phData Helps Leading Music Retailer Migrate 83 Tableau Dashboards to Omni in 11 Weeks
Customer's Challenge
A prominent retail leader was looking to modernize its data platform to improve scalability, performance, and cost efficiency. The first phase of this initiative was to decommission their legacy Tableau and Amazon Redshift infrastructure, transitioning to Omni for BI and Snowflake for cloud data warehousing.Â
While Redshift is slated for full decommissioning, the immediate priority is migration to Snowflake and replicating Redshift consumption tables that power Tableau reports. Once complete, Omni will source data directly from Snowflake, ensuring seamless analytics continuity while laying the foundation for a full Redshift sunset.Â
The client’s biggest challenge was executing this migration with zero disruption to business operations, ensuring data parity, and optimizing the new stack for future growth.
phData's Solution
In just 11 weeks, phData efficiently transitioned the client’s BI by migrating Tableau workbooks to Omni, aligning with stakeholders, and optimizing data models. Additionally, phData collaborated closely with Omni’s team to address platform gaps, ensuring a seamless shift using Redshift and Snowflake as data sources.
Results
By the end of the 11-week engagement, the customer had a fully migrated Omni BI environment that precisely replicated their Tableau dashboards while delivering measurable upgrades.
Lastly, we preserved complex analytics (through custom SQL for LODs and Vega for custom visuals), eliminated data blending challenges with Omni’s XLOOKUP, optimized parameter-heavy dashboards for 40% faster refreshes, replacing infinite scroll with tabbed navigation (cutting search time by 50%), and unlocking self-service features like PDF exports and email distribution to reduce IT overhead.
| Deliverables | Achievements |
|---|---|
| Dashboards Delivered | 83 (76 scoped + 7 additional) |
| Timeline | 11 weeks |
| Snowflake Setup | Completed, with Redshift consumption tables replicated |
| Semantic Layer | Designed and implemented in Omni |
| UX Enhancements | Modern tabbed layouts, anchor points, and style guide |
| Documentation | Migration playbook, semantic model, test plans, and deployment guide |
| Internal Enablement | Knowledge transfer and repeatable practices handed off |
The Full Story
The largest retailer of musical instruments in the U.S. relied on Tableau Server for years to analyze sales, inventory, and customer trends across its stores. As a data-forward company, they wanted to modernize their data platform by migrating from Tableau/Redshift to an Omni/Snowflake analytics infrastructure to unlock modern BI capabilities.
Why Omni?
Recently, we’ve seen a growing number of our retail clients move away from Tableau to Omni BI for a more intuitive, scalable, and integrated analytics experience. While Tableau offers strong visualization, Omni enhances decision-making with AI-driven insights, self-service analytics, and easy integration with modern platforms like Snowflake.Â
Additionally, Omni simplifies data modeling with pre-built semantic layers, reducing IT dependency. Its unified platform ensures faster performance, real-time data updates, and embedded governance, which is ideal for managing large-scale, dynamic datasets.
Why phData?
The client chose phData due to our successful track record in BI and data platform migrations for retail leaders. Having previously delivered cost and performance improvements, phData was the trusted partner to modernize their analytics infrastructure while maintaining data integrity across all project phases.
phData’s expertise in Snowflake and Omni along with our efficient migration methodology, gave the client additional confidence in the partnership.
Migration Process
The migration process was designed to minimize disruption. First, we identify high-impact reports by understanding client priorities. We analyze Redshift sources, data models, security needs, custom queries, and Omni’s integration with GitLab during the discovery phase of the project.Â
The design phase involves rebuilding Tableau workbooks in Omni with better formatting, semantic layers, and a scalable plan, starting with simpler dashboards before complex ones.Â
Finally, implementation and testing involve agile development, user acceptance testing (UAT), and performance tuning to ensure the new dashboards meet retail-specific KPIs. This methodical approach, validated through iterative feedback, delivers a future-proof BI solution faster, more collaborative, and tailored to evolving retail analytics needs.
Reference Diagrams
Below is a sample report that has been migrated from Tableau to Omni
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