FAA Selects Tableau Software to Get Quicker Insights and Share Information Across Organization

One of the largest administrations under the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has selected Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA) to augment and extend its BI strategy to visually analyze a broad range of data in support of its mission to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world. The FAA chose Tableau to get insights from air traffic operations, workforce planning, financial, IT, and a number of other types of data. Tableau has also helped to bring a more self-service approach for users when analyzing and sharing information across the organization.

The FAA selected Tableau as part of its information delivery business intelligence program to deliver on the objectives of an open government with greater transparency. As the FAA moves to an even more data-driven culture, Tableau provides a fast time to market from a development standpoint and is also easy to use, resulting in rapid adoption for more than 300 agency personnel.

“Prior to using Tableau, we were working with data in traditional spreadsheets,” said the Information Delivery Manager at the FAA. “With Tableau, it has enabled us to provide our employees with a whole new way of looking at data. Now they can intuitively explore their data and easily see red flags and anomalies. The time to insight is much quicker. Tableau has also enabled us to fundamentally change the way we do development work. We have moved from a waterfall to an agile scrum model that provides a far more collaborative process and rapid time to market.”

Tableau has allowed the FAA to create dashboards across an array of data to promote higher levels of operational efficiency. One set of dashboards analyzes flight data to show intervals between take-offs and landings across the U.S. using a geographical map to visualize the data. Another set of dashboards around workforce planning allows the FAA to see trends in labor costs, analyze where people are charging their time, and forecasting for the right number of people to have on staff. IT security dashboards show the status of existing systems’ security posture to make sure they are compliant with standards, and program management dashboards track the development and health of new IT priorities and initiatives.

"Tableau plays a vital role in the next phase of information delivery at the FAA," said Nayeem Ahmed, Director of Technical Solutions at Tantus Technologies Inc (Tantus). Tantus designed and implemented the 4TB enterprise data warehouse and BI program at the FAA, as well as helped to select the BI toolsets for the FAA. "We are connecting the dots between a wide variety of data in the FAA Enterprise Data Warehouse; financial, acquisition, human resources, security, training, program management, IT, and air traffic. In partnership with the FAA, we are running 2-3 concurrent sprints using the Agile SCRUM methodology for delivering fast and intuitive Tableau visualizations that enable quick decisions."

The ability to share Tableau dashboards through the FAA portal has helped to encourage self-service analytics across the organization. FAA managers and knowledge workers can filter data to find the information they need, while others can develop their own dashboards.

“The FAA has a tremendous responsibility to ensure the safety of our aerospace system. The ability to see and understand all of its various operational data is imperative to making informed and impactful decisions,” said Elissa Fink, Chief Marketing Officer at Tableau Software. “Tableau also helps to show compliance around program management, which is so important in today’s budgetary climate.”

About FAA
Our mission is to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world. Learn more about how our mission is accomplished, the history of the FAA, and opportunities for the public to do business with the FAA at www.faa.gov.

About Tantus Technologies, Inc.
Tantus is a Washington, DC-based IT and management consulting firm specializing in systems design and integration of enterprise business analytics solutions, program management, financial management, and information assurance. Tantus is Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) Maturity Level 3, with over 80 employees and 2012 revenues topping $25 million. Tantus supports mission critical programs for Federal agencies including the FAA, HHS, DOI, State Department, Department of Defense, and the Export-Import Bank of the United States.

About Tableau
Tableau Software (NYSE: DATA) helps people see and understand data. Tableau helps anyone quickly analyze, visualize and share information. More than 12,000 customer accounts get rapid results with Tableau in the office and on-the-go. And tens of thousands of people use Tableau Public to share data in their blogs and websites. See how Tableau can help you by downloading the free trial at www.tableausoftware.com/trial.

Tableau and Tableau Software are trademarks of Tableau Software, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.