Data visualization in the form of slicing and dicing, charting and pivoting is standard for most knowledge workers performing data analysis. BI vendors provide visualization in the form of charts and tables of data cut different ways. Microsoft provides its ever-popular pivot table, but dealing with the data can be cumbersome, especially if you want to explore the data quickly across multiple dimensions.

Marcia Kaufman and I recently got a chance to meet with Christian Chabot, CEO and co-founder and Elissa Fink, VP of Marketing from Tableau Software, Seattle, Washington. They impressed us both with Tableau's innovations in data visualization.

The visualization is the query

So, what's so interesting about Tableau's approach?

Consider the following typical analysis problem. You are trying to analyze sales for different categories of TV sets at ten different store locations for the first half of the year. Data include location, region, TV type (flat panel LCD, flat panel plasma, LCD projection, etc.) date sold, dollar value, sales person, as well as information about promotions and warranty plans. If you used a pivot table in Microsoft Excel, you could cross-tab and slice and dice information, you could even drag and drop various attributes onto a chart. At the end of the day, however, you are still left looking at a two-dimensional static plot, or (more likely) a bunch of static plots, trying to derive insight.

With Tableau, it's not about slotting the data into a plot or report to examine; it's about rapid visual analysis of the data.

Tableau reads in structured data from many sources such as Excel, Access, text files, SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, Netezza, SQL Server Analysis Services, and Hyperion Essbase. The columns in an Excel spreadsheet would be read into Tableau and put into something it calls a dimension (non numeric) or a metric (numeric) that are listed on the left hand side of the Tableau screen. The user then simply drags and drops as many of these dimensions and metrics as desired onto the palette and the visual representation of the data changes.

In the example above, you might first start an analysis looking at sales of TVs by category and by region.

Then you might drag in another "column" that further breaks this down into the type of TV in each of the categories such as flat panel LCD, flat panel plasma, etc. onto the palette. This changes the visualization to include this additional dimension.

By interacting with the visual in this manner, the user is querying the visual. The product makes it easy to look at the data dynamically from all different angles, thereby enabling rapid analysis and discovery.

Here are a few of the features that make the analysis quick:

• The product makes good use of color, so for example, losses would be shown in red. There are also very nice graphical representations to work with.
• If the underlying data permit, Tableau lets users look across any time dimension (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly) with a simple click of a drop down menu.
• If you don't want a particular time dimension included in the analysis, simply select and remove it and the visual changes.
• Tableau lets the user drill down into the visual, to see the underlying data.

The product is flexible and extremely easy to use. It's also visually appealing - the company definitely practices what it preaches. The charts are clean and crisp and there is good use of color. The latest version of Tableau (3.5) also includes Tableau Server, a Web-based sharing and publishing solution that enablers users to share their results with others. The Personal Edition is a visual analysis and reporting solution for data stored in Excel, MS Access or Text Files with a price tag of $999.00. It's worth looking in to.