All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc. Using Tableau with SAS A Case Study with...

All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc.All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc.All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc.

Using Tableau with SASA Case Study with Recommendations

2009 Tableau Customer Conference July 20-23 – Seattle, WA

Michael W CristianiMarket Intelligence Group, LLC


Should you be in this room?

+ Questions on the table:+ Can output from SAS procedures (what’s that

mean?) be used with Tableau?+ Should SAS output be used with Tableau?+ Can SAS output be used in concert with Tableau,

SQL, web apps, without breaking the bank?

+ Can you contribute by crowdsourcing these questions with+ Answers?+ More questions?


Wisdom from the field

“Remember, it’s not about the tools, it’s about the intelligence.”- Ted Cuzzillo

Ted Cuzzillo is “a freelance writer who writes lead-generating journalism, PR and marketing for clients within the greater business intelligence community.” He also gifts the BI community with www.datadoodle.com. Ted graces friends and family with fabulous cuisine and delightful stories of Sicily.

Ted is here at the 2009 Tableau Customer Conference.


Market Intelligence Group, LLC

+ Established 1997

+ Database development

+ Database management

+ Decision support and comprehensive business analytics

+ Tableau application development

+ Hosted database marketing and business operations applications running on the DataWell® platform


Market Intelligence Group, LLC

Michael W Cristiani

+ Principal

+ Urban and Regional Planning

+ Telecommunications demand forecasting and analysis

+ Business analytics and decision support systems development


The Business Problem -- 2002

Cateogry Current situation Need

Description

Supports organizational development goalsSupports organizational development goals

Ongoing voluntary multi-rater employee evaluationsOngoing voluntary multi-rater employee evaluations

No direct impact on advancement or compensationNo direct impact on advancement or compensation

Large validated survey instrumentLarge validated survey instrument


The Business Problem

Cateogry Current situation Need

Administrative Functions

Data Collection

Processing

Research

Online administrative functionsManual administrative functions

Online data collection (large data sets) Online data collection

Very specific report formats

Online reports for employees with minimal intervention

Offline data processing and report preparation by hand in Excel

Must use Excel for reporting unless online system available

Complex rating and business rules

Disconnected research process Capability to do OD research from raw or summarized data sets


Evaluation framework

+ Evaluators+ Self, Bosses, Peers, Staff (reports)

+ Self+ 3 bosses+ 3 groups of 7 peers+ 3 groups of 7 staff

+ Feedback requested for each evaluated behavior+ Actual (% of time behavior is observed)+ Preferred (% of time behavior is preferred)

+ Feedback Report+ Report Gap, average Actual, Preferred, and (Preferred –

Actual) scores for each behavior within each evaluator group


First Gen Solution

+ Gather business rules+ Process data sets using PC-SAS (Base)

+ Summarize data into multiple “tables” to support multiple report formats with unique rules for calculating averages

+ Apply complex business and privacy rules+ Develop Excel reports application

+ Graphic data presentation per client’s requirements+ Lots of VBA

+ Deliver employee level results in Excel application+ Lots of formulas+ Huge (typically 100MB/file) + Monthly files+ Point and click hard copy reports


Current process flow

SASProcessing

(as new dataArrives)

Cubed Data Set

(cumulative)

Raw Data Set(weekly,

on demand)

PEAK™Report

Generator(Excel

deliverable)

Evaluation Process

Evaluation Process

Survey Administration – consider business rules

Employee Assessment – consider business rules


Some business rules

+ Protect privacy of evaluators+ Minimum of 3 paired ratings per question within each rater

group+ Collapse remaining matched pairs into generic rater groups+ Apply these rules for questions and core competency groups

+ Allow self and superior evaluations to flow through without matching ratings


Some raw and summarized data


SAS easily summarizes raw data while applying complex business rules

qindex n participant_id lvl2 lvl3 q a p g fcnumber

F110.009BossGroup1 1 F110.009 Boss Group1 1 93 97 4 F110


F110.009PeerGroup2 4 F110.009 Peer Group2 1 89.5 95 5.5 F110

F110.009PeerGroup3 4 F110.009 Peer Group3 1 97.5 97.5 0 F110

F110.009_SelfSelf 1 F110.009 Self Self 1 95 90 -5 F110

F110.009StaffGroup1 5 F110.009 Staff Group1 1 85.8 84.4 -1.4 F110

F113.058PeerPeerGroup 4 F113.058 Peer Peer Group 1 97.5 87.5 -10 F113

F113.058_SelfSelf 1 F113.058 Self Self 1 50 100 50 F113

F113.058StaffStaffGroup 4 F113.058 Staff Staff Group 1 93.75 95 1.25 F113


F113.060StaffStaffGroup 3 F113.060 Staff Staff Group 1 88.33333333 96.66666667 8.333333333 F113


F115.013PeerGroup1 3 F115.013 Peer Group1 1 90.33333333 93 2.666666667 F115

F115.013PeerGroup2 5 F115.013 Peer Group2 1 71 95 24 F115


F115.013StaffGroup1 5 F115.013 Staff Group1 1 79.2 94 14.8 F115

F115.013StaffGroup2 4 F115.013 Staff Group2 1 96.25 96.5 0.25 F115


F122.033PeerGroup1 4 F122.033 Peer Group1 1 84.75 89.75 5 F122


F122.034PeerGroup2 3 F122.034 Peer Group2 1 90 95 5 F122

F122.034PeerGroup3 3 F122.034 Peer Group3 1 90 91.66666667 1.666666667 F122




Deliverable description for First Gen Solution

+ Two MS-Excel huge workbooks (100MB and 30MB)+ Reports [Focus of this presentation]+ Verbatim Comments

+ Each tool features+ Extensive VBA+ In-workbook database (fact and lookup tables)+ Point and click functionality+ Report previews+ Flexible printing

+ Batch+ Individual employee


Example from First Gen Solution

=+IF(OR($E17="",AND($E17<>"",

$DE17="",

$DF17="")),"",I

F(AND($E17<>"",

$DE17=G$7,$DF17=G$7),"S",IF(AND($

E17<>"",

$EA17=3,$EB17=G$7,$EC17=G$7),"B

",IF(AND($E17<>"",

$EA17<>0,$EA17<>2,OR($DE17=G$7

,$EB17=G$7)),"A",IF(AND($E17<>"",

$EA17<>0,$EA17<>1,OR($DF17=G$7

,$EC17=G$7)),"P",""

)))))


Example from First Gen Solution


Successes of First Gen Solution

+ Significant improvements in productivity+ Speedy data processing using PC-SAS+ Batch report preparation takes minutes of SME’s time

instead of days+ HR organizational development specialists have time to

counsel / write courses / teach

Why change this blissful situation?


Challenges with First Gen Solution

+ Frequent business rules changes require extensive SAS code changes+ Limited access to PC-SAS on occasion + Data still not in a proper database+ Data error tracking is cumbersome, usually occurring after employee

has one-time hard copy report+ Report format changes are a real challenge in Excel (100s K

formulas)+ Report distribution is offline / incurs significant mail costs+ Administrative tasks handled manually by staff and a third party vendor

What to do?


Successes / Challenges of First Gen Solution

Cateogry Need


Data Collection

Processing

Research

Online administrative functions

Online data collection





Capability to do OD research from raw or summarized data sets

YES

YES

YES

YES

NO

NO

NO


Next Gen Solution Requirements

+ Automate administrative tasks online+ Secure self-serve report generation and delivery online+ Store data in proper database+ Improve data error detection and remediation+ Eventual online data processing+ Evaluate SAS processing environment for speed, cost, and

reliability+ Include restricted views of data for research and tracking


Next Gen Solution: Two Cycles

+ First Cycle:+ Leverage investment in PC-SAS data processing code

+ Process data in PC-SAS+ Store summarized data tables and lookup tables in a proper

PostgreSQL database+ Connect in Tableau to summarized data tables

+ Design reports for Tableau+ Employee take away reports/views+ Administrative and research views

+ Develop Tableau reports workbook+ Apply business and privacy rules+ Allow data exploration+ PDF export+ User filters

+ Publish Tableau reports workbook to Tableau Server+ Secure login for up to 300 participants at a time (rolling)+ Data exploration+ PDF export


Next Gen Solution: Two Cycles

+ Second Cycle:+ Start with First Cycle Tableau reports workbook+ Test two approaches to data processing and make a decision

+ Connect in Tableau to summarized data tables+ Incorporate SAS data processing logic into PostgreSQL

code+ Process data online+ Requires minimal re-tooling of visualizations in Tableau

+ Connect in Tableau to unsummarized (raw) data tables+ Incorporate SAS data processing logic into Tableau

calculated fields or custom SQL+ Requires some further re-tooling of Tableau report

workbook+ Publish Tableau reports workbook to Tableau Server

+ Secure login for up to 300 participants at a time (rolling)+ Data exploration+ PDF export


Evaluation of Next Gen Concepts

Tableau demo comes here.


Successes/Challenges of Second Gen Solution

Cateogry Need


Data Collection

Processing

Research

Online administrative functions

Online data collection





Capability to do OD research from raw or summarized data sets

YES

ONLINE

YES – but customizable

YES

YES

YES

YES1

1 DataWell®


Why use summarized SAS output with Tableau?

SAS is a ubiquitous data management and analysis tool set:+ Installed base of many millions+ Base SAS handles large data sets with ease+ Stable platform that runs in many operating environments+ Proven analytical and statistical techniques for data exploration and discovery+ Widely used in academia for research and teaching

Training+ Very large body of official SAS published knowledge about SAS and its usage + Endless resources online

Accessibility+ Easy to export the results of SAS data management and analytics to flat files + SQL interface is available


Why not use summarized SAS output with Tableau?

+Learning cycle:+ Becoming very proficient with SAS can take years of experience + SAS specialists tend to concentrate on its specialized use within their

specific discipline+ Learning materials can be very expensive over a short time

+Expense:+ SAS licensing can be quirkily expensive+ Special modules are also expensive, and are often needed to accomplish

specific tasks+ SQL access is not free+ Server based applications are well outside the budget of most potential

users and consultants


Why use a SQL database with Tableau

Tableau easily connects to many flavors of SQL:+ Many SQL implementations are open source+ PostgreSQL is MIG flavor of choice

Online database management is a snap since + Hosted database management solutions permit

+ Automated inbound data feeds from any third party data provider (real time, online, or batch)

+ Seamless interaction with PC-SAS if necessary+ Simple/complex querying of unified summarized database

Security and accessibility+ A PHP / PostgreSQL front-end1 to this application will provide assistance in

managing administrative functions Tableau is not designed to address.

1 DataWell®


Why not use a SQL database with Tableau

+Learning and evaluation:+ Becoming very proficient with the SAS/SQL/DataWell interaction

may take some time+ The SAS processing necessary to prepare summarized data for

either the First Gen or Second Gen solutions is complex. + Will PostgreSQL choke on it?

+ If no SAS processing of raw data is done, is Tableau up to the complex processing steps needed to summarize the data from a PostgreSQL database?

+ For security reasons, clients may not want raw data exposed in hosted end-user facing environment



From a business perspective, what makes sense is:+ Leverage SAS data processing investment

+ Continue to process raw data feeds in PC-SAS+ Produce SAS output files in near real-time,

+ stored on DB server, + for access by DataWell® using PostgreSQL and PHP scripting

+ Build unified results database from stored SAS data sets or output files+ provides for multiple levels of aggregation in one Tableau worksheet vs

multiple tables (SAS/Excel)



From a client perspective, what makes sense is:+ In Tableau, connect to unified results database

+ Employee focused report views+ Basics research views+ Train client to go further with Tableau’s cycle of analysis+ Employee filter+ Publish workbook to Tableau Server

+ In DataWell®, + Integrate Tableau views+ Automatic view filtering on log-in+ Add administrative functions outside Tableau’s feature set.


Questions and Answers?


Resources

http://www.migsite.com

119 East Court St

Cincinnati, OH 45202

Robert Migliara [email protected]

Michael W Cristiani [email protected]

All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc. Using Tableau with SAS A Case Study with...

Documents

Transcript of All rights reserved. © 2009 Tableau Software Inc. Using Tableau with SAS A Case Study with...