
banking and ATM transactions, e-commerce and in-store purchases, and
hotel and airline bookings, to name a very few. In each of these cases, the
database transaction also remains as a record of the corresponding financial
transaction. OLTP can also drive non-financial database exchanges, including
password changes and text messages.
In OLTP, the common, defining characteristic of any database transaction is
its atomicity (or indivisibility)—a transaction either succeeds as a whole or
fails (or is canceled). It cannot remain in a pending or intermediate state.

Characteristics of OLTP systems

In general, OLTP systems do the following:
Process a large number of relatively simple transactions: Usually
insertions, updates, and deletions to data, as well as simple data queries (for
example, a balance check at an ATM).
Enable multi-user access to the same data, while ensuring data
integrity: OLTP systems rely on concurrency algorithms to ensure that no
two users can change the same data at the same time and that all
transactions are carried out in the proper order. This prevents people from
using online reservation systems from double-booking the same room and
protects holders of jointly held bank accounts from accidental overdrafts.
Emphasize very rapid processing, with response times measured in
milliseconds: The effectiveness of an OLTP system is measured by the total
number of transactions that can be carried out per second.
Provide indexed data sets: These are used for rapid searching, retrieval, and
querying.
Are available 24/7/365: Again, OLTP systems process huge numbers of
concurrent transactions, so any data loss or downtime can have significant
and costly repercussions. A complete data backup must be available for any
moment in time. OLTP systems require frequent regular backups and
constant incremental backups.

Examples of OLTP systems

Since the inception of the internet and the e-commerce era, OLTP systems have
grown ubiquitous. They’re found in nearly every industry or vertical market and in
many consumer-facing systems. Everyday examples of OLTP systems include the
following:
ATM machines (this is the classic, most often-cited example) and online
banking applications
Credit card payment processing (both online and in-store)
Order entry (retail and back-office)
Online bookings (ticketing, reservation systems, etc.)
Record keeping (including health records, inventory control, production
scheduling, claims processing, customer service ticketing, and many other
applications)

What is OLAP?
OLAP (for online analytical processing) is software for performing multidimensional
analysis at high speeds on large volumes of data from a data warehouse, data mart,
or some other unified, centralized data store.
Most business data have multiple dimensions—multiple categories into which the
data are broken down for presentation, tracking, or analysis. For example, sales
figures might have several dimensions related to location (region, country,
state/province, store), time (year, month, week, day), product (clothing,
men/women/children, brand, type), and more.
But in a data warehouse, data sets are stored in tables, each of which can organize
data into just two of these dimensions at a time. OLAP extracts data from multiple
relational data sets and reorganizes it into a multidimensional format that enables
very fast processing and very insightful analysis.

Benefits of business analytics

Business analytics benefits impact every corner of your organization. When data across
departments consolidates into a single source, it syncs up everyone in the end-to-end
process. This ensures there are no gaps in data or communication, thus unlocking benefits
such as:

Data-driven decisions: With business analytics, hard decisions become smarter—and by

smart, that means that they are backed up by data. Quantifying root causes and clearly
identifying trends creates a smarter way to look at the future of an organization, whether it be
HR budgets, marketing campaigns, manufacturing and supply chain needs, or sales
outreach programs.
Easy visualization: Business analytics software can take unwieldy amounts of data and
turn it into simple-yet-effective visualizations. This accomplishes two things. First, it makes
insights much more accessible for business users with just a few clicks. Second, by putting
data in a visual format, new ideas can be uncovered simply by viewing the data in a different
format.
Modeling the what-if scenario: Predictive analytics creates models for users to look for
trends and patterns that will affect future outcomes. This previously was the domain of
experienced data scientists, but with business analytics software powered by machine
learning, these models can be generated within the platform. That gives business users the
ability to quickly tweak the model by creating what-if scenarios with slightly different
variables without any need to create sophisticated algorithms.
Go augmented: All of the points above consider the ways that business data analytics
expedite user-driven insights. But when business analytics software is powered by machine
learning and artificial intelligence, the power of augmented analytics is unlocked. Augmented
analytics uses the ability to self-learn, adapt, and process bulk quantities of data to automate
processes and generate insights without human bias.

What is traditional BI?

Traditional BI is the “old-school way” of implementing data analytics tools. It typically
requires a complex IT environment, space for data warehousing, and near-constant
involvement from IT staff.
The important thing to note here is that “old-school” doesn’t mean “outdated” or
“inferior.” It just denotes how large companies have implemented data analytics tools
since BI was introduced to the business world.

The evolution of traditional BI

The first comprehensive BI systems were developed by IBM and Siebel Systems (acquired
by Oracle in 2006) between 1970 and 1990. The initial versions were data warehouses that
served as central repositories of integrated data from one or more different sources.
These data warehouses were technically complex and required extensive IT staff to maintain
and manage. They needed staff specialized in BI to extract insights out of data and create
analytical reports for separate departments and business functions. In other words, owning
and operating BI was a costly affair sustainable for resource-rich businesses solely.

With time, BI vendors started developing tools that were not as cost-intensive or technically
complicated—and the dashboard emerged. Dashboards still depended on IT staff to get the
data in place, but they made BI somewhat accessible for users to generate reports and run
queries themselves.
Big tech companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and SAS were the vanguards of
this BI era and dominated the “leaders” space in Gartner’s 2010 Magic Quadrant for BI
Platforms (full document available to Gartner clients only).
What is self-service BI?
Self-service BI is the approach of implementing data analytics that enables users to access
and use data without statistical, analytical, or data handling expertise.

This approach depends on BI tools that allow users to filter, sort, analyse, and visualize data
to extract insights without the dependence on developers or data or IT specialists.

The idea is simple—grant users direct access to intelligence and help them slice and dice
data as per the need.
 Business Intelligence Tools

1. Microsoft Power BI
Power BI is a powerful BI tool that offers both a desktop application (which is free)
and a cloud-based platform for sharing reports and dashboards. Power BI is a full-
featured tool with the ability to transform and visualize your data, along with some
impressive predictive modeling and AI-based features that make this tool a true
leader in the BI market.
Power BI is particularly ideal for beginners who are familiar with Microsoft products,
providing a seamless transition into the world of BI. Get up to speed quickly with
this Introduction to Power BI course by DataCamp. If you wish to take your Power BI
skills to the next level, consider taking the Power BI Fundamentals skill track.
Power BI has two pricing options: a Pro subscription paid per user or a Premium
plan per user or per capacity if you require access to advanced enterprise-scale
features.
Key features:
Data connectors and integrations for a wide range of data sources.
User-friendly interface with a drag-and-drop report builder and powerful data
visualization capabilities.
Natural language query for data exploration.
Web-based nature - Power BI reports can be published to the web and easily
shared with others. In addition, reports can even be designed directly from
Power BI Service on the web with direct integration with some applications.
Power BI also can integrate with Python, bringing the power of data science directly
into your Power BI reports.

2. Tableau
Tableau is another leading BI tool with a strong emphasis on usability, particularly for
non-technical users. Tableau can integrate with dozens of applications easily
through the use of their pre-built data connectors, along with advanced data
discovery and visualization capabilities.
However, a unique aspect of Tabelau is their Tableau Public offering, which is freely
available to anyone, from complete beginners to seasoned experts, to learn more
about Tableau and improve their analytical and BI skills. The Introduction to
Tableau course by DataCamp is a great place to start learning about Tableau. If you
want a more in-depth walkthrough of Tableau, then the Tableau Fundamentals skill
track is an excellent place to start.
Tableau has a subscription-based pricing structure split into three levels, making it
an affordable option even for small teams.
Key features:
Wide range of data connectors for almost every kind of data source.
Interactive, dynamic dashboards that users can either develop and automate or
throw together quick ad-hoc analyses of their data.
Real-time data integration that allows users to visualize and analyze live data.

3. Looker Studio (Formerly Google Data Studio)

Looker Studio is a free tool (with the option to upgrade to the Looker Studio Pro plan)
for creating customized, interactive reports and dashboards that integrate with
various data sources.
With a focus on simplicity and speed, Looker Studio allows even complete beginners
to harness the power of Google’s ecosystem to create data visualizations and
reports, making data accessible and understandable.
Key features:
Direct integration with Google Analytics, Google Sheets, and other Google
services.
Drag-and-drop report builder with real-time collaboration.
Easy sharing and embedding of reports.

4. Domo
Domo is an entirely cloud-based BI platform offering easy-to-use data visualization
and reporting capabilities. Domo is also particularly great for beginners thanks to its
 user-friendly and intuitive interface, pre-built connectors, and the simplest ETL
solution out of all BI tools.
Domo offers a limited free version to learn more about the tool and try it out. After
that, they offer three pricing tiers depending on your requirements. Domo has based
its pricing structure on credits rather than users. You can have an unlimited number
of users but will need to purchase more credits if your usage causes them to run out.
Key features:
Over 1,000 pre-built connectors for various data sources.
Magic ETL makes data transformation and cleaning a breeze even without
extensive technical expertise.
Advanced embedded analytics with the goal of having “Domo Everywhere.”

5. Zoho Analytics
Zoho Analytics is a user-friendly BI tool that is highly affordable, making it especially
attractive for small businesses and beginners. However, Zoho Analytics does not
compromise on functionality to keep costs low. You can expect many of the same
impressive data preparation and visualization features as the other BI tools on this
list.
Zoho Analytics offers four pricing tiers depending on the number of users you have
and the volume of data you want to import into the platform. If your organization has
large volumes of data or many users, Zoho Analytics can provide a more tailored
plan to you with the option for dedicated servers.
Key features:
Zoho DataPrep offers self-service data preparation and management.
Pre-built dashboards and widgets.
Integration with over 250 data sources and direct connection to more than 50
popular data apps.
‘Ask Zia’ is their natural language query feature that lets users ask questions
about their data in plain English and receive visualized answers.

6. Sisense
Sisense is known for its powerful and incredibly fast data analysis capabilities due to
its unique data architecture that combines data preparation, data modeling, and data
visualization into a single, unified platform. However, the power and sophistication of
the platform should not deter beginners, as Sisense has taken great care in
designing a no-code user experience with an excellent drag-and-drop dashboard
builder.
Sisense offers self-hosted and cloud-based pricing options tailored to your needs.
Key features:
Single-stack architecture for data preparation and analysis.
Sisense’s in-chip data engine is designed for high-speed data processing and
 can handle large datasets with ease.
An intuitive drag-and-drop dashboard builder that makes it accessible to a
broader range of users.
AI and machine-learning integration for advanced analytical capabilities.

Features of Tableau
1. Tableau Dashboard
Tableau Dashboards provide a wholesome view of your data by the means
of visualizations, visual objects, text, etc. Dashboards are very informative as
they can present data in the form of stories, enable the addition of multiple
views and objects, provide a variety of layouts and formats, enable the users
to deploy suitable filters. You even have the option to copy a dashboard or its
specific elements from one workbook to another easily.
2. Collaboration and Sharing
Tableau provides convenient options to collaborate with other users and
instantly share data in the form of visualizations, sheets, dashboards, etc. in
real-time. It allows you to securely share data from various data sources
such as on-premise, on-cloud, hybrid, etc. Instant and easy collaboration and
data sharing help in getting quick reviews or feedback on the data leading to a
better overall analysis of it.
3. Live and In-memory Data
Tableau ensures connectivity to both live data sources or data extraction
from external data sources as in-memory data. This gives the user the
flexibility to use data from more than one type of data source without any
restrictions. You can use data directly from the data source by establishing
live data connections or keep that data in-memory by extracting data from a
data source as per their requirement. Tableau provides additional features to
support data connectivity such as automatic extract refreshes, notifying the
user upon a live connection fail, etc.
4. Data Sources in Tableau
Tableau offers a myriad of data source options you can connect to and fetch
data from. Data sources ranging from on-premise files, spreadsheets,
relational databases, non-relational databases, data warehouses, big data, to
on-cloud data are all available on Tableau. One can easily establish a
secure connection to any of the data sources from Tableau and use that
data along with data from other sources to create a combinatorial view of data
in the form of visualizations. Tableau also supports different kinds of data
connectors such as Presto, MemSQL, Google Analytics, Google Sheets,
Cloudera, Hadoop, Amazon Athena, Salesforce, SQL Server, Dropbox and
many more.
5. Advanced Visualizations (Chart Types)
One of the key features of Tableau and the one that got its popularity is its
wide range of visualizations. In Tableau, you can make visualizations as basic
as a:
 Bar chart
Pie chart
and as advanced as a:
Histogram
Gantt chart
Bullet chart
Motion chart
Treemap
Boxplot
and many more. You can select and create any kind of visualization easily
by selecting the visualization type from the Show Me tab.
6. Maps
Yet another important feature of Tableau is the map. Tableau has a lot of pre-
installed information on maps such as cities, postal codes, administrative
boundaries, etc. This makes the maps created on Tableau very detailed and
informative. You can add different layers of geology on the map as per your
requirements and create informative maps in Tableau with your data. The
different kinds of maps available in Tableau are Heat map, Flow map,
Choropleth maps, Point distribution map, etc.
7. Robust Security
Tableau takes special care of data and user security. It has a fool-proof
security system based on authentication and permission systems for data
connections and user access. Tableau also gives you the freedom to integrate
with other security protocols such as Active Directory, Kerberos, etc. An
important point to note here is that Tableau practices row-level filtering which
helps in keeping the data secure.
8. Mobile View
Tableau acknowledges the importance of mobile phones in today’s world and
provides a mobile version of the Tableau app. One can create their
dashboards and reports in such a manner that it is also compatible with
mobile. Tableau has the option of creating customized mobile layouts for
your dashboard specific to your mobile device. The customization option gives
the option for adding new phone layouts, interactive offline previews, etc.
Hence, the mobile view gives Tableau users a lot of flexibility and
convenience in handling their data on the go.
9. Ask Data
The Ask data feature of Tableau makes it even more favored by the users
globally. This feature makes playing with data just a matter of simple searches
as we do on Google. You just need to type a query about your data in natural
language and Tableau will present you with the most relevant answers. The
answers are not only in the form of text but also as visuals. For instance, if
what you searched for is already present in a bar graph, the Ask data option
will search and open the bar graph for you instantly. Such features make data
more accessible to users who can easily dig deep into data and find new
insights and patterns.
10. Trend Lines and Predictive Analysis
Another extremely useful feature of Tableau is the use of time series and
forecasting. Easy creation of trend lines and forecasting is possible due to
Tableau’s powerful backend and dynamic front end. You can easily get data
predictions such as a forecast or a trend line by simply selecting some
options and drag-and-drop operations using your concerned fields.