Tableau is a robust Business Intelligence tool that helps users visualize data simply and elegantly. Tableau has helped numerous organizations understand their customer data better through their Visual Analytics platform.
Data Visualization is the next step after the customer data present in rudimentary form has been cleaned, organized, transformed, and placed in a Data Warehouse.
This is where Tableau ETL Tools will come in handy. Integrating ETL tools with Tableau will allow you to load the analysis-ready data from a large number of sources into Tableau after passing through the ETL pipeline.
Here in this article, you will learn about the Tableau ETL Tools in detail. This article will explore the importance of Tableau ETL Tools integration, factors to keep in mind before you decide on a Tableau ETL Tool, and finally, it zeroes in on the best Tableau ETL Tools you choose from to incorporate in your workflow.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Tableau ETL Tools Integration
Image Source
Tableau as mentioned before is a Data Visualization platform that allows you to extract relevant actionable insights from the customer data.
This allows you to tweak your operations accordingly to ensure you function at optimal efficiency.
ETL Tools allows you to analyze your data in a single place.
The data you receive from your customers cannot be directly assessed to extract insights as it exists in several formats taken from multiple sources. This data needs to be transformed into a single format and finally loaded into a repository for easy access.
It is a well-known fact that the quality of your Analytics process depends on the quality of data you are leveraging.
Tableau has come a long way to ensure that the process of gathering data is relatively easier than before, which allows you to bring in more data sources.
More Diverse and dynamic data would translate to more questions popping up, which means the opportunity of sharing more detailed answers to aspects that hadn’t been explored previously.
ETL for Tableau allows you to join and blend data from disparate database technologies and tables quickly and easily.
It thus gives you the competitive edge as it allows you to carry out analysis on the data irrespective of where it resides.
Understanding the Factors to Keep in Mind for Tableau ETL Tools
There are several options available for loading/unifying data in Tableau. These range from built-in Tableau tools/functionalities to user-friendly third-party ETL platforms.
What you would be looking for is the capability of the ETL tool to convert the rudimentary data into a format that is Tableau-friendly.
In this section, you will get a glimpse of a few factors to keep in mind before you decide on an ETL tool to integrate with Tableau for Data Analysis:
- Technical Knowledge Requirement: You need to look for a Tableau ETL tool that allows you to prepare the data simply. An intuitive tool that lets you understand the functioning in a short period is a major factor that should not be ignored. You shouldn’t be incorporating a tool that takes too long to get a hang of, which might hurt business efficiency and revenue in the long run.
- Need for Advanced Capabilities: Pick a Tableau ETL tool that provides essential features like Predictive Modeling, Advanced Mapping, ETL Job Scheduling, and Data Testing. With the advent of technology, a bare-bones Tableau ETL tool wouldn’t suffice your Data Analysis needs in the long run. So you should keep in mind the scale of operations and future capabilities before deciding on the best Tableau ETL tool in the market for you.
- Steps Required for Data Preparation: You should go for a Tableau ETL tool that gives you relevant options for cleaning and preparing the data. For instance, you can use Tableau Desktop for converting data to Tableau date formats, rename fields, and hide unused columns. For more advanced capabilities you can browse through third-party ETL tools to find a Tableau ETL tool that caters to your needs.
- Data Source Requirements: ETL tools can help connect to different types of files like CSV, Excel, or databases and applications. Depending on the sources you rely on for gathering data, pick a Tableau ETL tool that fits your needs.
- Total Cost of Ownership: You need to keep in mind the budget allocated for acquiring a Tableau ETL tool, the essential functionalities you require in that tool, and the time and money it would take to train your employees to use Tableau ETL tools.
When you have to deal with complex data preparation, you will need to shift your attention to the available third-party ETL tools to give you what you are looking for.
There are a over hundred ETL tools available in the market, that make Tableau ETL integration a worthwhile investment in the long term.
Here you can look at four key Tableau ETL tools, that will be doing the rounds this year. These Tableau ETL Tools are:
- Hevo Data
- Tableau Prep
- Altair Monarch
- Adverity
1. Hevo Data
Image Source
A fully managed No-code Data Pipeline platform like Hevo helps you integrate and load data from 150+ different sources to a destination of your choice in real-time in an effortless manner.
Hevo with its minimal learning curve can be set up in just a few minutes allowing the users to load data without having to compromise performance.
Its strong integration with umpteenth sources provides users with the flexibility to bring in data of different kinds, in a smooth fashion without having to code a single line.
Check out some of the cool features of Hevo:
- Completely Automated: The Hevo platform can be set up in just a few minutes and requires minimal maintenance.
- Real-Time Data Transfer: Hevo provides real-time data migration, so you can have analysis-ready data always.
- 100% Complete & Accurate Data Transfer: Hevo’s robust infrastructure ensures reliable data transfer with zero data loss.
- Scalable Infrastructure: Hevo has in-built integrations for 150+ sources, that can help you scale your data infrastructure as required.
- 24/7 Live Support: The Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to you through chat, email, and support calls.
- Schema Management: Hevo takes away the tedious task of schema management & automatically detects the schema of incoming data and maps it to the destination schema.
- Live Monitoring: Hevo allows you to monitor the data flow so you can check where your data is at a particular point in time.
SIGN UP HERE FOR A 14-DAY FREE TRIAL
Hevo Data Pricing
The different pricing models available are as follows:
- Free: This plan is offered free of cost.
- Starter: This plan starts from $249/user/month.
- Business: This plan is customizable. You can get a quote from them to get an affordable price that fits your budget.
You can learn more about Hevo Data’s pricing models here.
2. Tableau Prep
Image Source
A Data Analyst spends nearly 80% of the time cleaning and preparing the data, and only 20% of the time is given to actual data analysis.
Therefore to reduce the time it took to actually clean and prepare the data, Tableau came up with the tool: Tableau Prep.
Tableau Prep has several functionalities that let you visualize and examine your data. Here is what you can do with Tableau Prep:
- Data Extraction and Connection.
- Identification of Issues and Errors.
- Understanding your Customer Data (Number of distinct values, data types of fields, number of records, etc).
- Data Enhancement.
- Modification of Data.
- Output Analysis-Ready Data.
This tool houses intuitive drag-and-drop and drop-down menus to visualize your ETL process in Tableau. Tableau Prep allows you to extract data from various data sources:
- MySQL
- Oracle
- PostgreSQL
- Amazon Aurora
- Microsoft SQL Server, to name a few.
Tableau Prep Pricing
The pricing for Tableau Prep is divided into 3 categories:
- Individuals: A single paid plan called Tableau Creator costs $70/user/month billed annually.
- Teams and Organizations: There are 3 sub-plans in place to cater to your needs.
- Tableau Creator: $70/user/month billed annually.
- Tableau Explorer: $35/user/month billed annually.
- Tableau Viewer: $12/user/month billed annually.
- Embedded Analytics: This plan is customizable.
3. Altair Monarch
Image Source
Altair Monarch is a key ETL tool that allows you to extract data from PDFs, text files, web pages, and reports.
Altair automates Machine Learning and data transformation processes and tasks to extract value from your customer data.
With Altair, you can operationalize your pipeline performance in real-time and speed up the process of data preparation and transformation to obtain cleaned datasets within seconds.
Here are a few key features of Altair:
- Altair automates time-consuming tasks with the help of repeatable workflows that can be operated without any coding knowledge.
- With Altair, you can combine, clean and export data to tools like Tableau which makes it a key Tableau ETL tool.
- Altair allows you to focus on outliers without losing sight of the bigger picture.
- It also allows users to build their own real-time data monitoring pipelines to track the metrics relevant to their enterprise.
- It further allows you to successfully analyze the impact of alternative responses on future operational performance.
Altair allows you to export to or update the data sources present in Tableau Server.
You can do this by providing the necessary information in the sub-tab Server > Tableau Server of the Application Default Settings dialog.
A necessary prerequisite for exporting data to Tableau Server would be the installation of the Tableau TABCMD program. This is a command-line utility that allows users to automate administrative tasks on the Tableau Server site.
With over 80 pre-built data preparation functions, Altair makes the data preparation tasks completely error-free and ensures that more time is spent on data analysis using BI tools like Tableau.
This makes Altair a popular choice for an effective Tableau ETL tool.
Altair Monarch Pricing
Altair Monarch costs $1995/user/year for anyone looking for self-service data preparation software.
4. Adverity
Image Source
Adverity is meant for data-driven marketers. It is a Marketing Analytics platform that allows them to make better decisions and significantly improve performance.
It allows enterprises to manage and connect their data sources in a single platform. Here are a few features of Adverity that make it such an indispensable tool, to begin with:
- It offers key Marketing operation features like Data Collection, ROI Tracking, Customer Insights, and Multi-User Access.
- It provides the key functionalities of transformation, extraction, loading, and automation.
- The Adverity platform ensures your enterprise keeps up with the latest developments with high scalability.
- It allows the users to build customized dashboards that come with Campaign Insights, Multichannel Tracking, and Brand Optimization to help you get the best out of your data in terms of actionable insights.
Image Source
Adverity’s data collection capabilities coupled with a powerful transformation engine allow Tableau users to analyze the customer data on a granular level like never before at a much greater speed.
This integration is highly beneficial as it allows the discovery of actionable insights from high-end data discovery and data visualization capabilities. This integration aims to provide a custom analytics and marketing reporting solution to address the e-commerce and Marketing specific business needs and challenges.
Adverity Pricing
The pricing plans for Adverity are customizable.
All you need to do is ask them for a quote and get a pricing plan to fit your budget.
Conclusion
In this article, you have explored the Tableau ETL tools in detail. This exploration included pit stops like the factors determining your choice of the best Tableau ETL tool specific to your use case and a few key Tableau ETL tools to look out for this year.
Extracting complex data from a diverse set of data sources can be a challenging task and this is where Hevo saves the day! Hevo offers a faster way to move data from Databases or SaaS applications into your Data Warehouse to be visualized in a BI tool.
Hevo is fully automated and hence does not require you to code. The Automated data pipeline helps in solving this issue and this is where Hevo comes into the picture. Hevo Data is a No-code Data Pipeline and has awesome 150+ pre-built Integrations that you can choose from.
visit our website to explore hevo[/hevoButton]
Hevo can help you Integrate your data from numerous sources and load them into a destination to Analyze real-time data with a BI tool such as Tableau. It will make your life easier and data migration hassle-free. It is user-friendly, reliable, and secure.
SIGN UP for a 14-day free trial and see the difference!