Page 177 -

176 Part II • Descriptive Analytics

forms of data visualization available in both business intelligence applications have
included charts and graphs, as well as the other types of visual elements used to create
scorecards and dashboards. Application Case 4.3 shows how visual reporting tools can
help facilitate cost-effective business information creations and sharing.

Application Case 4.3

Tableau Saves Blastrac Thousands of Dollars with Simplified Information Sharing
Blastrac, a self-proclaimed global leader in portable the data sources. Murray then deployed two data
surface preparation technologies and equipment visualization tools from Tableau Software: Tableau
(e.g., shot blasting, grinding, polishing, scarifying, Desktop, a visual data analysis solution that allowed
scraping, milling, and cutting equipment), depended Blastrac analysts to quickly and easily create intui-
on the creation and distribution of reports across the tive and visually compelling reports, and Tableau
organization to make business decisions. However, Reader, a free application that enabled everyone
the company did not have a consistent reporting across the company to directly interact with the
method in place and, consequently, preparation of reports, filtering, sorting, extracting, and printing
reports for the company’s various needs (sales data, data as it fit their needs—and at a total cost of less
working capital, inventory, purchase analysis, etc.) than one-third the lowest competing BI quote.
was tedious. Blastrac’s analysts each spent nearly With only one hour per week now required to
one whole day per week (a total of 20 to 30 hours) create reports—a 95 percent increase in productiv-
extracting data from the multiple enterprise resource ity—and updates to these reports happening auto-
planning (ERP) systems, loading it into several Excel matically through Tableau, Murray and his team are
spreadsheets, creating filtering capabilities and able to proactively identify major business events
establishing predefined pivot tables. reflected in company data—such as an exception-
Not only were these massive spreadsheets ally large sale—instead of reacting to incoming
often inaccurate and consistently hard to under- questions from employees as they had been forced
stand, but also they were virtually useless for the to do previously.
sales team, which couldn’t work with the complex “Prior to deploying Tableau, I spent countless
format. In addition, each consumer of the reports hours customizing and creating new reports based
had different needs. on individual requests, which was not efficient or
Blastrac Vice President and CIO Dan Murray productive for me,” said Murray. “With Tableau,
began looking for a solution to the company’s report- we create one report for each business area, and,
ing troubles. He quickly ruled out the rollout of a with very little training, they can explore the data
single ERP system, a multimillion-dollar proposition. themselves. By deploying Tableau, I not only
He also eliminated the possibility of an enterprise- saved thousands of dollars and endless months
wide business intelligence (BI) platform deployment of deployment, but I’m also now able to create a
because of cost—quotes from five different ven- product that is infinitely more valuable for people
dors ranged from $130,000 to over $500,000. What across the organization.
Murray needed was a solution that was affordable,
could deploy quickly without disrupting current sys- Questions for Discussion
tems, and was able to represent data consistently 1. How did Blastrac achieve significant cost savin-
regardless of the multiple currencies Blastrac oper- gin reporting and information sharing?
ates in.
2. What were the challenge, the proposed solution,
the solution and the results and the obtained results?
Working with IT services consultant firm, Interworks, Sources: tableausoftware.com/learn/stories/spotlight-blastric;
Inc., out of Oklahoma, Murray and team finessed blastrac.com/about-us; and interworks.com.

M04_SHAR9209_10_PIE_C04.indd 176 1/25/14 7:34 AM