Power BI vs Tableau, Self-Service BI, and Hitler? Wait, what?!?

I have heard from many people that Tableau has better visuals than Power BI. But you have to use something else to feed the data to Tableau. Some use R or Python scripts, some crunch the data in SQL, or there are newer tools like Alteryx (mentioned at the end of this video) that allow you to manipulate data more graphically.

Whatever you use though, the point is that Tableau is just a “pretty front-end” while most of the heavy lifting is actually done behind the scenes.

This video nails it. My friend Rob Collie knows his stuff. Very funny, but also very true.

The total video length is less than 4 minutes.

And here is the transcript:

Commander 1: Revenues are up 8% across the board. Sales territories in the South are particularly strong. North region up 11% led by our new stores. And in the east, revenues show 7% growth here and here.

Hitler: Raw revenue tells me nothing. Show me gross profit margin corrected for seasonality.

Commander 1: Sir, the SQL developer…

Commander 2: The SQL developer waved his hands and muttered about schema and indexes. In two weeks the SQL will be in place to modify the Tableau reports.

Hitler: Everyone who had nothing to do with signing that Tableau licensing deal, wait outside.

Hitler: It’s supposed to be SELF SERVICE! How is endless SQL development SELF SERVICE??? “Agility!!” you told me! “THAT’s why it costs so much!” $20,000 a year for the Finance department alone! But always two weeks of SQL work for simple stuff! That’s not agile! We’re flying blind here! The Hindenburg was more agile than our BI strategy!

Commander 1: Sir, the Tableau sales reps…

Hitler: They lied to us! Distracted us with tasteful color palettes!

Commander 1: Sir, their demos showed us that this was possible…

Hitler: Of COURSE their demos showed it was possible! Tableau is $500 a seat! At those prices, their reps can lock a team of SQL devs in a cave for a month to put a dot on a chart! Anything to get us to sign that licensing deal! Their demos made it look so simple, but they didn’t tell us how much background work they had done! They told us it would replace Excel, but all we do now is export from Tableau back to Excel!

Hitler: I know it’s ironic. That they had to make an internet meme with ME, one of the worst villains of all time, to tell good people the truth.

Hitler: Our competitors run circles around us. What BI tools are THEY using??? Yesterday I read that in Power BI, this is a simple measure formula! Our analysts could have done everything we needed! In minutes! With no backend database work! If only we’d listened to Linda in accounting! SHE knew what was up!

Woman to Linda: We know you tried. And you can always work somewhere else.

Hitler: Our contract with them runs for another 18 months. If only we could get out of it. Everyone’s still using Excel instead anyway.

Hitler: Cancel our upcoming ad campaign. There’s no point. If we can’t measure it.

Hitler: And if you think we’re buying those Alteryx licenses to compensate for Tableau’s missing features, you’d better start sprucing up your LinkedIn profile.

Hitler: Send Linda in.