Criteo

Criteo accelerates speed to insight from days to seconds with Tableau


Speed to insight accelerated from 46 hours in Excel to 6 seconds in Tableau

Deeper understanding of campaign performance strengthens client relationships

Internal Tableau Community scales worldwide to drive adoption and collaboration

Criteo S.A. is a leading online advertising service provider, headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 2005, the company specialises in personalised web communications, has 2,740 employees and revenues of approximately €2.08 billion.

Tableau helps Criteo make sense of vast petabytes of advertising and commerce data. Insights that previously took up to 46 hours to find in Excel are now available in as little as six seconds. By democratising data, employees are more self-sufficient and free to explore their own ideas and innovations in a secure, governed environment. Tableau is scaling globally with ease, creating a data culture based on trusted data, collaboration and shared learning experiences.

Every minute of every day, Tableau is changing the way our people look at their data.

Tableau harnesses the power of “gigantic” data warehouse, delivering key insights in seconds

Previously, Criteo was relying on Excel to perform a large majority of its online advertising data analysis. However, this quickly reached its limit when analysing data sourced from thousands of extensive server logs.

“We experienced some serious data challenges before Tableau,” recalls François Jehl, Engineering Manager at Criteo. “We had no data lake. In fact, no data warehouse of any kind. Our first task was to consolidate data into one unified system. Our next step was to deploy Tableau. This was a logical continuation of our data-centric strategy, since Tableau enables Criteo to leverage its gigantic petabyte-wide data rows.”

Criteo now has thousands of employees diving into Tableau to interact with and ask questions of their data. “Nobody wants to analyse data within Excel – it’s too slow, complicated and open to error,” says François. “Tableau is simply the best tool for the job.”

According to François, the power of Tableau really stood out in one key moment. He explains, “Every day, our Sales Directors needed a particular report, created using an outmoded analytics solution. My task was to increase the time-out on the server as it took almost 46 hours to render this vast report. Using Tableau, that all changed. I was able to run the report in six seconds. That was a big win moment.”

Previously, it took almost 46 hours to render this vast report. Using Tableau, that all changed. I was able to run the report in six seconds. That was a big win moment.

Tableau scales effortlessly across offices worldwide

“Tableau is now used by everyone in the local Criteo offices,” explains François. “When a client contacts us with an enquiry, for example, asking how a particular campaign is performing, the investigation takes place in Tableau. Tableau has become the most important tool within the sales and operations function. It has been here for a while and there’s no other tool that can do even 50% of the job.”

Criteo deals with such large databases, it is critical for Tableau to grow seamlessly with the changing needs of the business. “Scalability is insanely important,” he says. “However, we have no concerns regarding the scalability of Tableau; it adapts to whatever size and scale we need.”

Developing data-skills amongst employees means everyone can anaylse their data in Tableau. “We did a mix of internal training and we contracted with some companies,” says François. “At some point we even hired the head of the Tableau User Group France. He’s still here after five years!”

Tableau has become the most important tool within the sales and operations function. It has been here for a while and there’s no other tool that can do even 50% of the job.

Employees are more self-sufficient and accountable with self-service analytics

Tableau is democratising data at Criteo. “We need people to be independent and free to explore their own ideas and innovations,” explains François. “Tableau delivers this curiosity on every level. Our people can use visual analytics to remove the noise, find critical insights, and make better decisions.”

François continues, “If you take the last presentation made by a member of staff – any presentation, in fact – Tableau is at the heart of the story. It might be someone analysing an IT server purchase, an individual in our US office examining Web traffic or an executive exploring a finance question. Every minute of every day, Tableau is changing the way our people look at their data.”

The data-centric culture is spreading quickly and widely. Across the organisation, there is trust in data that didn’t exist before, and a sense that data is a strategic asset and the gateway to fast, informed decision-making. Criteo now has an internal Tableau community which supports experience-sharing and skills development among employees. François explains, “We have people internally building a Tableau community, sharing best practice, sending out newsletters with tips of the week and generally communicating a sense that Criteo’s future success lies in its data.”

Tableau has even become a centre-piece of Criteo’s everyday language. “We hear people now saying, ‘Give me a Tableau for that’!” says François.