An open letter to our customers

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.

You may have seen a recent letter from our parent company, Salesforce. As Marc said, our hearts go out to everyone who is being impacted—directly and indirectly—by the current situation. Certainly, from where I live here in Seattle, Washington, the reality of how connected we all are is very much on my mind. We at Tableau are holding those who are fighting this illness and those who have already suffered losses very closely in our hearts.

Our first priority is safeguarding our employees and our greater communities. We’re also sensitive to the burden of indirect impacts from this situation—and how they often fall most heavily on those with the fewest resources to absorb them. You can read about some of the decisions we’ve made to prioritize the health of our employees and our communities here.

For our customers, as you use data to drive decisions about how to run your businesses while keeping your employees safe, I want to reassure you that our platform is secure and operating without interruption. We recognize that you’re relying on us. We will provide the support, innovation, and reliability that you depend on—nothing has changed on that front.

We also recognize that we’re in a unique position to help more people make critical decisions right now. Access to timely, trustworthy information–that is easy to analyze–has been difficult during this rapidly changing situation.

The data that is being reported in the media is typically aggregated to the point where it’s hard to answer the questions that matter to organizations and individuals. (What’s happening where my employees are located? What’s happening where my friends live? What’s happening in my key supply chain locations?) This lack of reliable, specific, and up-to-date data is adding to the uncertainty we all feel.

To address this, together with our Tableau Community and partners, we have created a free, publicly-accessible COVID-19 Data Resource Hub. This is intended as a public service to help people and organizations see and understand data and make better decisions. It includes:

• A clean, ready-to-use data stream of case reports. This near real-time data has been compiled by Johns Hopkins University and includes data from WHO and the CDC. We’ve cleaned, reshaped, and made this data ready for your analysis.
• A jumpstart workbook that can be downloaded and viewed along with your own valuable data such as employee locations with how-to guides.
• A curated gallery of the best visualizations created by our Tableau Community, including CNBC Digital and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In order to do our part in slowing the spread we also have switched all our events in March and April to virtual. Our team is leaning into their innovation and creative power to develop new digital experiences to bring our community together and to continue to learn from each other. A couple of specific events that I’d like to call out:

• Visualize Health, a virtual healthcare data summit to support those who are on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19. We’re gathering healthcare and data experts from forward-thinking organizations such as PATH, Stanford Health Care, Paladina Health, Snowflake, and Prominence to help healthcare organizations use data to improve patient experience and respond to rapidly-changing demands of this pandemic.
• Tableau Conference Europe We’re looking very closely at the timing of this event and will communicate any updates as soon as possible. For those customers who have already registered, we are keeping your health and safety as our top priority and we will be reaching out regarding options very soon.

We are sensitive to the financial hardships that can occur as a result of these decisions. All vendor hourly service providers and interns will be paid during this time. We are also working with our philanthropic arm, Tableau Foundation, to help both our local community and our local partner organizations during this uncertain time.

We have created two giving campaigns for employees. One supports front line health workers across the globe through the CDC Foundation, International Medical Corps, and Direct Relief. The second is the COVID-19 Response Fund, hosted by Seattle Foundation. This fund will provide flexible resources to organizations working with communities who are disproportionately impacted by coronavirus and the economic consequences of the outbreak. Both are receiving double donation matches through the Foundation.

We have also set up a $1 million response fund that we will deploy direct to community organizations serving our most at-risk neighbors and to nonprofits we partner with to help them adapt and withstand the circumstances of the outbreak. We want to remain flexible to local needs and those of our partners, and we will continue to support our community and our partners in any ways that we can.

I am confident that we will find our way through this difficult time. To have the best results, we need each other—we always have.

Onward,
Adam