Romain Ferraton, CEO and Founder of Architecture & Performance, uses Tableau to conduct performance analyses and audits in clients’ offices. With Tableau, Romain refines his analysis on an ad-hoc basis. This flexibility helps him create a customized experience for each client. And using Tableau’s native connectors, he can bring in data from databases like SAP HANA. Romain sums up his experience: “I could no longer do without this tool. For me, going back to anything else would be a huge step backwards.”
Tableau: What was your initial impression of Tableau? Romain Ferraton, CEO and Founder: When I discovered Tableau, it filled such a big gap that I put aside software that had taken me a huge amount of time to learn. In fact, there was so much to be gained in terms of speed of development and readability of reports that I switched over to this technology. Tableau: What was the situation like before Tableau? How did it improve? Romain: I had a lot of difficulty displaying mountains of data (which I do today in a clear manner), and finally extracting relevant information from them. It was difficult without Tableau. Today, I go ten times quicker with Tableau. Tableau: How has your experience evolved over time? Romain: For five years, I have used it almost daily to do performance analyses and performance audits that I conduct at my clients' offices. Today, I could no longer do without this tool. For me, going back to anything else would be a huge step backwards.
When I discovered Tableau...there was so much to be gained in terms of speed of development and readability of reports.
Tableau: In your opinion, what is a main benefit of Tableau? Romain: In my field, I don't have a defined guiding principle. I have to analyze things as they come, because each case is different. It is therefore what one calls ad-hoc analysis, and this tool is perfect for that. Tableau: Can you talk about your client process? Romain: I go to my clients; I install probes that operate for several days, several weeks, perhaps a whole month. Then I collect and integrate this information into a database, and put Tableau into this database, where I insert it and where I do my analyses. So there you have it, that's how I use it, as a performance auditor. When I do my architectural work I use Tableau more to demonstrate the capacities of other databases that I am going to plug Tableau into. Tableau performs very well on many databases, including SAP HANA. I can show the capacities of the database with a product that is also innovative. Often – as happened last time – my client ends up wanting Tableau, while at the beginning he was heading towards a POC database. In the end, he wants both: he wants the in-memory database, but he also wants the tool to leverage it.