The 10 Biggest Salesforce News Stories Of 2021 (So Far)

2. Revamped Tableau Product and Partner Program

In March, Tableau unveiled a new edition of its business analytics and data visualization platform that incorporates Salesforce’s Einstein Discovery predictive modeling and machine learning technology, boosting Tableau’s predictive analysis capabilities.

Under the name “Business Science,” the new functionality in the Tableau 2021.1 release brings Einstein Discovery’s data science and predictive modeling to a wider audience of business users and analysts, allowing them to develop AI-powered predictive analytics applications without the need to write code.

“By bringing together Tableau and Einstein Discovery we’re going to help people bring trusted predictions and recommendations to the users inside of their business. And do this with automated analytics with clicks, not code,” Tableau CTO Andrew Beers told CRN at the time.

In June, the Salesforce subsidiary completed a major revamp of its partner program that the company said provides partners with more visibility and consistency in partner requirements, assessments and benefits.

The redesigned Tableau Partner Network is organized around new Reseller, Service and Technology partner tracks with Premier, Select and Member tiers.

The program, which also has been realigned along country and geographic regions, also measures partners according to performance-based criteria within the regions they do business and makes it easier for customers to find qualified local partners.

“It’s a lot of change from where we sat with our partner ecosystem to where we needed to go,” Julie Bennani, Tableau senior vice president of worldwide partners and alliances, told CRN at the time. “It’s a very different way in which [partners] had been talking to Tableau about their partnership. This is a lot deeper and a lot more precise around the business model.”