Executive Summary

  • This article is part of our honest vendor series, which is one of the only ratings of vendors rather than applications.
  • The vendor quality is critical to the decision making process as software purchases have a high long term involvement by the software vendor.

Introduction

Tableau is the most innovative, and we think the most interesting BI software vendor. They have a compelling application that places a great deal of functionality in the hands of users.

Quality of Information Provided

Due to how sales are structured at Tableau mean the Sales information is only moderately reliable.

Consulting and Support

Tableau has both good consulting and good support.

Internal Efficiency

Tableau has uneven management. Its technical management is excellent. However, its organizational and people management is a weakness, and Tableau does not seem to have the right team in place to grow from a company with a great technology into a more prominent and more dominant software company. Tableau is in a critical time in its history – its success is attracting many new employees, partners, etc.. During this stage, it is straightforward to become corrupted and to lose sight of long-term sustainability.

There are some easy things Tableau could do  — keep developing a great product and begin focusing on how its employees are compensated. Considering the success of the company, the compensation offered by Tableau will bring long-term problems in both retaining and hiring new employees. Right now Tableau can get away with it because people want to gain exposure to the latest hot technology, but they cannot count on that as motivator forever. Furthermore, many of Tableau’s policies are not sustainable and will bring its problems down the road. Tableau has “made it” and is now a valuable brand in BI, and has a potential to grow into other markets such as forecasting – a market for which they only currently receive a small amount of their revenues from.

Innovation

Tableau is the most innovative vendor in the BI space, and one of the most innovative vendors in all of enterprise software. Currently, only four software vendors rate a perfect 10 in innovation, and Tableau is one of the four. Tableau is also the only software vendor to have any substantial size and to attain a perfect innovation rating. Tableau has a nice description of its innovations on this page.

https://www.tableausoftware.com/fast-pace-innovation

Vendor Scores

Honest Vendor Ratings

Search for the vendor in this table using the search bar in the upper right of the table. Shortening Key: 
  • VC = Vendor Consulting
  • VS = Vendor Support
  • QIP = Quality of Information Provided
  • IE = Internal Efficiency
  • I = Innovation
  • C = Category
  • ACS = Average Category Score
VendorVCVSQIPIEICACG
Average Score for the BI Heavy Software Category6.45.35.14.54.4BI HeavyCategory Average
Average Score for the BI Light Software Category7.76.756.36.8BI LightCategory Average
Average Score for the CRM Software Category5.24.44.33.43.4CRMCategory Average
Average Score for the PLM Software Category7.37.56.36.26.3PLMCategory Average
Average Score for the Production Planning Software Category7.36.765.25.7Production PlanningCategory Average
Average Score for the Small and Medium ERP Software Category7.36.76.36.75.9Small and Medium ERPCategory Average
Average Score for the Supply Planning Software Category7.56.76.15.55.6Supply PlanningCategory Average
Average Score Score for the Demand Planning Software Category7.76.96.66.16.1Demand PlanningCategory Average
Average Score for the Big ERP Software Category4.73.82.72.22.6Big ERPCategory Average
Actuate77865BI HeavyApplication Specific
Arena Solutions91010810PLMApplication Specific
AspenTech43437Production PlanningApplication Specific
Base CRM88997CRMApplication Specific
Birst8888.59BI HeavyApplication Specific
Business Forecast Systems991098Demand PlanningApplication Specific
Delfoi888.548Production PlanningApplication Specific
Demand Works99101010Supply PlanningApplication Specific
ERPNext888.5109Small and Medium ERPApplication Specific
FinancialForce10109109.5FinancialApplication Specific
Hamilton Grant89.589.58PLMApplication Specific
Intacct1010999.5FinancialApplication Specific
Intuit88966.5FinancialApplication Specific
JDA3.53422Demand PlanningApplication Specific
Microsoft45211Small and Medium ERPApplication Specific
MicroStrategy87777BI HeavyApplication Specific
NetSuite65644CRMApplication Specific
OpenERP788.587Small and Medium ERPApplication Specific
Oracle52111ManyApplication Specific
PlanetTogether91081010Supply PlanningApplication Specific
Preactor787.533Production PlanningApplication Specific
ProcessPro1089109Small and Medium ERPApplication Specific
QlikTech87589.5CRMApplication Specific
Salesforce73866CRMApplication Specific
SAS971077Demand PlanningApplication Specific
SugarCRM44553CRMApplication Specific
Tableau101091010BI LightApplication Specific
Teradata98.58.568BI HeavyApplication Specific
ToolsGroup1010999Demand PlanningApplication Specific
SAP53111ManyApplication Specific

Part of the Following Software Categories

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Software Selection Package for BI Light

Software Selection Package for Demand Planning

Part of the Following Software Categories

Select the following link(s) if you have subscribed to the following analytical product(s).

Software Selection Package for Big ERP

Software Selection Package for CRM