Tableau – helping spread the word that location matters by Sam Cliff on 17th September 2013 Working within the consultancy team at Dotted Eyes means that I often face the challenge of convincing new customers that location intelligence can add value to their business, either to enhance operational processes or aid the making of strategic decisions. Often, ‘naysayers’ are impressed by the speed and effectiveness offered by conventional GIS applications such as MapInfo Professional to produce basic maps of customers and activity. However, many feel more comfortable reading Excel spreadsheets of tables and graphs rather than facing up to the prospect of maintaining multiple data sources and learning new applications simply to represent their data in the form of map. Thankfully, since introducing Tableau to our customers we have been able to bridge the gap between analysts and geographers. Tableau offers a great user experience with a clear, intuitive user interface and plenty of info-graphics types to win favour with even the most hardened Excel junkies. Sample data produced from Opendata published by Warwickshire County Council Most importantly, all of the visualisation functionality can be referenced to a simple mapping window within the application to display, thematically map and filter results on the fly. This approach allows users to interrogate data and solve complex problems with confidence. The interactive dashboards can be shared between small groups utilising the desktop application or the wider general public via the web. Turning data into information and linking to a map has never been easier! To find out more about Tableau, contact us on info@misoportal.com or +44 (0)121 232 8000.