From Outlawed to Outstanding: Cisco's Tableau Deployment @TCC12

Five years ago, Gregory Lewandawski’s silent plea was, “Don’t look under the desk.” Had his IT counterparts taken a peek, they would have found his rogue server running Tableau Software. It was the secret sauce that was helping Gregory shift the speed and effectiveness with which he and his analytics team were digging into data.

Flash forward to today. Cisco boasts a model partnership between business stakeholders and IT stewards. The impact is a team transforming how data is used to support and propel the business.

Take, for example, the Interactive Service Request Viewer (iSERV), showcased in the video above. iSERV makes the jobs of Cisco engineers "a whole lot easier" by bringing customer experience data directly to them as they create next generation products. Ken Patton, Technical Leader and self-described data visualization architect, explains, "we're setting the edge in terms of business intelligence, in terms of understanding data. It's a very powerful thing to take data that we already have and actually put it to use to bring value back to the business, rather than just having it sit around collecting dust in some warehouse someplace."

At Tableau's 5th annual Customer Conference, November 5-8 in San Diego, Gregory, Manager – Analytics and Ken, Technical Leader will be joined by Greg Blair, Manager – Business Intelligence Platforms, to explain how this Fortune 100 company, which once ignored Tableau, grew to a very large Tableau Server shop. They will tell the story of how Cisco started with Tableau to analyze more effectively in the face of a department long on requirements but short on budget. When Tableau saved the day, even the CEO took notice. The IT department noticed too.

You’ll hear how their new approach helped overcome obstacles and forge a new relationship between Business and IT. The once adversarial groups are now true partners focused on accelerating transformation at Cisco. Their session is designed to help other companies learn from their journey and take away recommendations on how to adopt Tableau within an enterprise.

Gregory Lewandowski(@lewandog), is a habitual early adopter, innovator, and natural collaborator who uses data to tell stories, tease out insights, and aid others in articulating questions they did not know they had. In June, Information Management named Gregory one of the Top 25 Information Managers of 2012. Gregory is a long-time member of the Tableau customer family and an active contributor to the community. A 13-year Cisco veteran, he has held roles in Sales, Operations, and Finance.

Ken Patton (@kenpatton1) brings his varied background, which includes programming, systems architecture, data analytics, and just plain old problem-solving, to his IT leadership role. He leads a Data Architecture and Visualization team at Cisco. He recently received Cisco's internal "Pioneer Award" which is considered Cisco's most prestigious award honoring innovation, risk taking, and collaboration. “High speed/low drag” solutions attract him most, so Tableau was a natural to become his strategic weapon of choice.

Greg Blair is passionate about analytics and enabling the business to excel. He has been in the IT industry for more than 25 years and in the BI/DW space for the last 14 years. In his current role at Cisco, Greg focuses on establishing and maturing critical BI capabilities for the business. Past roles include working for Price Waterhouse as a consultant to government organizations and as a BI/DW manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Register by September 21 to save $100 off the registration fee with discount code TCC12LC.