Update to our COVID-19 response

Editor’s note: Since published, we’ve updated the data source to make sure everyone has uninterrupted access to the latest data. Learn more about the latest data source.

Four weeks ago, I shared an open letter highlighting the work we’ve been doing to help our customers and our communities during this COVID-19 crisis. Over this past month, we have seen pressing needs across the board and we’ve been working closely with customers, partners, and community organizations as they address the most urgent demands. We’ve seen a few key areas—government and general public, private sector direct response, and business recovery—stand out as critically important in helping to reduce suffering and speed recovery.

In response, we have developed hands-on solutions for each of these areas. We know many of you may have similar needs; I hope you’ll check out the online resources highlighted below or contact our amazing team. We’re here to help.

There is probably no time in recent memory when up-to-date, accurate data has been more important—or more in demand from the broader public. Public officials are working as quickly as they can to make sure that people are able to access that information, at the same time that they’re conducting their own internal data analysis to understand needs and craft policies and strategies to respond to the crisis. Knowing what is happening right now in specific localities regarding cases, hospital admissions, medical supplies, etc. is a matter of life and death.

We’re working closely with officials from a wide variety of local governments, like the City of Boston and Seattle’s own King County; to state governments from California to Ohio to New York; to national entities like the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. We are helping agencies in all of these areas to use their data more effectively and/or make it available to the public.

The COVID-19 Data Resource Hub, first published in early March, continues to be a resource for government, NGOs, and the general public. You can find a clean, ready-to-analyze data source from Johns Hopkins University (updated daily) with a starter workbook you can download for free. This data source and workbook is ready to be combined with your own valuable data to get answers to the questions that matter most to you. We’ve also created a daily global tracker view to help you understand at a glance what’s happening across the world or by country. And we’ve gathered a curated gallery of the best visualizations on the COVID-19 impacts on issues like hospital bed scarcity, free meal resources, and funding distribution of the CARES Act. You can bookmark any of these vizzes and use it as a guide to best practices on visualizing impact analysis of this crisis that is critical for you.

If you are a public sector organization providing direct response to the coronavirus crisis and you need help, please reach out to your account representative.

Of course, many of the most critical participants in the coronavirus response are private sector organizations. Whether it’s marshalling resources such as 3-d printers that can be repurposed to produce urgently-needed equipment or tracking hospital bed capacity, companies are leaping into action to help ensure health, preserve lives and reduce suffering.

We’ve tapped into our partner community’s deep expertise to help deliver data solutions tailored to two pressing needs right now. For organizations needing to make decisions around employee health and returning to work, this HR analysis template from Lovelytics combines HR and COVID-19 data. For healthcare organizations, we have the healthcare starter from Prominence. This healthcare starter—available only to healthcare organizations—includes a COVID-19 dashboard, metric workbook, and instructional materials for key measures such as test administered results, and metrics applicable to any EHR.

We will continue to work closely with our expert partners to deliver solutions tailored to the most pressing needs we’re hearing from you, our customers.

It is increasingly clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is not only a health crisis—it’s also an economic crisis. We hear from many of you that analytics is more important than ever now and will be critical as you work to set up your organization for the business recovery ahead.

We know that small businesses are being particularly squeezed. And many don’t have the resources to help cushion the strain, yet they are in need of better analytics to aid in critical decisions. To help, we’ve developed the Tableau for Salesforce Care Small Business Offer. We are offering 3 months of free licenses for up to 10 employees. Companies with fewer than 20 employees are eligible for this offer.

Of course, recovery isn’t solely an organizational effort. Many individuals have—or will—experience job loss as a terrible result of this crisis. The ability to develop and demonstrate data skills will be a significant advantage to anyone competing for job opportunities. We have created two offers for anyone hoping to learn--or polish—the in-demand data skills that will help them stand out on the job market.

First, Tableau eLearning is now free for anyone for 90 days. This web-based, on-demand experience is self-paced and designed by experts in Tableau and online learning.

Second, we are also offering Tableau Desktop Specialist Certification at a 50% discount. The discount is automatically applied when you purchase a test. Certification is a great way to show prospective employers that you have proven Tableau capabilities.

Free eLearning and the certification discount will not only help people re-skill for in-demand jobs, these offers also will create a pool of hirable talent for organizations rebuilding their teams as we recover from this pandemic. These offers will be available until June 30, 2020.

Finally, as we all look for ways to help others during this crisis, I encourage you to consider supporting existing nonprofits in your own local area. Through our philanthropic arm, Tableau Foundation, we have committed $1.4 million to a response fund for community organizations and existing nonprofit partners. A great example of the impact this is having is FareStart, a food services job training and placement program for adults and youths in Seattle. With help from a Tableau Foundation grant, FareStart has provided more than 130,000 meals to the most vulnerable communities in Seattle.

As a global community, we need a clear understanding of the data relevant to this illness as well as a community that works together—these are crucial requirements for us to make it through this crisis. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to support all of our employees, customers, partners, and communities. We’re all in this together.