Tableau Service Corps
The second initiative announced is a global one and sees the formalisation of the volunteer program. The ServiceCorps website allows non-profit organisations to seek help for any data analytics program from a range of experts across Tableau software employees. It is interesting to note that although only employees of Tableau software currently seem to be in the database it does seem possible that this could be extended to partner or channel employees as well as part of their CSR program.
Those seeking help are able to find an appropriate volunteer, relevant to their subject and location. Book an appointment to discuss and help scope the help that they require and then see the query or project resolved through to completion. These projects would normally be small in scope understandably as there are a lot of charities in need of help, and with the free software licenses that number is only likely to grow.
Conclusion
These initiatives would be an exceptional addition to any companies CSR program. While there are a lot of companies already offering software and services through Tech Soup, there are many more that don’t. While it is disappointing that charities outside of the US cannot benefit from the charitable donation it is perhaps understandable that Tableau want some control and cap on the licenses being distributed.
The interesting question is whether as a result of the analytics software a charity is able to become more successful and grow beyond the $5 million limit whether they will need to start paying for the software immediately or wait to the end of the two year term. It is a decision that no doubt many charities would like to have and given that it may have helped the charity grow that paying for a full license at that point does not seem unreasonable.
In putting commitment and substance behind their CSR Tableau has made a clear statement about their culture that will also help it attract employees in the future who want to give back. It will be interesting to see whether other companies follow with similar initiatives.
Glad to see your write up here Steve – as the Chief Business Development Officer at TechSoup Global I can assure you that Tableau is dedicated to globally making this donated solution available as soon as possible (in fact already live on our partner site in Australia/New Zealand). You will see this available in the UK within a matter of days via our UK partner Technology Trust http://www.technology-trust.org/tt-exchange/
Hope this helps!