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Tableau 2020.1 Delivers Community-Driven Features, Including Dynamic Parameters, Visualisation Animations and Administrative Tools

Announcement posted by Tableau Software 27 Feb 2020

New capabilities make data more engaging than ever
SEATTLE – Feb. 25, 2020 – Tableau Software, the leading analytics platform, today released new capabilities to help people unlock more interactivity in their dashboards and get deeper insights from their data. Tableau 2020.1 is the latest update driven by customers’ input in the online Tableau Community Forums, adding new features requested by Tableau customers and increased flexibility for administrators. Features including Dynamic Parameters eliminate the need to update workbooks when changes are made to the underlying data and viz animations give viewers a new tool for understanding transitions between data points, as well as engaging with the data. Tableau 2020.1 also provides additional capabilities for Tableau administrators through Login-Based License Management, and improvements to the Data Management Add-on and Server Management Add-on. For more information, visit: https://www.tableau.com/products/new-features.
 
“Since day one, we’ve put customers at the center of our product development. Our extensive and passionate Tableau Community helps steer our product innovation and keeps us focused on solving our customers’ most pressing challenges,” said Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer at Tableau. “This release brings some of our Community’s most-requested updates together, empowering our customers to make analytics more interactive and engaging and allowing them to focus on tasks that drive real value and transformation across their organisations.”
 
Visualisation Animations to bring your viz to life

Tableau 2020.1 puts analysis into motion with the introduction of Viz Animations, allowing creators to seamlessly connect the dots behind their analysis through motion. Animations serve as a visual cue, making it easier for people to follow along as they watch significant shifts unfold, with the movement clearly illustrating how data reacts to various changes, such as filtering or sorting. People are now able to easily spot and understand changes, visually following along to spot when a specific mark becomes an outlier, for example, or when there’s a sudden value spike or dip.
 
“Being able to add animated transitions to my dashboards will make it even easier to convey information to viewers, helping them to better understand the data behind my vizzes,“ said Marc Reid, a BI & Visualisation Manager who uses Tableau daily, and is also recognised as a Zen Master, a highly coveted title within the Tableau Community.  “From a data storytelling point of view, animations make it much easier for the audience to actually see changes in the data and better understand the transitions between different views.”
 
Dynamic Parameters set Uninterrupted Analysis
 
Parameters in Tableau are used by dashboard authors to add interactivity or flexibility to a report without the need for multiple visualizations - for example, parameters can transform a chart from calculating sales and profit to sales and discounts, with a simple drop-down or slider. Previously, parameters were static and required users to manually update their values. With today’s introduction of Dynamic Parameters, authors can set their workbooks to automatically adjust their parameters based on the latest data, ensuring that the rest of the organisation is viewing the most up-to-date, accurate data. Now, analysts can spend less time building and maintaining their visualizations and more time interpreting their findings to deliver measurable business value.
 
“We have dozens of dashboards at our organisation that are constantly being updated with new data, requiring new parameter values in order to make sure our viewers are seeing the most accurate, up-to-date data. Dynamic parameters will allow those parameters to be updated automatically, saving me hours every single month,” said Kevin Flerlage, Senior Analyst and Tableau Developer at Unifund, CCR. “This feature is the most requested feature in the history of Tableau and it is a complete game-changer — I cannot wait to see how others use it!”
 
Other updates to the Tableau platform in version 2020.1 include:
 
-          Login-Based License Management gives Creators the ability to instantly activate their Tableau Desktop or Prep product by logging in with their Tableau Server credentials. Administrators are able to assign, monitor, and reclaim Desktop or Prep access directly from Tableau Server, rather than distributing license keys. 
-          Tableau Catalog new connectors now include Google BigQuery, Google Sheets, and Cloudfile, extending the available data sources that administrators can verify for their organisation. 
-          Level of Detail calculations in Tableau Prep Builder help to simplify the preparation and analysis of data at a deeper level of granularity, eliminating tedious multi-step flows and replacing them with visual calculations.
-          Buffer Calculations allow customers to easily visualise a buffer around a point location, answering complex spatial locations with drag-and-drop simplicity. 
 
To learn more about today’s release or to start a free trial, visit: tableau.com/new-features
 
About Tableau
Tableau helps people see and understand data. Tableau’s self-service analytics platform empowers people of any skill level to work with data. From individuals and non-profits to government agencies and the Fortune 500, tens of thousands of customers around the world use Tableau to get rapid insights and make impactful, data-driven decisions. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at: www.tableau.com/trial