Difference Between Visual Analytics vs Tableau

Visual Analytics vs Tableau- Today’s business needs more efficient and easily used business intelligence tools in order to achieve their goals and gain more profit. Installing a new business intelligence tool takes several weeks, months or even years and the maintenance of the tool is also expensive. Here comes two most popular BI tools Visual Analytics vs Tableau, its features and comparison.

In this article, we discuss the following:-

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Visual Analytics vs Tableau Infographics
What is Visual Analytics ?
SAS Visual Analytics
What is Tableau ?
SAS Visual Analytics vs Tableau Comparisons
Conclusion – Visual Analytics vs Tableau

Head to Head Difference Between Visual Analytics vs Tableau (Infographics)

Following are some of the differences listed below.

What is Visual Analytics?

Visual Analytics is a form of inquiry in which the data is displayed in a graphical manner. Visual Analytics is a combination of automated analysis techniques with interactive visualizations for the purpose of effective understanding, reasoning and decision making. This is mostly used in very large and complex data sets. Visual Analytics is an in memory visualization and reporting tool.

Goals of Visual Analytics

The goals of visual analytics are as follows

Provide an transparent way of processing data and information for an analytic discourse
Integrate scientific disciplines to improve the division of work between human and machine
Gain in-depth knowledge from large, dynamic and complex data
Helps to provide more understandable ,timely and defensible reports
Communicate the report effectively so that proper decisions are taken

Visual analytics does more than just visualization. The main task in visual analytics is to identify the best algorithm for the task at hand and develop a best solution with proper visualization and interaction techniques.

Areas related to Visual Analytics

Visual Analytics Process

SAS Visual Analytics

SAS Visual Analytics is a deep analytics portfolio that was launched by SAS in the year 2012. It is the most sophisticated visual analytics platform and is best suited for larger companies with complex needs. SAS VA is a complete platform for analytics visualization which will help you to find patterns and relationships in data. It has a powerful in-memory technology for quicker analytic computations. It is easier to use and has a self-service environment that can deal with large amount of data.

SAS VA helps you to unlock insights and improve the efficiency throughout the organization. It reduces the work of the IT department and lets them concentrate on the goals of the business. Visual Analytics in SAS is the best way to tell your Business Intelligence story. It is priced little high than other visual analytic software comparisons, but has a lot of good features and functionalities. It has a traditional Business Intelligence platform and it requires skilled persons to use.

SAS Visual Analytics is compared with products such as Tableau, TIBCO Spotfire and others.

Features of SAS VA

Following are some of the features given.

Innovative visualization techniques
Visual data exploration
Self service, easy analytics
Robust report design
Mobile Business Intelligence
Collaboration
Easy data administration
Deployment flexibility
Auto charting
More interactive dashboards and reports
Mapping technologies
Text sentiment analysis

Benefits of SAS VA

Following are some of the benefits given.

You can implement visual analytics dashboards, reporting and analytics all from a single interface
Through Mobile BI apps you can view and interact with the reports and dashboards from your smart phone or any such device
Visual Analytics in SAS allows you to share the visualizations through MS office applications like Excel and PowerPoint
Visual Analytics in SAS uses a variety of visual analytics techniques which will help you to present the data in a more attractive way
You can choose a Business Intelligence implementation that fits your business need. You can also expand it as your business grows. You also have an option to use BI in a private cloud or a public cloud.

What is Tableau?

Tableau is a business intelligence software that lets anyone to connect to the data, visualize and create graphs, charts and dashboards in the way they like. It is an exploration software. Tableau software’s desktop can perform its own analysis. It helps the business to analyze a large amount of data in a quick and user-friendly way.

This is more popular software that is most preferred by the business people for data visualization.

Features of Tableau

This has five important features

Tableau Desktop – This has an attractive drag and drop desktop which lets the users to quickly analyze, sort and visualize data.
Tableau Server – This server communicates the visualizations to any device like a desktop or mobile that supports a web browser. The architecture of Tableau server is measurable.
Tableau Online – Tableau online features lets users to share the dashboards with the partners as well as the customers
Tableau Reader – This feature lets the user to share the data visualization created using this software
Tableau Public – It is the website enhancement feature which lets the visualization to narrate the story.

Features of new version Tableau

Statistical data files – This already supports more data sources and the new version of it supports statistical files
Data preparation – The new version of this has more data preparation features which helps the users to clean the data and spend more time on analysis.
Ad Hoc Calculations – The new version of this allows the users to perform lot of calculations on an Ad Hoc basis. Tableau gives you answers on the flow which will let you experiment new things
Query Performance Improvement – In the new version of Tableau the in memory analytic database is made to work even more faster than before. It is designed to make the most use of the user’s hardware.

A new technology called Query Fusion is added which will search for all the queries and look out for ways to simplify them

Smart Maps – Selection controls, Location search capability are all the new features introduced in the new version
Admin Views – Admin views is one more special feature added to the new version which lets the administrators to monitor and analyze data easily. It also lets them to detect bugs, plan upgrades and track the activities.

There are also several other features of Tableau which is mainly divided under three categories

Analytics Features

Ad Hoc Analysis
OLAP
Predictive Analysis
Trend Indicators

Reporting Features

Ad Hoc Reporting
Automatic Scheduled Reporting
Customizable dashboard
Dashboard
Financial Forecast
Graphic Benchmark tools
Multiple Languages

Support Features

Email
In Person Training
Online Chat
Phone
Visual Analytics Tutorials

Some features are provided at a cost while other features comes for free.

This has all the necessary features that you need for your business today and the capabilities that you want for tomorrow.

Installation of Tableau is very easy and simple.

Comparison Table Between SAS Visual Analytics vs Tableau

Here in this article, we are going to compare SAS Visual Analytics vs Tableau.

Basis of Distinction	SAS Visual Analytics	Tableau
Otherwise Known as	SAS BI	Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server
Ranking	Ranks 11th position in the BI software tools	Ranks 1st position
Few Customers	Staples, Scotia Bank, Australian Institute of Health and welfare	Accenture, Coco Cola, Bank of America, PayPal, Google, Skype, Citigroup, Dell, Walmart, The New York Times, US Army and Air force
ETL development	Supports internal ETL development	This does not support ETL development
Modelling Add in	SAS VA comes with SAS Visual statistics which will help you to do modelling	Does not support modelling Add in
Functionality support	In SAS VA there is “Stored Process” system where if any functionality is not working then it can be programmed to literally do anything	Tableau is drag and drop tool and if any functionality is not working your work gets stopped there
Size of Business	SAS VA can handle larger volumes of data	This is best suited for small and medium scale industries
Installation	SAS VA installation process is large and takes some time. A third party does the installation and your company is considered as a passenger.	This can be installed with ease like your MS Office. It is also easy to manage
Forms of analysis	SAS VA supports many forms of analysis	Whereas Tableau does not support different type of analysis like text analysis, predictive analysis, what if analysis and others
Capability	SAS VA requires extra effort and cost to expand the capability	This comes with all the in- built capabilities for the business users. Therefore no extras to be added.
Visualization	SAS VA does not support packet bubble visualization	Tableau has packet bubble visualization
Colour differentiation	SAS VA output cannot be differentiated using colours	In Tableau output different sectors can be differentiated using different colours
Underlying data	In SAS VA the underlying data cannot be viewed unless you have Visual data builder or report designer	In Tableau desktop the underlying data can be easily viewed
Dashboard	SAS visual analytics dashboard has multiple tabs	Tableau dashboard can tell a story
Important features	Interactive dashboard, Visual data explorer	Actions, Story dashboard, Parameters, Maps
Deployment Issues	Only minimal deployment issues detected	No deployment issues detected
Pros	SAS VA is excellent for modelling, data exploration	Slicing and dicing of data, Connectivity to Google Analytics and dispersed data sources
Recommended improvements	Navigation should be made easyNeed to be little cheapAccommodate survey data	Release of new features is always in the next version which takes much time
Usability	SAS visual analytics has user guide which will help the users to learn all the basic capabilities	This is very simple and easy to learn. It is a drag and drop tool and so users can easily learn it.
Support	SAS VA lends legendary support from customer services as well as from analytics experts and representatives	Support is not required in Tableau as it is frequently updated and the issues are solved out quickly
Training	SAS has many regional and national level centers to provide training in order to expand the users knowledge about the software	This software is so easy to use and so it trains a lot of people in a short period of time. Simple instructions are more than enough for the users to understand the new features added
Online help	There are lot of videos available online for the users which includes live classes and resource materials	Online videos are exceptionally good in Tableau
Performance	SAS VA can handle billions of rows of data and the performance is relatively good	It performs very well. But the only thing is that the data should be organized properly in order to get the maximum performance out of it
Alternatives	SAS VA can get data from other sources such as Salesforce and many others	Alternative solutions are still in the process
Initial Setup	The initial set up of SAS VA requires more time and effort	This is easy to install and set up
Cost and Licensing	Annual License and onetime cost	The cost of tableau differs for each of its feature
Return on Investment	Increase the return on investment through marketing campaigns	Increases productivity and Increases client satisfaction
Technical support	SAS VA offers excellent technical support	Do not need any technical support in Tableau
Customer Service	The customer intelligence manager and the support team interacts closely with the users	Customer support is very good but often it is not needed because of the robustness of the software
Google Analytics Connector	SAS VA does not support this feature	Tableau connects easily with Visual Google Analytics
Free Trial	Free Visual Analytics trial is available for 14 days. Click here	This offers a free trial to the users
Sharing of work	SAS VA lets you to share your work with partners and colleagues	It does not let you to share your work
Themes	In SAS VA corporate themes can be integrated once it is installed	Tableau does not support any change of themes

Below is the picture that compares the Tableau with SAS VA for the year 2014

Conclusion

I hope that this article would have helped you to learn the differences between Visual Analytics vs Tableau. On the whole Tableau has a lot of good features when compared with Visual Analytics. Tableau gives answers to all your business needs and lets you focus on the other task in the organization.

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