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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Tableau Software for Visualization

This is an interactive data visualization tool that purports to significantly improve the ease of displaying quantitative data. It is from the Tableau Software @ http://www.tableausoftware.com/products.htm. It uses a proprietary technology called VizQL™ which is a visual (graphical) query language for databases. It compiles to SQL and MDX and seems to be following the same conceptual approach as WebQL - i.e. replacing procedural programming with a set-based declarative one. The claim is also that the tool embodies some of the best practices that Edward R. Tufte had advocated in the his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (as well as his other books).

What bothers me about many of these data mining and data analysis tools is that they cannot be automated - they are largely interactive and cannot run in un-attended mode. They neither expose an API with Java, .Net, or C++ bindings nor supply a scripting environment that could enable a user to automate repetitive tasks - as opposed to MS Office suite of tools that ship with VBA programming environments. Thus, these tools, however innovative, cannot be easily incorporated as part of a system than we may wish to build.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The first sentence doesn't make sense. And you fail to recognize that probably over 95% of MS Office users have never written anything in VBA. That is a "minor" feature in terms of usage compared to many others. Wouldn't a new software vendor be much advised to work on features 95% of their market intends on using rather the 5%?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 10:20

Thank you for your input - I have corrected the offending sentence.

I am interested in building systems from pre-existing sub-systems. I do not wish to re-invent the wheel all the time; that just holds me back from moving forward speedily.

I am not against the vendor's approach - only wish for the added features that I had mentioned.

Incidentally, this vendor is actually bundling its products with Hyperion.

Babak Makkinejad

AnalyticsToday said...

What bothers me about many of these data mining and data analysis tools is that they cannot be automated - they are largely interactive and cannot run in un-attended mode.” “…these tools, however innovative, cannot be easily incorporated as part of a system than we may wish to build.”

Tableau brings an improved user experience that makes it pretty easy to interact with and visualize information. Their tool removes the complexity of having to use complex programming that typical Office users aren’t proficient in – Java, VBA, .Net, C++.

The company Spotfire offers a similar approach, but has been in the market longer and more easily integrates with existing systems and data. Spotfire’s approach early on has been to expose the application platform’s API so organizations can build and integrate analytic applications. Developers get unlimited access to code tutorials, articles, and development tools through the Spotfire Developer Network website. The approach has helped in the deployment of enterprise analytics across R&D, Finance, Operations, and Sales & Marketing. Probably 98% of the application platforms objects are exposed through the API’s.

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