Technology Giant Reinvents its Approach to Data with Tableau

SEATTLE, Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Tableau Software DATA, a global leader in rapid-fire, easy-to-use business analytics software, today announced Cisco has deployed Tableau across multiple business divisions in EMEA, in order to drive efficiency and better inform every part of the business, from senior business planning to in-field sales.

Cisco is a worldwide leader in IT and prides itself on helping companies to seize business opportunities through connecting the previously unconnected. Looking inwards, Cisco's business intelligence team recognised that the company needed to better connect the dots and provide useful insight into business data that everyone could use, from field roles through sales managers, directors, and even senior executives.

In order to more easily understand their data, a group of five people from within the business - supported by the IT team - had chosen Tableau to gain deeper insights. Recognising the potential for this data visualisation tool, and with the vision of making data available and understandable to everyone, the EMEA Business Insights team secured senior buy-in to expand the solution and began to implement it more widely. To ensure the data democratisation message was spread throughout the company, a virtual team of analysts and subject matter experts were assembled, covering market, competitive, partner, customer, and business intelligence. This core team was equipped with Tableau Desktop licences and started on a fast-track programme towards fluency in the solution. At the same time, a community website was built, educating Cisco employees on how to analyse their data using Tableau and sharing Tableau's training materials. Proving to be very popular, within six months the number of active community members has grown from 5 to more than 40, supporting an audience of over 1500 active data consumers.

Specific areas that were in need of greater insight into business data were the sales and channel organisations. Having established Tableau as a vital source of easily-understood business insight, the Business Insights team launched a mobile BI platform, accessed via mobile devices. Having equipped the majority of the in-field sales team with tablets, these representatives are now able to access sales data - and more - straight away, all through a user-friendly interface, enabling quicker sales.

"As a company with over $48 billion in revenues globally, the volume of data that we generate and handle is huge," explained David Baudrez, Head of Business Intelligence and Insights EMEAR, at Cisco. "We knew that we needed to change the mentality that data can only be understood by highly trained analysts and technical experts – we wanted actionable data at everyone's fingertips to increase the actionable insight we could use."

"With Tableau, we've moved away from relying solely on a small group of analysts to interpret data, and have created a scalable, self-service business intelligence engine that allows people to immediately access the answers to their own specific business questions."

James Eiloart, VP EMEA, Tableau Software, commented: "Data is only useful to an organisation when it can be transformed into useful insights that aid and improve business decision making. Cisco's use of Tableau goes to prove that this rings true at every level of a company, from in-field sales teams right through to the executive level, driving improved efficiency for individuals and the company alike."

About Tableau
Tableau Software DATA helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyze, visualize and share information. More than 21,000 customer accounts get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. And tens of thousands of people use Tableau Public to share data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableausoftware.com/trial.

Tableau and Tableau Software are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

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SOURCE Tableau Software