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Data Visualization:
Power BI vs. Tableau
Outline
• What is BI?
• Tableau: products, features and pricing
• Power BI: products, features and pricing
• Comparing Power BI and Tableau
• Which one is better for your company?
What is Business Intelligence?
• Raw Data  Useful Information
• Uses a set of tools and skill sets to help business owners make informative
decisions
Data  Information
• Data from multiple sources are organized and loaded onto a common storage (using ETL)
• Reporting tools are then used to build reports based on user needs.
Data visualization Tools
The power of visualization:
• Data visualization tools like Power BI and Tableau help us transform raw data into compelling
visuals, making complex information easier to understand and interpret.
Choosing the right tool:
• With a variety of data visualization tools available, selecting the right one for your organization
can be challenging.
• This presentation will compare Power BI and Tableau, highlighting their key features and helping
you make an informed decision.
Tableau: Leading Data Visualization and Business Intelligence Tool
• Visualization tool designed to support faster solutions
• Build reports in a matter of minutes using drag and drop
• No programming language knowledge needed
• Create customized dashboards to fit the need of the business.
• Create a story using a sequence of worksheets.
Tableau products
• Tableau Desktop
• Tableau Server
• Tableau Online
• Tableau Public
• Tableau Reader
Tableau Desktop
• The tool used to create visualization and analyze the data
• Create workbooks, dashboards and stories
• Two editions:
• Personal Edition:
• limited data sources: can only connect to flat files
• no ability to connect to Tableau Server
• Professional Edition:
• full enterprise capabilities
• Publish visualizations onto Tableau online or Tableau public.
Tableau Server
• An online solution for sharing, distributing and collaborating on content created in tableau.
• Interactive dashboards on web browsers or tablets
• Subscribe to a dashboard and automatically receive updates
• Priced per user or server core
• Requires planning
• Optimal hardware and IT resources
• Security
• Ability to create user filter based on necessary field
• Behind firewall, hence provides the most security
Tableau Online
• Cloud based visualization
• Priced per user per year
• Hosted version of Tableau Server
• Automatically schedule refreshes and add data models
• Visualizations created on Tableau Desktop can be published onto Online within seconds
• No setup, no hardware, no management necessary
Tableau Public
• Allows to view visualization free
• Visualization will be public
• Free tool
Tableau Reader
• Free tool
• Desktop application viewing visualization
• No ability to edit visualization / Read-only
Data Connection
• Two kinds of connection to source data:
• Live Data Connection
• Used for real-time analytics
• Performance is based on database performance
• Extraction
• Data is brought in memory
• Performance is not based on database performance
• Used for interactive analysis
Dashboards
• Each tableau visualization is created on a
worksheet.
• Multiple worksheets can be combined to create
a dashboard
• Dashboards provide an over view of the
business system at a glance.
• Show multiple dimensions of the data
summarized in one page
• Efficient and quick to respond to critical issues
and/or opportunities.
Example

Pricing
• Tableau Desktop Personal Edition: $999 per user
• Tableau Desktop Professional Edition: $1,999 per user
• Tableau Online: $500 per user, per year
• Tableau Public: Free
• Tableau Server: two options:
• enterprise option: no restriction on number of users/ restriction on hardware
• named user: no hardware restriction / restriction on user / pay per user
• Free Trial Available
*****please contact Tableau for more pricing information (check Tableau website) *****
Power BI
• Microsoft product
• Cloud-based business analytics service
• Share reports and dashboards across a wide range of browsers, and devices such as
tablets and mobile phones.
• Integration with familiar Microsoft products: Excel, PowerPivot, etc.
• Easy connection to multiple data sources: Excel spreadsheets, cloud
services, on premise databases, etc.
• Uses DAX formulas to create calculated columns, as well as Quick
Calculations such as % of grand total
• The Power BI team releases 20+ features every month: free to
incorporate.
Features
• Real-time dashboards; helping business
owners solve problems as they occur
• Power BI Embedded: azure service that
enables applications to interact with Power
BI
• Q&A feature: allowing users to ask
questions using natural language to get
answers in graphical form.
• Content Packs: for sharing dashboards
with team
Power BI products
• Power BI Desktop
• Power BI Mobile
• Power BI Publisher for Excel
Power BI Desktop
• Application where all visualizations are created
• Transform and clean data with Query Editor
• 3 views:
• Reports
• Data
• Relationships
Query Editor
• Load data from multiple sources
• Transform data to meet analysis needs
• Create new columns of calculated results
• Remembers all applied steps
Power BI Mobile
• Allows to view dashboards and reports anywhere.
• Interact with data easily in a touch-optimized experience with Power BI native windows,
iOS and Android apps.
• Data-driven alerts
Data Connections
Two kinds of connection to source data
• Direct Query
• Live connection to data source
• Performance will be based on data source
• No need for data to be refreshed on schedule
• Import
• Brings data in memory
• Refresh needed to view changes that occurred in the underlying data.
Pricing
• Power BI – free version
• Limited data capacity limit (1GB/user)
• Data refresh- daily vs multiple times a day with Power BI PRO
• Limited data sources – cannot connect to on-premise database server
• Power BI PRO - $9.99 per user per month
• Data Capacity limit : 10GB/user
• Data refresh- up to 8 times per day
***** Please contact Microsoft for more information on pricing *****
Tableau Power BI
• Supports SSBI (Self Service BI)
• Can connect to multiple data sources
• View visualizations on different devices
• No technical knowledge required hence less training cost
• Customizing user-specific dashboards
• Licensing is based on a Per Processor Model
• Story-telling feature
• Ability to customize tool-tip content per user needs
• Easier grouping ability: creating a new field with groups
• “What-if” Analysis using parameters
• Data interpreter
• Supports SSBI
• Can connect to multiple data sources
• View visualizations on different devices
• High level of DAX knowledge hence more training cost
• Licensing is based on a Per User Model
• Plotting limitations of 2500 marks (takes away plotted points)
• Q&A Feature
• Ability to customize tool-tip content
• Allows for sharing of content through ‘content-packs’
• Applied steps visible (easy to undo)
Which tool is better?
 Depends on budget and visualization needs
• Power BI pros
• Affordable
• Attached to a major brand: tight integration with familiar tools such as
Excel, Azure, etc.
• New features added frequently
• Great for excel users
• Extensive database connectivity capabilities
• Q&A feature
• Publish to Web
• Power BI Cons
• Most advanced calculations require DAX knowledge
• More training cost
• No solution for data quality
• Tableau pros
• Excellent user interface
• Less training cost
• very fast and easy to create visualizations
• Good customer support
• Data Interpreter
• Story-telling ability
• Tableau Cons
• Relatively high cost
• No change management or versioning
Conclusion
 No one-size-fits-all solution:
The best tool depends on your organization's specific needs and budget.
 Power BI:
Ideal for organizations heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem and requiring integrated dataflows for
ETL.
 Tableau:
Ideal for organizations prioritizing extensive data exploration, advanced customization options, and a
large user community.
 Careful evaluation:
Organizations should carefully evaluate their requirements and budget before making a decision.
Source
1) Erin Burrell Nickell: An introductory audit data analytics case study: Using Microsoft Power BI and Benford’s Law to
detect accounting irregularities (2023)
2) Yasmine Fittouhi: The composition tableau and reconstruction of the canonical Weierstrass section for parabolic adjoint
action in type A (2023)
3) Harcharanjit Singh Mahinder Singh: The impact of business intelligence, big data analytics capability, and green
knowledge management on sustainability performance (2023)
4) https://www.quora.com/What-are-differences-between-Tableaus-Desktop-Server-Public-Online-versions-Does-Tableau-
server-online-versions-need-Tableau-Desktop
5) https://www.interworks.com/blog/bfair/2014/08/26/tableau-online-vs-tableau-server-5-things-consider
6) http://www.butleranalytics.com/microsoft-power-bi-vs-tableau/
7) http://sqlmag.com/power-bi/introducing-free-power-bi-designer-desktop-app
http://public.tableau.com/shared/QH6PH5GMG?:display_count=yes&:showVizHome=no
8) http://content.criticalpathtraining.com/blog/road-ahead-power-bi/