Breaking the myth: Self–service BI with Tableau Server

We all know that self-service BI is critical these days to companies of any size. It helps business users get the information they need when they require it. The days are gone when business users would need to wait for days or even weeks for help from the IT department. With the introduction of tools like Tableau, it is possible for anyone to utilize data quickly, without IT intervention.

I have been working as a Tableau consultant for more than two years. I have found that there seems to be a misconception that companies need to invest big amounts of money in buying licenses for Tableau Desktop to utilize all the self-service BI capabilities in Tableau. This is wrong. Let's clear this misconception by introducing a feature called Web Authoring in the Tableau server environment. But before jumping to Web Authoring, let's try and understand the benchmarks of self-service BI:

Self-service BI should offer an environment where business users can create and access specific BI reports and analytics on their own. The environment should support the business users need for a personalized and collaborative decision-making platform.

Now we know the benchmark of self-service BI, and we will refer to this after going through the features that Web Authoring provide.

What is Web Authoring?

In Tableau 10, we let the users ask additional questions of their data right on the web. This feature is called Web Authoring. In the Tableau Server, you can create new workbooks from published data sources, connect to and combine published data sources as well as edit existing views and dashboards.

What licenses do you need?

You need to have a Tableau Server license and an interactor role at the minimum. The interactor role allows you to edit views directly on the server. If you have a publisher role, you will be allowed to save your ad-hoc analysis directly on the server. So, you guessed right, you won't need a Tableau desktop license to do all this.

Any user with a Tableau Server license and the appropriate role can utilize the Web Authoring capabilities in your Tableau Server environment.

What can you do with Web Authoring capabilities?

There are numerous things that you could do with Web Authoring capabilities. The purpose of this blog is not to point to each of them, but rather to give you an overall idea.

• You can connect to published data sources, blend published data sources, edit groups etc.
• You can add, modify and remove filters.
• You can apply table calculations, create and edit calculated fields as well as sort fields in the view.
• You can even use the Show Me-functionality to create views.
• You can use the Analytics-pane as you would in Tableau Desktop. The Web Authoring window provides the look and feel of Tableau desktop, as well as almost all the features that a business user would require in day-to-day activities.

There are a few things for which you still would need a Tableau Desktop license. Data model editing is not yet supported in Tableau Server. You would also need Tableau Desktop if you want to create a new workbook for data sources other than published data sources and to publish new data sources to the Tableau Server for Web users to connect to.

With data governance and well thought Tableau implementation, your organization can reap the benefits of the Web Authoring features to strengthening the self-service BI culture in your organization.

So, are you ready to see the Web Authoring in action? Or do you have any questions? Please contact us for answers or a demo.

Detailed list of the Web Authoring features:

http://onlinehelp.tableau.com/current/pro/desktop/en-us/help.htm#server_desktop_web_edit_differences.html%3FTocPath%3DReference%7C_____8

Photo: Aaron Burden, unsplash.com