How to Unleash the Power of Automation in Your Tableau Cloud Migration

If you’re currently planning a Tableau Cloud migration–and you should be strongly considering it–then a major challenge will be bringing your business users along on the journey with as little friction as possible. There is no effortless way to do this. You will need their help and cooperation at multiple junctures.

Let’s face it, the business user experience during the migration process it not a favorable one.

They skip introductory meetings and training sessions so reasonable limitations of the migration process become irritants. The smallest frustrations become immediate technical blockers. Internal project owners and managers end up chasing after them. This leads to project delays, users insisting they need “everything,” or disagreements about what was supposed to get migrated and what wasn’t. This adds up to frustration, efficiency challenges, lost time, and lost dollars.

Our proven approach

At CoEnterprise, we’ve learned a great deal on how to manage large-scale integration projects across multiple business lines and we’d like to share those secrets with you.

We learned to leverage the power of workflow automation and UI-driven enablement in the process of migrating large numbers of business users in multiple projects for years, often working with thousands of users (but this process is still beneficial for smaller migrations. We’ve learned a great deal about the role automation can play in facilitating change management, protecting the time of your users, and saving the money. We call our approach “COE-Communication,” simplifying user interactions across five major tasks:

Enhancing the migration experience

So, what have we learned about the dance between change management and automation? Here’s what we’re rolling out right now for our Tableau Cloud migration customers:

Bring the task to the users
If it’s something they can do in their browser–or on their cell phone–make it easy for them to do it there. If they need to pick which workbooks to keep or archive, avoid making them log in to Tableau to figure it out.

Training at their fingertips
Every second of frustration on how to do a task threatens your project’s success. That’s why a crisp, clean video of how to accomplish a task should be a hyperlink (not a meeting) away.

Punch lists, punch lists, punch lists
Automation can structure the work for the business users they can have a potentially huge impact on the scope (reducing it!) if you work with them correctly. If there are repetitive tasks to do, present them in a clear, actionable punch list. Let them see their list being completed as they go.

Let automation be the ‘bad guy’
Face it, your users are busy and they’re going to need multiple requests. We’ve found our customers would rather have an email gently nag at them (and remind them of established consequences) than a frustrated co-worker or manager. Automation is a powerful way to avoid a business user being “wrong” or lose face.

But let them ask for help
Don’t be the IVR system that won’t connect you to a real-live operator. If a user needs direct white-glove, over-the-shoulder support, be prepared to give it to them–and fast before their frustration grows.

At some point during your Tableau Cloud migration journey, users are going to need to evaluate what workbooks, data sources, and prep flows they want to migrate. They’re going to need to recreate work in the cloud that can only be migrated by them. And, at the end, they are going to need to validate that their Tableau workbooks migrated successfully and are refreshing as desired.

Oh, and at the end of the project you may want to send them a couple of reminders to come to the launch party!

Ready to get started?

We’re Tableau experts and we specialize in large scale cloud migrations. Learn how we can help migrate your solution and optimize your Tableau Cloud deployment today.