Global Digital Platform Migrates from Tableau to QuickSight with EZConvertBI, Leading to a 70% Reduction in Migration Time

How Wavicle migrated hundreds of dashboards from Tableau to QuickSight

Overview

A leading global digital platform sought to optimize its business intelligence (BI) ecosystem by transitioning from Tableau to Amazon QuickSight. The client aimed to reduce licensing costs while leveraging enhanced GenBI capabilities that integrate seamlessly with QuickSight. Given its internal alignment with Amazon’s ecosystem, the move to QuickSight was a strategic decision.

Challenge

Executing this large-scale BI migration had its own challenges:

• High volume of dashboards: There were approximately 390 dashboards, including 79 complex dashboards that Wavicle was responsible for transforming end-to-end. For the 79 dashboards, we had to address any ‘look & feel’ issues, correction of functionality which did not convert correctly, and testing.
• Additionally, there were 311 dashboards in which the client was responsible for performing the same tasks after the Tableau dashboards were converted with EZConvert^BI. This hybrid model allowed the client to reduce the overall costs of the migration and enabled their internal BI engineers ramp-up their QuickSight skills faster.
• Complex BI features: Some Tableau functionalities, such as blended relationships, were not natively supported in QuickSight. The team had to implement customized solutions to enable the joining of multiple data sources in a manner similar to how blended relationships are done in Tableau.

The Wavicle Way

Wavicle leveraged its proprietary EZConvert^BI tool to streamline the migration process:

Analysis & assessment (2 weeks)

• Scanned the existing Tableau environment to categorize dashboard complexity.
• Identified duplicate reports to optimize the migration scope.

Automated conversion (Iterative, sprint-based execution)

• EZConvert^BI extracted metadata from Tableau and automated the dashboard conversion to QuickSight.
• Enabled up to 65-70% time savings, particularly for highly complex dashboards.

Manual refinements & testing

• Addressed dashboard design elements and QuickSight’s limitations including the limitations with ‘data blending’ in Tableau.
• Conducted unit testing, internal QA, and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

Deployment & hypercare

• Phased rollouts ensured business continuity.
• Provided post-migration support and training to facilitate QuickSight adoption.

Results & Impact

• Accelerated migration: Successfully converted 390 dashboards, leveraging EZConvert^BI to convert each dashboard to QuickSight streamlining the migration process). This allowed for a time saving of 70%, thanks to automated conversions.
• Significant cost savings: The migration enabled a 65-70% reduction in BI licensing costs, making QuickSight a cost-effective alternative.
• Process enhancements: The team developed improved capabilities for handling blended relationships in QuickSight, further enhancing Wavicle’s migration expertise.

By leveraging Wavicle’s EZConvert^BI, the client successfully transitioned to Amazon QuickSight with optimized costs, improved dashboard performance, and enhanced BI capabilities. As with any project we approach, continuous innovation and engineering excellence being built into our culture, our team worked around delays and complexities with ease.

About EZConvert^BI

Wavicle’s EZConvert^BI is a smart, automated solution designed to accelerate BI migrations, particularly to Amazon QuickSight. Key features include:

• Automated metadata extraction: Scans and extracts BI system metadata to map dependencies and streamline conversion.
• Dashboard rationalization: Identifies duplicate reports, understands report usage to identify unused reports, and optimizes migration scope.
• User rationalization: Determines the number of users by license type and the frequency which they log-in. This enables accurate determination of the # of needed QuickSight subscriptions and the type of subscription.
• Configurable conversion engine: When dashboard chart types not supported by QuickSight are detected, our converter can be configured to map them to any available QuickSight chart type (assuming compatible properties), including charts from the HighCharts Core library.
• Multi-cycle conversion process: Enables iterative improvements, reducing manual effort and enhancing accuracy.
• Time & cost efficiency: Achieves up to 70% savings in licensing costs.