• Information Science and Technology
  • Data Visualization Software Paper 2

    2871 Words 4 min read May 29, 2024

    Tableau and Power BI are some of the popular business intelligence (BI) and data visualization apparatuses capable of helping organizations especially hospitals and clinics in analyzing and presenting their data (information) for better analysis and decision-making (Milligan et al., 2022). Whereas the mentioned BIs have analogous objectives, they vary in terms of characteristics, proficiencies, price rating, and user experience. Below represent a chart comparing the benefits and challenges of adopting Tableau and Power BI.

     

    Criteria

    Tableau

    Power BI

     

    Benefits

    • This BI is highly robust and flexible data visualization (Jena, 2019).
    • Tableau is well-known for its effortlessness of data retrieval and exploration
    • Power BI affords a seamless integration with Microsoft tools like Excel, Azure, and Sharepoint (Lyon, 2019).
    •   Power BI's "Q&A" feature permits users to ask queries in basic language and collect visualizations  as  responses  increasing  its

    accessibility for simple users.

    Challenges

    • Tableau can be Costly, particularly for minor business organization or individual users. Licensing costs can increase

    quickly if the organization needs

    • Power BI presents a free version, but more advanced features need subscription which can escalate cost (Lyon, 2019).
    • Power BI can have restrictions when connecting

    to a given data databases making it challenging

     

     

    a Tableau need advanced features (Jena, 2019).

    • Data preparation is time- consuming procedure in Tableau. Cleaning and structuring data to satisfy the tool's necessities is challenging for complex datasets.

    for    health    organization    with    various         data ecosystems (Lyon, 2019).

     

    • While Power BI is very customizable, making wide customizations to need knowledge of “Power Query formula language (M)” or “DAX (Data Analysis Expressions),” which might be challenging for some individuals (Lyon, 2019).

    Cost

    • Tableau is expensive, particularly for smaller businesses or users. Licensing costs cumulate quickly, specifically if the business or an individual requires advanced

    features (Jena, 2019).

    • Power BI is a free version, nonetheless the more advanced features require a person or business to subscribe monthly which triggers more cost especially when new features are added (Lyon, 2019).

    Licensing

    • Licensing for Tableau if according to the pricing model of the user (Jena, 2019). For example, the user can decide to purchase Tableau models such as Tableau Server, online, Tableau

    prep, and Tableau desktop.

    • Licensing is according to the price of the models (features of Power BI). For instance, Power BI pro, Premium, and Embedded (Lyon, 2019).

    Number of Users

    • Tableau is an extra scalable choice and can house a greater
    • Power BI is better suitable for small to mid-sized health teams due to its limited scalability for large

     

     

    number of users, making it appropriate for small and large

    health organizations (Jena, 2019).

    healthcare teams (Lyon, 2019).

     

    • Tableau permits seamless integration with cloud services, SQL Server, Oracle, Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery

    (Jena, 2019).

    • Power BI is part and parcel of Microsoft ecosystem making it easier seamlessly integrates with SharePoint, Excel, Azure, and Dynamics 365 (Lyon, 2019).

    Vendor

    • Tableau is recognized for its robust customer support. They deliver numerous support options like phone, email support and online knowledge platform (Jena, 2019)
    • Power BI belongs to Microsoft ecosystem benefiting from Microsoft's all-embracing support infrastructure (Lyon, 2019). Microsoft offers quality customer support such as online documentation, forums, and a community and users  can  get  assistance  and  share  their

    experiences with Power BI.

    Part Two

    Based on the above analysis and presentation, I select Tableau as the best BI for our organization due to many reasons. For example, Tableau possesses excellent data visualization proficiencies. According to Milligan et al. (2020), Tableau endows an extensive variety of charts, graphs, and collaborative dashboards helping users and organization to communicate effectively and analyze data comprehensively. The idea is significant for the organization by enabling the organization to arrive at making informed decisions on clarity and visually attractive insights. On the other hand, Tableau possess a user-friendly interface which improves it accessibility to simple and technical users. The idea helps in attaining a quicker adoption across in the organization’s department (Arfat et al., 2020). In turn, the employees of the organization can be able to harness data power without extensive training or IT support. The data expands as the organization advances hence Tableau is appropriate because of its scalability which permits users to manage big datasets and accommodate or house forthcoming growth smoothly.

    This scalability guarantees that the organization’s investment in data analytics gears are valuable in the long run. According to Cainas et al. (2021), Tableau endows robust data integration competences, allowing employees and organization in general to link to numerous data sources like databases, cloud platforms, and spreadsheets. This present an opportunity to the organization to consolidate and examine information from numerous sources, enabling a holistic view of the organization’s operations (Ahmad et al., 2020). Tableau supports progressive analytics and prognostic modeling through incorporations with statistical apparatuses such as R and Python which can empower the organization to discover profound insights and generate data-driven estimates to inform the organization’s strategic decisions (Ahmad et al., 2020). Finally, Tableau support easy collaboration on data schemes and share understandings with stakeholders.

    References

    • Ahmad, H. (2020). Tableau for Beginner: Data Analysis and Visualization 101. Haszeli Ahmad.
    • Arfat, Y., Usman, S., Mehmood, R., & Katib, I. (2020). Big data tools, technologies, and applications: A survey. Smart Infrastructure and Applications: Foundations for Smarter Cities and Societies, 453-490.
    • Cainas, J. M., Tietz, W. M., & Miller-Nobles, T. (2021). KAT Insurance: Data analytics cases for introductory accounting using Excel, Power BI, and/or Tableau. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Accounting, 18(1), 77-85.
    • Jena, B. (2019). An Approach for Forecast Prediction in Data Analytics Field by Tableau Software. International Journal of Information Engineering & Electronic Business, 11(1).
    • Lyon, W. (2019). Microsoft Power BI Desktop: A free and user-friendly software program for data visualizations in the Social Sciences. Historia, 64(1), 166-171.
    • Milligan, J. N., Hutchinson, B., Tossell, M., & Andreoli, R. (2022). Learning Tableau 2022: Create effective data visualizations, build interactive visual analytics, and improve your data storytelling capabilities. Packt Publishing Ltd.
    Reviewer

    Academic Review By

    Benjamin Barbour
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