Next Level Analytics, in partnership with Project 3 Consulting, helped a large government agency implement a Tableau Center of Excellence (COE) to streamline their analytics environment. The organization faced challenges with Tableau adoption, performance issues, and inconsistent governance. Next Level Analytics worked closely with stakeholders to build a comprehensive COE that supported user enablement, established best practices, and ensured seamless performance. The COE not only optimized the use of Tableau across the organization but also laid the groundwork for a data-driven culture by providing ongoing support, training, and a robust governance framework.

The client is a large government agency responsible for managing vast amounts of data to support critical decision-making. As part of a modernization effort, they transitioned from a legacy BI system to Tableau to enhance analytics adoption, data accessibility, and performance. However, rapid user growth and increasing data demands created scalability, governance, and best practice challenges. To address this, the agency partnered with Next Level Analytics, a partner of Project 3 Consulting, to implement a Tableau Center of Excellence (COE), develop custom BI on BI dashboards, and establish governance models for long-term success.

The agency faced several significant challenges:

Unstable and Inefficient Legacy BI System: The agency’s previous BI tool struggled with performance, reliability, and scalability, making it difficult to meet the increasing demands of data-driven decision-making.

Poor Tableau Adoption and User Enablement: Despite investing in Tableau, adoption remained low due to lack of training, fragmented support, and unclear best practices. Many users were unaware of the tool’s capabilities or struggled to leverage it effectively.

Performance Bottlenecks and System Overload: Their vast amount of data was scattered and poorly documented, making it difficult to integrate and utilize.

Security and Governance Challenges: Without a well-defined security model, data access and collaboration were inconsistent, leading to inefficiencies and compliance risks.

Lack of Insights into Adoption and ROI: The agency lacked visibility into how Tableau was being used, which features were driving engagement, and what areas needed improvement.

Next Level Analytics brought a strategic approach to solve the agency’s challenges:

1. Establishing a Center of Excellence (COE)

To drive sustainable adoption and governance, Next Level Analytics helped the agency implement a Tableau COE, featuring:

• Self-Service Tableau Portal for centralized support and best practices.
• Education & Training Hub with guided resources and user enablement sessions.
• Tableau Doctor Sessions & Online User Forum to provide direct user support.
• Dedicated Service Ticket Desk to efficiently handle user inquiries, troubleshooting, and technical support.
• Adoption & Performance Monitoring Dashboards to track usage patterns and proactively address issues.

By securing leadership buy-in, rolling out structured training, and establishing a dedicated support framework, the agency fostered a user-first, data-driven culture focused on empowering users rather than just deploying a solution. This approach led to higher engagement, increased self-sufficiency, and widespread best practice adoption.

2. Proactive Server Administration & Performance Optimization

A robust server monitoring and governance strategy ensured Tableau remained stable and scalable as adoption surged. The team addressed key challenges by:

• Proactively monitoring user behaviors to prevent inefficiencies (e.g., reducing redundant data refresh jobs and optimizing extract sizes).
• Optimizing Tableau security models, allowing flexibility while maintaining access control.
• Scaling infrastructure based on adoption trends, ensuring the system could handle increasing loads.
• Eliminating bad practices, such as excessive scheduled queries and oversized workbooks that slowed performance.

This approach helped maintain high system uptime, improved efficiency, and faster response times for end users.

3. Enabling Data-Driven Decision-Making

Through custom-built, in-house BI on BI adoption dashboards, the agency gained real-time insights into Tableau usage, adoption trends, and system health—far beyond the limited native Tableau resources. These dashboards were not only used for internal monitoring but were also made available to the user community, empowering them to self-monitor adoption patterns, performance, and resource utilization.

• Identified bottlenecks in dashboard performance and provided actionable recommendations to improve usability.
• Enabled resource forecasting, allowing proactive scaling of Tableau infrastructure.
• Empowered both leadership and users with transparency into Tableau ROI and analytics adoption patterns.

The collaboration between the agency and Next Level Analytics delivered measurable improvements:

60% Increase in Tableau Adoption: A growing number of analysts and decision-makers leveraged Tableau for reporting.
300,000+ Additional Monthly Visits: Dramatic growth in dashboard engagement, demonstrating widespread adoption.
Optimized Server Performance: Proactive issue resolution and governance reduced bottlenecks and system downtime.
Scalable Analytics Environment: The agency’s Tableau ecosystem now supports over 11,000 users, 3,000+ workbooks, and 7,000+ data sources.
Improved Decision-Making: The agency now leverages Tableau dashboards to monitor performance, adoption, and operational impact.