Pulse Mining uses Tableau to create analytics solutions quickly

Tableau: What does Pulse Mining Systems do? And what led you to Tableau?
Rob Parvin, Manager of Visualization and Analytics: Pulse Mining Systems is an ERP provider for the mining industry. The ERP back-end database is a relatively old technology. One of the challenges that we've got is how can we better provide visualizations for existing clients. It was an issue, and it's something that we needed to rectify in order for us to be able to kind of grow the business, and that's been my job. So that's where we've used Tableau.

Tableau: What kinds of data do you have?
Rob: There's a lot of data that exists in, for example, the finance area, and also the production area. So we were able to take all of that information and provide visualizations using Tableau.

Tableau: And how has Tableau made a difference?
Rob: So, for example, in the mine management area a lot of the different sites will have different data structures to represent, for example, water quality analysis. So we've used Tableau as a way of being able to provide the CIO with a quick win, allowing the delivery of a single reporting solution for water quality across the organization. That's then enabled us to provide the CIO with the capability to drive further initiatives and obviously get the funding to do that as well.

So the impact for us specifically at Pulse Mining has been very wide and a success. We've been able to set a precedent and create effectively a new line of business for the organization.

Tableau: How long have you been using Tableau?
Rob: So we've only been doing this piece of work for our existing client for six months. So it’s been a massive win really all around for our client and for us.

Tableau: How many people are using Tableau?
Rob: We went from zero licenses through to approximately 15 in the organization now, but that's by virtue of the first release and the first iteration of the rollout that includes Tableau as a visualization tool.

Tableau: What does Tableau allow you to do that you couldn’t do otherwise?
Rob: The capability for us to be able to have conversations around delivering analytical solutions for clients quickly, and obviously having a reference that we can refer to for that as well, is paramount, and we're very pleased with where we've been able to get to in a short space of time.

Tableau: Where would you be without Tableau?
Rob: I think if we were presented with the same problem with a traditional BI architecture, for example, and an established, long in the market BI tool, I wouldn't have been able to have conversations with the CIO, my main stakeholder, around two week cycles, two week sprint cycles. We can only do that because of the speed at which you can create these solutions using Tableau.