Tableau Software (DATA) is a stock you should consider owning to benefit from the growth of big data and analytics. The company's financial performance has been quite strong, as its recent first-quarter results show. Tableau's partnership with another important player in data analytics, Splunk (SPLK), could add to its growth in the long run. 

Tableau shares have sunk by 20% so far this year. This gives investors an opportunity to buy the stock at a lower price. Let's take a look at Tableau's recent performance and check why investors should consider buying the stock on the pullback.

Outstanding growth driven by efficient products
Tableau reported rapid growth in the first quarter, with revenue growing 86% year over year. Its non-GAAP net loss also fell from $1.8 million in the year-ago quarter to $0.4 million in the first quarter of 2014. It is clear that Tableau is making huge strides in growing its business, and its strategic initiatives, partnerships, and new products can lead to further growth.

The company's product innovation can be seen in recent offerings such as Tableau 8.1. Tableau 8.1 provides enterprise customers with useful features such as 464-bit support security assertion markup language, or SAML, authentication, support for external load balancers, and IPv6 support. It also provides users with more advanced analytics capabilities by integrating with open-source statistics programs.

Also, Tableau 8.1 makes business analytics faster and easier for everyone. And now, Tableau is looking to improve this performance with the release of Tableau version 8.2 in the second quarter. The company has a strong product roadmap, as Tableau version 9 is scheduled for release in the first half of next year. The company is continually looking to improve its offerings.

Tableau is also making aggressive moves with solutions such as Tableau Public, a free online product. Tableau Public lets people share insights and interactive data on the web. Earlier this year, data enthusiasts used this platform to publish interactive data about various events such as the Olympic Torch Relay, alternative fuel stations, worldwide food availability, World Cup odds, etc., increasing the company's visibility.

With such aggressive moves, it comes as no surprise that Tableau added more than 1,800 new customer accounts in the last reported quarter. In doing so, the company increased its customer base to more than 19,000 across the world. Tableau also closed around 210 large transactions that were worth more than $100,000 in the first quarter, a terrific improvement from just 77 such transactions in the prior-year period. 

Key partnerships
Also, the company has expanded its relationships with many of its existing customers, which include the likes of Google (GOOG -2.33%) (GOOGL -2.13%), PepsiCo, Capital One, and Deutsche Telekom. In addition, Tableau has built new relationships with Yelp, Tiger Airways, Land O'Lakes, Nestle Brazil, and others.

Out of these, Tableau's relationship with Google can prove to be an important catalyst in the long run. Google's cloud-based BigQuery analytics platform allows data analysts to do fast SQL-style querying. By teaming up with Tableau, Google added data-visualization power to its platform.

Driven by Tableau's support, Google has been able to offer a variety of features on its analytics platform, such as automatically scheduled refreshes, securely published data sources, workbooks, and dashboards. 

Google Analytics is a well-known name in the industry. As the demand for data analytics grows, the Google relationship should help Tableau's performance improve.

On the other hand, there's Splunk. Tableau and Splunk are in a strategic partnership to provide cutting-edge solutions. The latest version of Tableau's software will now include Splunk Enterprise as a native data source. Splunk Enterprise uses Splunk's recently launched open-database connectivity driver, and after this integration, Tableau users will be able to visualize machine data and find new insights. 

Moreover, since Splunk also has big customers such as General Electric and Symantec to boast of, Tableau might tap into these accounts as a result of its partnership.

Final words
Tableau is expected to outperform the industry by a big margin going forward. Analysts expect its earnings to grow at an astronomical annual rate of 92% for the next five years. The industry growth rate pales in comparison, at just 18%.

Given Tableau's aggressive customer acquisitions, efficient solutions, and marketing moves, the company is capable of performing well going forward. Investors should consider this stock for their portfolio, and the recent pullback provides a golden opportunity to buy this fast-growing company.