Tuesdays with Tableau: Tableau is Cool!

By Paul Ausserer

Photo by Joe Wolf / CC BY-ND

Last night, I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with the Management Information Systems (MIS) group at a local university, Western Washington University. The audience consisted of 20-30 juniors and seniors (most not old enough to drink) within the department of Decisions Sciences, many with a concentration in MIS. My goal was to sprinkle some “real-life” business experience on their academic plates by sharing my perspective on the technology and business opportunities surfacing today. It was me who left with some new perspective!

Shortly into my conversation, I asked the group, “What are some of the trending topics you hear about in BI (business intelligence)?” My inquiry was answered with silence. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what I was expecting to hear. To get them thinking, I threw out some ideas: Big Data, Social Intelligence, Predictive Analytics. Heads started nodding. Bingo! I seized the moment to ask, “What are some of the prominent technologies used in BI today?”

Almost immediately, I heard, “Tableau,” and then again, “Tableau,” followed by another, and another. I was absolutely shocked (and delighted) that our future business leaders are not only familiar with, but immediately think of Tableau in the context of BI. By contrast, not a single other technology got any airtime. No PowerBI. No Business Objects. No Qlik. No Saas. Not even a single Excel. 

These are our future financial analysts, software engineers, accountants, business managers, and corporate executives. They are the Twitter, tablet, and Netflix generation. They’ve likely never seen a flip phone, read a real newspaper, or watched a show when it airs at 9/8 central. They will come into the business world with new paradigms and fresh perspectives, and they are excited about Tableau. To be fully transparent, Tableau headquarters is about 90 miles from WWU.

I came away from the discussion with the realization that Tableau undeniably resonates with this generation, which is no small feat in an age where the next big thing is just around the corner. Clearly, Tableau is that next big thing.