FY15 Tableau Battlecard

COMPETITIVE SITUATIONTableau provides analytics and visualization tools for organizations and enterprises of all sizes. Tableau claims to offer the richest set of visualizations with greatest ease of use among the top tier of BI vendors. The last update, Tableau 8.2, included desktop support for Mac OS, Story Points (storytelling capability positioned as PowerPoint alternative), Visual Data Window (new data connection experience), and updated maps.Tableau embraces a land-and-expand sales model, meaning they start with a small departmental deployment and expand from there after they achieve success. Tableau sellers target BDMs aggressively and use short, customized demos to illustrate the simplicity of the product.At risk: Tableaus penetration into Microsoft accounts slows customer adoption and onging renewal of Office 365 and SQL Server products. The advances of Excel 2013 are overshadowed by existing Tableau capabilities. Tableau features diminish the value of Microsoft SharePoint Excel Services, PowerPivot, and Power View, making sales of Power BI for Office 365 more difficult. Because BI is an entry point to drive wide cloud adoption, this in turn hinders our cloud play in areas like Win Azure and HDInsight. Tableau SoftwareWhat Tableau sellsMain offerings

Tableau DesktopUsers can drag and drop data they want to analyze, connect to data in a few clicks, and then visualize and create interactive dashboards with a few more. Features such as suggested charts make it easier to explore data without having detailed knowledge of the product. Users can publish workbooks to Tableau Online for sharing to avoid full Tableau Desktop and Tableau Server costs, but functionality is limited.

Tableau ServerBrowser-based analytics with a user interface similar to the desktop offering provides core functionality for group collaboration and support for mobile devices. Similar to PowerPivot for SharePoint, Tableau Server provides administrators with monitoring and usage data. It has an optimized direct connection to data for high-performance pass-through when users connect to large data warehouses. Users can store data in-memory by using columnar storage.

Tableau OnlineThis hosted subset version of Tableau Server is ideal for users who don't want to purchase, set up, or manage infrastructure. Differences include a 100 GB limit, no Active Directory integration, and limited refresh intervals.

Additional offerings

Tableau ReaderWith this free PC application, people can open and view visualizations built in Tableau Desktop. It requires a web client access license.

Tableau PublicHelps users tell stories with interactive data on the web, almost as if it were a YouTube-like channel for public BI solutions.

Tableau RoadmapProject Elastic is a new standalone tablet app that will provide an intuitive touch experience. No release date or detailsTableau 9, scheduled for first half of 2015, includes the following:3-4x improvement in server performance, new permission experience, Kerberos and smart card authenticationData prep improvements ability to reshape data, ability to automatically parse out data, new web data connectorNew calculations editor and calculations functionality, new analytics pane for simple modeling, geographical searchConcurrent updates to Desktop and Online, automated data refresh between on-premises data and OnlineCompetitor positioning and messageSimplicity and ease of useBest-in-class visualizationsEmpowering business users

Tableau offers an intuitive solution that people of diverse skill levels can use. Tableau is all about data discovery and visualization, and its all possible within Tableau Desktop.With Microsoft, you need too many tools to do the job that Tableau does with one. Data exploration in Tableau products is interactive and visually based. Customers rate their experience highly, and competitors of all sizes try to imitate Tableau.Tableau always compares itself next to older versions of Excel (2007 or 2010) in order to downplay what can be done in Excel 2013. With its land-and-expand sales approach, Tableau focuses on making business users look like heroes who can quickly extrapolate insights. This helps them establish a fan base in the org that can be used to expand into other departments.Compared to Microsoft, Tableau scales better with large volumes of data without 64-bit Excel

Competitor strengthsEase of use for data analysis and discovery by business users. Gartner reports that Tableau is rated number one of all vendors surveyed for ease of use.Beuatiful UI and visuals. Tableau has a very clean, eye-appealing design which they claim lead to faster insights Easy implementation. Tableau is quick to install and implement without IT assistance. Its relatively easy to deploy Tableau Server on AWS as an IaaS solution. For data that resides in the cloud, Tableau Online is easy to subscribe to.Strong fanbase. Tableaus userbase is often compared to Apples userbase because of high user satisfaction and a very vocal user community. Tableau does a lot of community outreach and depends on its users to help it implement their land-and expand strategy within organizations.Server technology. Tableau Server uses in-memory columnar database technology for performance. Server has scale-out clustering ability for larger workloads and failover cluster capabilities for high availability.Data sources. Tableau has more native data connectors than any other SSBI vendor except Domo. Native connectors include Teradata and Google Analytics.Tableau optimizes direct query access for many diverse data sources and includes capabilities for incremental extracts. Tableau Data Extract API handles data sources not directly supported by Tableau products.Mobile support. Mobile support for reading and authoring with native iPad and Android apps is very good.

HOW TO SELLKey actions for successHow to win

While the strength of the Tableau product resonates with BDMs, evidence suggests that their sellers arent necessarily as skilled as Microsofts field when it comes to solution selling. Use Challenger sales methodology to change the game. Understand the customers business challenges and what they are trying to address. Understand not only what theyre looking for, but also why. Craft a story that advises using their existing Microsoft investments to solve those challenges.

Show demos that highlight the different capabilities of the Microsoft BI solution, preferably with real customer examples and scenarios. Find existing demos in the Demo Hub (< Data Insights < Business Analytics)

Expand the customer vision to other near-term projects that will require external and unstructured data integration and predictive analytics. Expand the conversation and scope to an enterprise-wide BI solution, one that addresses needs for not only departmental BI, but also for corporate BI and operational reporting/analytics.

Tableau is an island of BI that is completely de-coupled from other services Information Workers need during the day. Use the Envisioning Center at your local MTC (example) to showcase BI in the broader day-in-the-life or end-to-end context.

Try to involve the CIO/CTO in the decision. Generally these roles recognize and prefer the broader capabilities and enterprise suitability of Microsoft. Rally TDMs to our cause. Position Tableau as a renegade technology that threatens the official platform and infrastructure they support today. Re-affirm with the TDM that they might have to manage/secure/monitor 1000s of buying points if they dont get things under control.

Keep the story simple. Focus on Excel and Power BI for O365. Push Excel 2013 as the primary component of the BI solution.

Target accounts that already own Office 365, and escalate early and often to the Enterprise Compete team as soon as Tableau is identified within your opportunity.

Draw attention to the high costs of an enterprise rollout of Tableau. To keep Tableau from spreading, show customers how Excel 2013 with Power BI serves needs for day-to-day analysis.

Position Tableau as a tool that tries to do too much. On a single pane of glass, the author is expected to perform both data modeling and visualizations. Showcase the Power Pivot UI (especially the diagram view) to illustrate the strength of the data modeling experience and its de-coupled location from the visualization experience (Power View and Power Map).

Recognize that Tableau is a strong offering, but help customers understand that Excel also offers excellent reporting capabilitiesand point out that they already own Excel. When Tableau gets a small fan base, be gentle. Position Tableau as a respected competitor, BUT suggest that it only adds incremental value at a huge TCO delta.

What to avoid

Direct feature comparison of BI tools. Focus on showing customers how to get the best value from Microsoft components they already have. Look to Power BI features to close the gap.

Leading with products or technology and fitting customer situations to those products. Tableau leads with a solutions sale that customers find much more appealing and relatable.

Customer targeting and sales playsWin newSurround Extend Replace

Microsoft shops looking to extend their BI capabilities

For Microsoft shops, point out that Excel 2013 and Power BI probably meet most of their analytics needs. Gain leverage from BI demos to show what is possible today. Talk about the lower TCO of Microsoft BI and how it is an end-to-end platform. Cast the customers decision as important and strategic. Ask customers to think not only about their current projects but their future projects also. Talk about capabilities that Tableau cannot touch, such as predictive analytics.Customers who have committed to Tableau

For customers considering a Tableau expansion or deploying Tableau Server, focus on TCO. Customers already own most of the pieces of Microsoft BI. Figure out what theyre using Tableau for, and show them that most of these tasks can be done with Microsoft. Consider a play for APS or HDInsight underneath Tableau or for hosting Tableau on AzureWhen you notice Tableau popping up in your accounts, understand if they only have a handful of Tableau Desktops OR if they have purchased servers. If they have not yet purchased servers, do everything in your power to prevent that from happening with How to win. Escalate to the Enterprise Compete team. When a customer goes from being desktop-only to one with servers in production, Tableau has received enterprise validation at your customer.Customers who have invested in Tableau and Microsoft and are looking for integrationFor enterprise-level BI, talk about the importance of enterprise information management (EIM). Also discuss SQL Server Integration Services for enterprise ETL, Data Quality Services, and Master Data Services for mobile device management. Talk about Analysis Services OLAP and partitioning for scalability when Tableau cant manage massive data volumes. Talk about how Analysis Services Data Mining is used for predictive analytics. Drive SQL Server Reporting Services for operational and managed reporting alongside Tableau (subscriptions, notifications, control break reports, print quality, and data and report delivery in multiple formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, MHTML, and more).Customers who use Tableau and are looking to switch due to poor experiencesConsider only for customers who have expressed dissatisfaction with their Tableau environment and are up for license renewal. Look toward repurposing hardware for SQL Server solutions.

Sales objection-handlingObjectionPerceived weaknessSuggested approach

Limited visualizations with Excel and Power ViewExcel lacks the visualization, dashboard, and presentation capabilities of Tableau. Tableau makes it easier to identify outlying data and regularly refresh data from production sources. Tableau purposely arms customers with visualizations Microsoft doesnt offer.Demo BI tools in Excel and Power BI. Tableau uses older versions of Excel to make their claims, and many customers havent seen Excel 2013 and Power BI. Dont engage in questions about comparable visualizations; steer the conversation back to the customers problems and how Microsoft solutions can help.If needed, pitch Visio. With Microsoft Visio Services, customers can go beyond charts with complex visualizations such as theater seating plans, hospital bed management, and work flow visualization. You can find Visio demos hereFor customers who require certain charting visualizations not offered by Microsoft, bring in a partner like Datazen.

Microsoft BI technology is too complexMicrosoft needs four products to compete with Tableau: Office, Power BI, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Customers dont always know what their company already owns, and avoid the inconvenience of figuring out how to make tools work together.In pure head-to-head, we should compare Tableau to Excel and Power BI. The rest of our stack represents a broad coverage of BI/big data/DW that Tableau cant touch. Excel is the most widely used BI tool in business. Customers already own it and employees know how to use it. Using Excel and Power BI requires less money and training than learning a new tool. Authoring PivotTable and PivotChart reports in Excel and using Power View is easier and more intuitive than Tableau.

Customer reluctance to upgrade OfficeTableau claims Microsoft Office is hard to upgrade, so they use older versions of Office in their comparisons. Customer IT departments are reluctant to upgrade Office, which prevents business users from taking advantage of Excel 2013.Office 2013 runs alongside older versions of Office through Click-to-Run. Customers can download the newer version of Office without disturbing existing assetswhich enables a phased upgrade. To use Tableau, customers dont eliminate the effort of installing additional software. Furthermore, only authors of Power BI really need to upgrade. Consumers only need a browser or mobile device

Lack of native mobile supportPower BI only supports Windows 8 mobile devices with a native app, so iOS and Android users are unable to experience full fidelity. Customers that have deployed Microsoft BI on-premises cannot take direct advantage of mobile BI capabilities.Power BI supports HTML5 viewing of reports from any device. A native app for iOS is planned for availability in early H2 CY14.If mobile support is a customer requirement, partner with a vendor like Datazen for stronger support of mobile phones and platforms than Tableau.

Limited connectivity to SAP data sources Microsoft has limited connectivity to and interoperability with SAP data sources, which many customers use.Microsoft provides several options for working with SAP business solutions, including the Xtract PPV offering from Theobald, which bolts right into PowerPivot. Other options include: Duet Enterprise for Office 365, Microsoft Connector for BI, BizTalk Server, Excel and Power BI connectivity to SAP BusinessObjects Universes, and Simplement Data Liberator. For more information, see Microsoft Business Intelligence Interoperability with SAP.

PricingTableauPricingMicrosoftPricing

Tableau Desktop PersonalLicense: $999 per userAnnual maintenance: $199 per user (first year free)Office 365 E3$240 per user per year

Tableau Desktop ProfessionalLicense: $1,999 per userAnnual maintenance: $400 per user (first year free)

Tableau Server Web Client CALLicense: $995 per userAnnual maintenance: $199 per user (first year free)Power BI $240 per user per year

Tableau Server 8 Core (minimum)License: $180,000Annual maintenance: $36,000 (first year free)

Tableau Server 2 CoreLicense: $45,000Annual maintenance: $9,000 (first year free)

Tableau OnlineLicense: $500.00 per user per year

# UsersTableauDesktop + Server + MaintenaceMicrosoftO365 E3 + Power BITableau prices provided by Tableau partners

AssumptionsAuthoring: 15% for 100, 10% for 500, 5% for 150010% concurrent users

*After 12% automatic discount from original price of $509,925

100$129,885 + $25,977/year (first year free)$48,000/year

500$279,950 + $55,990/year (first year free)$240,000/year

1500$448,734* + $101,985/year (first year free)$720,000/year

CUSTOMER EVIDENCETableau Recall

Power BICond Nast, Carnegie Mellon, MediaCom, Helse Vest, Dun & Bradstreet, The Weather Channel, Polaris, Tenaris

BI generalPCS Security, Globosat Programadora Ltda, AMD, ESRI, MedAssets, Leeds Teaching Hospital, LC Waikiki Retail

COMPETE TOOLS AND RESOURCES//tableauDemos: Demo Hub, Microsoft Office DemosPrograms: Microsoft Business Intelligence QuickStart, Customer Immersion Experience, Office OnRampCATM: WW APP Plat Compete, How to escalateYammer: Tableau & Qlik, Business Intelligence ChampsRecommended visualization and mobile partners: Datazen, Pyramid Analytics, RoambiTableau Release Notes, Tableau Native Data Connectors

Owner: Diane Wang diwang@microsoft.com

This battlecard provides summary information and guidance on how to compete with Tableau in the self-serviceBI space. Please see //tableau for additional information.

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Key competitive differencesTableau weaknessDescriptionWhat it means to customersMicrosoft strength

Point solution, not enterprise BI platformTableau does well with self-service BI, but lacks in traditional BI capabilities such as operational reporting and alerts, data quality services, large-scale OLAP, and predictive analytics.Customers looking for enterprise-wide BI solutions need to consider partner solutions that work with Tableau to fill these gaps. For example, Alteryx supports data mining. Filling gaps represents additional cost.Microsoft offers a proven, complete portfolio that includes Big Data, analytics, data warehousing, and transaction processing, all of which work together seamlessly to increase productivity. The Microsoft BI platform supports both self-service BI and organizational BI solutions. SQL Server Business Intelligence delivers on large-scale OLAP, data mining, EIM, and operational reporting with SQL Server Reporting Services. Power BI for Office365, Excel, and SharePoint deliver on managed self-service BI.

Lacks enterprise data scale Tableau Server lacks many capabilities needed to handle enterprise data volume at scale. It also lacks partitioning and sophisticated parallel processing needed to quickly pull in and process massive data volumes. Column (tabular) storage is fine until memory is exceeded, and then customers need either ROLAP, HOLAP, or MOLAP (multi-dimensional) alternatives. When Tableau Server memory is exceeded, customers must drop back to a direct connectionthus pushing the entire query workload back onto an already overloaded data warehouse.For a more robust, enterprise-level, scalable solution, customers that use Tableau may still need SQL Server Analysis Services to perform large-scale analyses and then they can use the processed data with Tableau for further analysis.SQL Server Business Intelligence combines large-scale data volumes and data mining capabilities in a single offering.

Lacks enterprise operational reporting The single-page dashboard in Tableau is great, but lacks the operational reporting capabilities needed to deliver enterprise reportssuch as a complex, print-quality, control break report with a snapshot of the data, via push / pull, and in a variety of commonly required rendered formats.Customers miss the benefits of subscriptions, notifications, control break reports, print quality, and data and report delivery in multiple formats such as PDF, Word, Excel, and MHTML.SQL Server Reporting Services affords print quality delivery of operational reports using the push / pull approach and offers sophisticated manageability for addressing the host of lights-out administrative and operational needs of an enterprise. Draw attention to how SQL Server Reporting Services comes in both native mode and SharePoint integrated mode as examples of its malleability, extensibility, and programmability.

Lacks enterprise data mining capabilities Tableau lacks sophisticated data mining features and algorithms.Big Data and data mining go hand in hand. Tableau offers some relatively simple forecasting capabilities, but customers that need to truly mine their data will need to look to other vendors for this important capability.Customers can count on SQL Server Analysis Services for a plethora of sophisticated data mining algorithms out of the box and data mining programming (extensible).

PricingTableau requires a 8-core minimum Tableau Server purchase for $180,000, with $1,999 per Desktop Professional.Customers who already own Microsoft products such as SQL Server and Office and can get current with the latest versions have to look hard at what they arent getting with Microsoft to justify the added cost of Tableau client and server software.Microsoft has a huge presence in most organizations. Look at the business problem the customer is trying to solve instead of just trying to sell technology. In most cases, customers can use their current tools at a lower cost of training and support.

Lack of true data integrationTableau Data Integration is mainly for ad hoc queries and relating data sources, and is not a full-featured ETL tool. Tableau lacks built-in features for analyzing performance issues and data lineage as available with QlikView Expressor.Customers need to rely on third-party tools for true ETL/EIM capability to either load data directly into the Tableau data model or into a traditional data warehouse / OLAP cube.SQL Server Business Intelligence delivers EIM tools for preparing data for analysis. The results can be loaded into an OLAP multi-dimensional model or a data warehouse for broader access with BI tools.

Slower pace of innovationTableau takes its time between releases because it has to push new versions out for customers to download next to the existing version of their desktop sorftware.Customers must wait longer periods for new features. Organizations that have a lot of existing Tableau software may be prevented from doing normal work during a major software upgrade. Business users who buy into Tableau for rapid self-service may be frustrated by the impact of longer than expected upgrade cycles.The Microsoft BI solution with Office 365 and Power BI is in the cloud. Microsoft can be agile and push out features at a regular pace. With each release, Microsoft quickly closes gaps in what Tableau offers.

Limited cloud SaaSTableau Online currently targets small numbers of users, so it is vulnerable to more fully functional cloud analytics platforms such as Power BI. Limitations in functionality include no multi-dimensional data sources and a 100 GB ceiling on storage and data for the account.Customers looking for an enterprise solution that uses SaaS need to look at other platforms. In some cases, customers must resort to running Tableau Server with its expensive bring your own license (BYOL) on AWS or Microsoft Azure.Microsoft Power BI for Office 365 provides an organization-wide, self-service business intelligence infrastructure that offers Excel workbook sharing, online collaboration, and IT infrastructure in a holistic offering. Talk about the advantages of Power BI Sites and Power BI Q&A along with query and data management features for sharing and maintaining queries and data sources. Talk about how the Power BI Admin Center manages the Power BI infrastructure and how Data Management Gateway connects on-premises data to the cloud, seamlessly and securely.