Question 1

What services do DataSpark offer?

Accepted Answer

Dataspark not only offer services but also Tableau licenses, we are a Tableau partner and licensed reseller. This means from point A (licenses) to point B (dashboards and integrations) we have got you covered.    We have assisted many clients to build dashboards and reports, integrate their data or even provide them with Tableau mentoring with their datasets whether one on one or a team within the business/organisation.    DataSpark also is experts at assisting you with the installation and management of your Tableau Server environment. Whether you need an install, upgrade or just a health check to ensure it's all running smoothly, we've got you covered.   We can even assist you with your data strategy, ensuring a high-level course of action that will help you achieve your BI success.

Question 2

Can Dataspark help me with Tableau training?

Accepted Answer

As a certified Tableau reseller, we can certainly point you in the right direction for Tableau training. There are an array of options available to you, such as desktop training, eLearning, some free resources. It all depends on your learning style! Do you prefer to work with someone? Perhaps you prefer to take your time and complete modules? Or maybe you only have a couple of questions and prefer working with your datasets?   Whatever the scenario, we can certainly point you in the right direction.   If you'd like to know more about our training options, you can have a look at our Tableau training webpage. Alternatively, you can contact customercare@dataspark.com.au and speak to one of our friendly staff members today.

Question 3

What is a Virtual Data Team?

Accepted Answer

We have an array of clients who want to work closely with us, so we created the Virtual Data Team to provide our existing and new clients with a way to unlock the power of their company data so they can become more agile, competitive and profitable in today’s marketplace. We do this by offering a managed service with many tiers, that have many benefits and even discounts applied to assist them on their BI journey.    The best part about our Virtual Data Team is the hours' rollover, if you don't get around to using them in May, you can save the hours to use them in August if you wish, we don't mind!    If you'd like to know more about our Virtual Data Team, please contact customercare@dataspark.com.au and speak to one of our friendly staff members today.

Question 4

What makes DataSpark so different?

Accepted Answer

DataSpark was born out of a desire to work with businesses to help them unlock the power of their company data so they can become more agile, competitive and profitable in today’s marketplace.    We aim to assist our customers in getting the maximum benefit out of their Tableau Investment, because of this, we are one of Tableau’s leading managed partners and resellers. Working across Australia & New Zealand and beyond, we assist an array of clients with different industry backgrounds.   The difference with DataSpark is we want to help you solve real business problems and obtain maximum value out of your data. We are entirely flexible in our approach to your BI requirements, whether you want to be completely self-sufficient and need some free resources, maybe you need a little support here and there or even if you want someone to get it all done for you, we are here every step of the way.    We offer many services such as one on one Tableau mentoring, and we can also assist you with your projects, dashboard creation, assist with server installations and upgrades or even assisting with those tricky integrations. Whatever your Tableau requirements are, we’ve got you covered. You can also leverage our Data Analysts and Technical Specialists as an extension of your team with our Virtual Data Team

Question 5

Is DataSpark a certified Tableau reseller?

Accepted Answer

The short answer is yes! DataSpark has been a certified Tableau reseller for many years, this means not only can we assist you with your Tableau license setup, but we can also help you with your add-ons and co-term them to your existing setup.   As soon as you join the DataSpark bandwagon we will reach out to the Tableau renewals team to let them know you're one of us. Tableau have complete trust that DataSpark will look after it's clients, so they leave the renewals up to us and we assign of our account manager to look after you!

Question 6

Are there any free resources that I can leverage?

Accepted Answer

We are all about helping you achieve your BI goals, we understand and strongly encourage our clients to be self-sufficient, naturally, we will be here to guide or support you along the way if ever you need.    You can leverage some free help from the following sites:
Tableau HelpTableau Community Free Training VideosLive Training Videos 
and Tableau Public Help.

Question 7

How do I upgrade my license or purchase additional licenses?

Accepted Answer

To upgrade to the latest version of Tableau, please see Tableau's Product Downloads and Release Notes page.   To upgrade from Desktop Personal to Desktop Professional, please contact your Account Manager to receive a quote for the difference in license cost and pro-rated maintenance fees. To purchase additional licenses, please contact your Account Manager on 1300 148 664 or email accounts@dataspark.com.au to receive a quote.

Question 8

How do I get the latest version of the software?

Accepted Answer

You can download the latest version by accessing our Product Downloads and Release Notes page or through the Tableau Customer Portal using your current license key. Please note, your account must be active and in good standing to be eligible to upgrade.   If your organisation has centralised administration, please work with your internal license administrator for access. If you have difficulty receiving the latest version of the software, check out Tableaus upgrade support pages for Desktop and Server. If you’re still having trouble, please email support@dataspark.com.au

Question 9

Can I automatically renew my licenses?

Accepted Answer

Choosing auto-renewal ensures continued access to your Tableau products without interruption. If you would like to auto-renew, DataSpark can provide you with the option to invoice yearly for the products and quantity included in the original transaction. You will be charged at the current exchange rates at the time of the transaction. This will ensure continued access to your Tableau products without interruption.   To make things easy for you, we will touch base with you 30 days prior to your expected renewal date to remind you that we will be invoicing you, once we receive payment we will order your licenses on your behalf and you will receive your new keys within 3-5 business days.   To find out more about auto-renewal, please contact us on 1300 148 664 or via accounts@dataspark.com.au

Question 10

When does my maintenance or subscription expire?

Accepted Answer

You can find the expiration date under Help > Manage Product Keys in Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, or Tableau Online.   You can also see when all keys on your account are expiring by logging into the Tableau Customer Portal.   If you aren't sure when your licenses expire, please do contact your Account Manager on 1300 148 664 or accounts@dataspark.com.au and we will be able to assist you with.

Question 11

Can I renew Product Maintenance or my Subscription if it has expired?

Accepted Answer

Subscription Licenses   When your subscription expires, your access to Tableau will be suspended after the subscription expiration date. To resubscribe at a later date, please contact one of our Account Managers or email accounts@dataspark.com.au   Perpetual Licenses   We accept late maintenance renewals up to six months after the maintenance expiration date with a 25% reinstatement fee per license. Once reinstated, maintenance continues from the original maintenance expiration date, not the date of payment. If you go beyond this six month grace period, you'll need to purchase a new license to receive the software or a version upgrade.   If you would like to renew your licenses, please do contact us on 1300 148 664 or via accounts@dataspark.com.au

Question 12

What happens if I choose not to renew my Tableau licenses?

Accepted Answer

Depending on what type of license you have, not renewing maintenance or subscriptions has different outcomes. If you are unsure of how your product is licensed, please reach out to your Customer Renewal Manager.   Subscription Licenses   When your subscription expires, your access to Tableau will be suspended after the subscription expiration date. For Tableau Online customers, access to your Tableau Online site will also be suspended. Further, Tableau cannot guarantee you will have access to any content published to Tableau Online, including any data input into the product.   Perpetual Licenses & Maintenance   If your Tableau licenses are perpetual, you may continue to use the product in perpetuity after your maintenance expires. You can continue to use the last available version while your maintenance was active indefinitely; but access to product upgrades and technical support will not be available without a current maintenance contract. If you opt not to renew, please keep a copy of the Software as Tableau will not guarantee supporting the download in perpetuity.   For more details see the Tableau Subscription & Maintenance Policy.

Question 13

How do I activate my Tableau server licenses?

Accepted Answer

Tableau Server requires at least one product key that both activates the server and specifies the number of license levels you can assign to users. You can access your product keys from the Customer Portal.   If you need to activate Tableau Server on a offline computer, see Activate Tableau Server Offline - Adding a License. If you need to activate additional product keys to add capacity to an existing Tableau Server installation, see Add Capacity to Tableau Server.   For more information on how to activate your Tableau Server licenses please see Activate and Register Tableau Server.

Question 14

What is the difference between Creator, Explorer and Viewer?"

Accepted Answer

The Tableau Creators - Minimum 1 Creators are anyone in your organisation who connects to sources of data and crafts that data into something useful for themselves and others. In your organisation today, they likely create reports and distribute them through email or a shared drive. They are performing ad-hoc analysis to answer deeper questions of their data. They are your data power users.   The Tableau Explorers - Minimum 5 In Tableau, Explorers will be able to build new workbooks themselves using published data sources or start with existing workbooks and dashboards, all through their browser or mobile device. But they won’t stop there. They’ll ask and answer deeper questions that may not have been answered in the initial round of reporting. Your team will explore their data and stay in the analytical flow like never before. The difference between Creators and Explorers is that Explorers are server-based licenses and they also can only connect to previously published data sources.   The Tableau Viewers - Minimum 100 Viewers use data to inform and improve the decisions they make. Tableau Viewers can be anyone from team members who need data to perform many of their daily tasks, to people managers who need to see how their teams are progressing on important projects, to the CEO, who needs high-level metrics about the health of the business. Viewers can view already published dashboards, they aren't able to create their own views as an explorer can.

Question 15

What is Tableau Embedded?

Accepted Answer

DataSpark receives this question a lot and has assisted many clients to move over to an Embedded type set up. To assist we have an entire page on our website for our clients to leverage which explains Embedded Analytics.   However, if you still can't find what you are looking for then please don't hesitate to contact us on 1300 148 664, Alternatively, you can contact one of our Account Managers by emailing accounts@dataspark.com.au

Question 16

Why do I have to license all the users?

Accepted Answer

When you commit to purchase Tableau you also agree to Tableau's T&C's, I have linked in Tableau's EULA for your convenience which explains their license model.    Not only that but when implementing Row Level Security (RLS) into a dashboard you are essentially putting restrictions in place so that all users viewing the dashboards can only see the data that you have defined as being relevant to them.   For example, if you had created dashboards for your clients that your internal team were also viewing, the data is, of course, sensitive information, and you only wanted each client to see the data that was relevant to their company. You would then license each user and implement RLS, once this has been implemented, your clients then log fin to view their dashboard which only contains the restricted data. This is to ensure the data their viewing is only relevant to them and their company or their specific role. If you don't license each user, not only is this a breach of the Tableau EULA but if you were to share these logins between your clients, you would then be compromising your own data security and risking your clients viewing sensitive information that wasn't meant for them.    It's important to license each user, not only from a legal standpoint but also for the benefit of your own company.

Question 17

What can I do in the Tableau Customer Portal?

Accepted Answer

The Tableau Customer Portal provides a centralised location for performing tasks such as tracking managing product keys, support requests, managing portal users, obtaining software downloads, and adding users for quick access to support. There is a brief video you can watch with contains a brief overview of the Tableau Customer Portal.

Question 18

What is the difference between Viewer, Explorer and Creator licenses?"

Accepted Answer

DataSpark recieve this question a lot so we have created a section on our "About Tableau" page that can assist you with a brief overview of the differences, we also have a PDF that we can send you to help you make the right decision and Tableau also has thier own easy to follow explanation of the licenses on their website - check the "All the nitty-gritty details" just below the pricing.

Question 19

What is Row Level Security (RLS)

Accepted Answer

Row Level Security (RLS) in Tableau refers to restricting the rows of data a certain user can see in a workbook. This differs from Tableau permissions, which are used to control access to content and feature functionality. For example, permissions control whether a user can comment on a workbook, while Row Level Security allows two users viewing the same dashboard to see only the data they are allowed to see.   If you would like more information on RLS please feel free to reach out to us directly on 1300 148 864 or you can email contact@dataspark.com.au to speak to our technical staff.

Question 20

Can I enable Single Sign-On (SSO) in Tableau?

Accepted Answer

If you have an existing user directory such as active directory so that common username and passwords can provide access to multiple systems, then Tableau can be configured to authenticate using your user directory.   If you need SAML authentication, this topic explains how to enable SAML on the site and select single sign-on users. It also provides steps for switching from SAML to the default TableauID authentication. Before you enable SAML, we recommend that you review the SAML Requirements for Tableau Online, including Effects on Tableau Bridge of changing authentication type.

Question 21

What is the difference between Tableau Online vs Tableau Server?

Accepted Answer

Tableau Server is a self-hosted analytics platform deployed on your physical servers or public cloud such as AWS. Tableau Server provides greater flexibility and control. All easily accessible from your company network with the option to allow for external access.   Tableau Online is your analytics platform fully hosted in the cloud. All easily accessible from anywhere using a browser or on the go with Tableau’s mobile apps. Tableau Online offers the option of hosting in Australia.

Question 22

How do I activate my licenses offline?

Accepted Answer

Offline activation of Tableau Server involves several steps. If you have never activated a product key before on your computer, you need to run through the steps twice, once to initialize licensing on the computer, and a second time to activate the key. If you have had a license on the computer in the past, you run through the steps only once. Offline activation steps:   Generate an offline activation request file (offline.tlq).   Upload the offline activation request to Tableau and download the resulting activation file (activation.tlf).   Upload the activation file to Tableau Server. If this is the first time a Tableau product key has been activated on the computer, you repeat these three steps a second time.    For more information please see Offline Activation When Installing Tableau Server.

Question 23

What is the difference between Server admin, Site admin and Tableau Customer Portal?"

Accepted Answer

Server Administrator (Tableau Server only):  The server administrator has full access to all Tableau server and site functionality, all content on the server, and all users.   Site Administrator: Site administrators can manage groups, projects, workbooks, and data sources (including connection information) for the site. On Tableau Server on-premises, the server administrator determines whether site administrators can add users and assign site roles and site membership. On Tableau Online, site administrators are allowed these capabilities.   Tableau Customer Portal:  The Tableau Customer Portal provides a centralised location for performing tasks such as tracking managing product keys, support requests, managing portal users, obtaining software downloads, and adding users for quick access to support. There is a brief video you can watch with contains a brief overview of the Tableau Customer Portal.

Question 24

Why does Tableau Customer Portal show my new licenses as already assigned?

Accepted Answer

The license details in the Tableau Customer Portal will automatically get updated when you purchase your license. However, these licenses are unassigned. Assignment of the licenses only happens when one or your users activates a license key.

Question 25

What do I do when Tableau Customer Portal shows a key assigned to the wrong user?

Accepted Answer

If the licenses assigned is a Tableau Creator or subscription license, then you need to get in touch with the user and ask them to remove the license key. If you cannot do this, you need to get in contact with Tableau Customer support.    If the licenses assigned are server licenses, then the server administrator can reassign these licenses to remove access.    If the license assigned is a Tableau Desktop perpetual, please contact Tableau Customer Support to walk you through the next steps.

Question 26

Can you manage Tableau Server users through Tableau Customer Portal?

Accepted Answer

If you would like to do this, please contact your Tableau Server Administrator who can manage the users from Tableau Server as opposed to the Tableau Customer Portal.

Question 27

Why can't I subscribe or set up an alert to a Tableau report?

Accepted Answer

To subscribe or set up an alert to a report on Tableau Server the Tableau Server administrator must configure SMTP and turn on the feature.

Question 28

How do I manage alerts for a report?

Accepted Answer

As a Tableau Server administrator, you set up data-driven alerts much like you do subscriptions. For information about how users create and manage these alerts, see Send Data-Driven Alerts in Tableau User Help.

Question 29

Why can't I download the full data from the Tableau Server?

Accepted Answer

If you have been assigned a viewer license and would like to download the full report, then you need to be assigned with an Explorer or Creator type license to view and download the full data.   If you are currently assigned with Explorer or Creator license and still can't download full data, the permission on the report for your user account might be restricted. Please get in touch with the report owner to enable access for your user account.

Question 30

Why can't I download the report into PDF or image?

Accepted Answer

The permission on the report for your user account has been restricted to download PDF or image. Please get in touch with the report owner to enable access for your user account.

Question 31

I have a Tableau question that isn't listed on here

Accepted Answer

DataSpark are always happy to assist you where we can, no matter the complexity of the question we can help you to find the answer you're looking for.   You can call us directly on 1300 148 664 or email our team directly at contact@dataspark.com.au

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