Tableau vs InsightSquared

Tableau Desktop is a BI solution for data visualization, dashboarding and location analysis. In online reviews, users said they found its drag-and-drop charting a boon for creating charts and maps. Regarding customization, many users praised the platform for its various labeling and design options.I recently tried the Tableau Desktop 2024.1.3 version. The trial is only for 14 days and is enough for a sneak peek into Tableau’s dashboarding and data storytelling capabilities. For more straightforward use cases, Tableau is incredibly user-friendly and fast. Creating a new sheet gives you a canvas to create a visualization. Once you have the required sheets, combining them into a dashboard view is straightforward — select and add.My dataset included healthcare data, including details of patients, their hospital visits and insurance payer details. One use case was to find the total claim settlement amount. I dragged the Total Claims Cost and Payer fields to the column and row shelves, and Tableau gave me a bar graph. The toolbar had single-click options for sorting data from increasing to decreasing values or the other way around.To view the number of encounters by payer, I dragged the Payer field to the row shelf and used the SUM(ROW_COUNT()) function on the column shelf. The chart popped up with more visualization and layout options.I wanted an interactive filter to view the average claim cost by birthdate. I dragged the Birthdate field to the Filters shelf and right-clicked on it to set the end date as October 22, 1961. Selecting Show Filter added a slider conveniently to the right of my visualization. I could see the data for people born before October 22, 1961, and if required, I could change the end date.Another use case would be viewing the data by the type of hospital visits — how many people were inpatients, outpatients or those who needed emergency care. I dragged and dropped the Total Claims Cost and Payer fields into columns and rows, respectively. Similarly, I dropped Encounterclass into the Filters shelf and clicked on Show Filter to enable a checkbox on the screen. It had all the categories of visits, giving users the option to select the desired views.One-fourth of the users discussing adoption said there was a steep learning curve. Tableau relies on Python and R scripts for statistics in its visualizations. It's where the named licenses can prove to be a blessing, as you can opt to train upcoming Creators and Explorers. We recommend factoring in training if you want to hit the ground running.Some reviewers felt discounted packages for business editions should be available, similar to the free student licenses. At $70 per user, the Creator license can seem costly when compared to Power BI ($9.99 per user) and Qlik Sense ($30 per user).Here's the good news, though. Its built-in user management acts as a permissions layer for your organization - users can only access the relevant content. Plus, an organization will have very few Creators and a greater number of Viewers and Explorers, and the license fee reduces from Creator to Explorer to Viewer.We recommend opting for a wise license combination to get the most out of the product.On the upside, the vendor constantly releases new features, the latest one being Einstein CoPilot in beta.Overall, Tableau is a competitive BI solution, but if the pricing seems inflexible, quite a few other solutions offer live insights and advanced analytics out of the box.

InsightSquared is a powerful sales analytics platform that helps users drive sales pipelines and access self-service data analytics through robust features and interactive data visualizations. According to many users who discussed data integration, the tool interacts seamlessly with other applications and data sources to enable predictive analytics that help forecast future trends. Most of the users who mentioned support said that they are responsive and knowledgeable. A majority of the users who reviewed the interface said that it’s user-friendly and easily navigable, though some users said that the versatility of the platform makes it complex to learn. Many users who discussed the platform’s visualization capabilities said that it provides a wide range of interactive and intuitive out-of-the-box dashboards. A majority of the users who discussed data analytics said that the platform excels in analyzing historical data to better forecast future trends, though some users said that the scope of predictive analytics should be wider to provide better insights. According to many users who mentioned functionality, the solution provides many ways to explore data-based insights through deep-dive and pivoting on key metrics, though some users said that the platform is not easily customizable. Many users who mentioned reporting said that the solution provides a plethora of out-of-the-box reports that can be customized and exported easily, though some users said that there is limited flexibility in report customization. On the flip side, a majority of the users who reviewed speed said that the platform is slow when moving between templates and can become CPU-intensive with large dashboards, though some users said that it can slice and dice data to present relevant information in seconds. Many users who mentioned pricing said that necessary customization modules add to the cost of the software, which makes adoption difficult for small businesses. Many users said that though training is needed to maximize the tool’s potential, lack of adequate documentation makes the learning curve steep. In summary, InsightSquared is a self-service revenue intelligence tool that provides a single source of truth for sales analytics and forecasting pipeline management. It boosts productivity across the organization, though its pricing can be cost-prohibitive for small businesses.