Looker and Looker Studio both connect to Tallyfy Analytics through Amazon Athena so teams can build interactive dashboards and drill into workflow performance data without writing SQL using either the enterprise platform or the free visualization tool.
Connecting Looker Studio to analytics data
Looker Studio connects to Tallyfy Analytics through a third-party connector in about 10-15 minutes. You get free, shareable dashboards from your workflow data - no enterprise BI license needed.
Before you start, you’ll need:
- Tallyfy Analytics subscription activated for your organization
- Free Looker Studio account (sign up at lookerstudio.google.com ↗)
- AWS Access Key credentials from Tallyfy Support
- A third-party connector subscription (CData or OWOX)
Tallyfy Analytics data lives in Amazon Athena, which supports two authentication methods:
| Method | Description | Use for |
|---|---|---|
| IAM Username/Password | Web console access credentials | AWS Console only |
| Access Key/Secret | Token-based authentication | Connector authentication (recommended) |
Two connectors work well for Athena-to-Looker Studio integration:
- Pricing: Subscription-based (check CData pricing ↗)
- Setup time: 10-15 minutes
- Highlights: Cloud-to-cloud connectivity, automatic query optimization, no data replication
- Pricing: Free (check OWOX connector page ↗)
- Setup time: 10-15 minutes
- Highlights: Direct AWS integration, no intermediate processing
- Sign up for a CData Connect Cloud account ↗
- Log into your CData Connect dashboard
- Click Add Connection and select Amazon Athena
- Configure the connection parameters:
- Connection Name: A descriptive name (e.g., “Tallyfy Analytics”)
- AWS Region: Use the region provided by Tallyfy Support
- S3 Staging Directory: Your staging bucket path from Tallyfy (e.g.,
s3://tallyfy-athena-results/) - Database: Your assigned database name (typically your organization name)
- Enter authentication credentials:
- Access Key ID: Your Tallyfy-provided Access Key
- Secret Access Key: Your Tallyfy-provided Secret Access Key
- Click Test Connection to verify
- Save the connection
- Open Looker Studio ↗
- Click Create > Data Source
- Search for and select CData Connect Cloud
- Sign in to your CData account when prompted
- Select your Athena connection from the list
- Choose the database and tables you want to visualize
- Click Connect
- In Looker Studio, click Create > Report
- Select your CData Athena data source
- Click Add to Report
- Drag dimensions and metrics to build visualizations
- Customize charts, add filters, and configure date ranges
- Share the report URL with your team
- Sign up for an OWOX BI account ↗
- Navigate to Connectors > Amazon Athena
- Click Create New Connection
- Configure the connection:
- Connection Name: Descriptive name (e.g., “Tallyfy Workflows”)
- AWS Region: Use the region provided by Tallyfy Support
- Database: Your assigned database name
- Workgroup: Use default or specify if Tallyfy provided one
- Enter credentials:
- Access Key ID: Your Access Key from Tallyfy
- Secret Access Key: Your Secret Access Key from Tallyfy
- Specify the S3 bucket for query results
- Test and save the connection
- Open Looker Studio ↗
- Click Create > Data Source
- Search for and select OWOX BI Amazon Athena
- Authorize OWOX to access your Looker Studio account
- Select your configured Athena connection
- Choose tables to include in your data source
- Click Connect
Tallyfy Analytics exports your workflow data as Parquet files1 to Amazon S3, which Athena then makes queryable. The data covers:
- Process data - Workflow instances with status, owner, template name/version, tags, and completion timestamps
- Task data - Individual tasks within processes including assignments, due dates, and completion status
- Form field data - Questions and answers collected during workflow tasks
- Member data - User profiles, roles, activity timestamps, and team assignments
Here are popular dashboards Tallyfy customers build:
- Process volume trends - Line charts showing processes launched over time
- Completion rate scorecards - Percentage of on-time completions at a glance
- Task duration heatmaps - Spot bottlenecks by visualizing average task durations
- User activity tables - Leaderboards by completion rate
- Form response analysis - Pivot tables exploring form field data patterns
Speed up your Looker Studio reports:
- Use date range controls - Don’t pull all historical data every time
- Filter at the source - Apply filters at the data source level, not in individual charts
- Limit table rows - Show top 10 or 20, not thousands of rows
- Enable caching - Set data freshness to 12-24 hours (daily updates work fine for most workflow analytics)
- Pre-aggregate in Athena - Create Athena views to reduce query complexity
Sharing Looker Studio reports is straightforward:
- View access - Share report URLs with anyone who needs to see the data
- Edit access - Let team members modify reports and create new visualizations
- Embed reports - Add reports to websites or internal portals with iframe embeds
- Schedule emails - Auto-send report snapshots on a set schedule
If the connection fails, check these in order:
- Verify credentials - Double-check your Access Key and Secret Access Key (one wrong character breaks everything)
- Check permissions - Your credentials need
AmazonAthenaFullAccessandAmazonS3FullAccesspolicies attached - Validate S3 path - Confirm your S3 staging directory path matches exactly what Tallyfy provided
- Test in AWS Console - Run a query in the Athena web console to rule out credential issues
- Check connector status - Make sure your CData or OWOX subscription is active
- Review region - Confirm you’re using the correct AWS region from Tallyfy Support
Still stuck? Contact your connector provider’s support team first for connection diagnostics, then reach out to Tallyfy Support if the issue is with your Analytics account.
| Component | Cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Looker Studio | Free | Unlimited reports and dashboards |
| Tallyfy Analytics | Subscription | Contact Tallyfy for pricing |
| CData Connect Cloud | Subscription | Check CData for current pricing |
| OWOX Connector | Free | Free Athena connector |
| AWS Query Costs | Pay-per-query | Varies based on data scanned |
| Feature | Looker Studio | Enterprise Looker |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free + connector fee | Subscription-based |
| Setup | 10-15 min | 15-20 min |
| Data modeling | Basic | Advanced (LookML) |
| Embedded analytics | iframe embeds | Full API |
| Collaboration | Share links | Role-based access |
| Best for | Small teams, basic dashboards | Large teams, complex analytics |
Looker > Connecting Looker to analytics data
Looker connects to Tallyfy’s workflow analytics data through Amazon Athena in about 15-20 minutes by installing a JDBC driver (for self-hosted instances) and configuring an Athena connection with AWS Access Key credentials to query Parquet-formatted process and task data stored in S3 and then build LookML models and dashboards for tracking process durations and team performance and SLA compliance.
Tableau > Connecting Tableau to analytics data
Tallyfy Analytics connects to Tableau Desktop through Amazon Athena in about 15 minutes by installing a JDBC driver and using Access Key credentials to query workflow data including process durations and task completion rates and form field answers for building visual dashboards.
Tallyfy Analytics lets you connect Power BI to your workflow data through Amazon Athena using an ODBC driver in about 15 minutes and then build interactive dashboards from per-process Parquet files and member tables while using Access Key authentication (not IAM credentials) pointed at the us-west-2 region.
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Columnar storage format built for analytics - queries run faster and storage costs less than CSV ↩
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