EMC: Enterprise analytics is a collaboration between business and IT

Tableau: Why is data so important to EMC?
Wendy Gradek. Senior Manager, BI and Analytics Team: We want to enable the business to move at the speed it needs to move to be competitive in the market. But at the same time, we also want to make sure our data is secure. So how do you balance that? Well, you balance it by having a seat at the table and starting the conversation of how do we do one metric, and then work from there.

Tableau: What type of collaboration does this involve?
Wendy: To have something successful, it really starts by having three teams together at the table. And that's the business, that's BI and analytics, and that's IT, working together. Not 'This is mine, this is yours, and this is ours,' but saying, 'We have this business problem we need to solve. What are the best tools that we have in our space, and how do we go about creating something rapid, accurate, and sustainable?'

Tableau: And how does Tableau help?
Wendy: I think with Tableau what that does is it enables people to learn about their data. More importantly, it tells them how their business processes are doing, how their initiatives are performing, and whether or not they're reaching their goals.

So from that standpoint it allows the business owners, it allows management, it allows the line managers, all the way down to the individual contributor to see how am I doing, and how am I helping the business succeed from that standpoint. We use Tableau; we brought in Tableau because we needed a way to explore our data. And there was nothing else on the market that could do what Tableau does today.