What is Data Visualization?

Remember back in math class learning how to make pie charts? Data visualization is the presentation of information in the form of a picture or a graph. It’s great because it lets decision-makers see analytics presented visually, so they can grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns. With interactive visualization, you can take the approach a big step further by using technology to dig deeper into charts and graphs for more detail, changing what data you see and how it’s processed. It’s a game-changer.

Why is Data Visualization so important?

Data itself is vital, but so is the way it’s presented. Businesses and managers rely on data every day to make timely and educated decisions that affect their company’s future.

According to IDC, there will be 40 zettabytes – that’s 40 trillion gigabytes – of big data by 2020. Companies will need to have a strategic approach to dealing with this much data. Data itself is vital, but so is the way it’s presented.

Insights from data analysis are not always easy to figure out and can be difficult to share. But the analysis is enhanced with visualization. It’s all about the connection between visual imagery and cognition. Humans can make sense of an image much quicker, and more effectively, than with text. In fact, according to MIT neuroscientists, the brain is capable of processing visual images in as little as 13 milliseconds. Another study found that presentations using visual aids are 43 percent more persuasive than those without.

Making sense of large, complex data sets for decision-making is one of the challenges facing business managers today. Data visualization facilitates communication and understanding of complex relationships, and it helps managers identify problems and opportunities. Make sure that your company isn’t doing things the old-fashioned way. Cutting-edge, fast and robust data visualization is a tool no company should be without!

Benefits of Data Visualization

Data visualization affects decision-making and changes organizations — all for the better. Here are seven benefits of using data visualization.

1. Faster and Clearer Understanding

A picture is worth a thousand words, right? The human brain processes visual information far more easily than that which is written. Using a chart or graph to summarize complex data allows faster comprehension of relationships than cluttered reports or spreadsheets ever will! Business leaders can quickly interpret and act upon their information. Big data visualization tools can provide real-time information that’s easier for stakeholders to properly evaluate. The result will be faster responses to both market changes and the identification of new opportunities.

2. Communicate Findings in Constructive Ways

Want to avoid putting your boss to sleep? Most business reports submitted to senior management are long, formalized documents that are often inflated with static tables and endless numbers. They fail to make crucial information vibrant and memorable for those whose opinions matter most. Talk about a lost chance!

Fortunately, reports coming from big data visualization tools make it possible to encapsulate complex information on operational and market conditions in a brief series or even single graphic. Interactive elements and new visualizations such as heat maps and fever charts will help engage and inform busy executives and business partners on current problems and needed initiatives.

3. Understand Connections Between Operations and Results

You’ve heard of cause and effect, haven’t you? One big benefit of big data visualization is that it allows users to track connections between operations and overall business performance. Finding a correlation between business functions and market performance is essential in a competitive environment.

For instance, the executive sales director of a national software company may see immediately in a bar chart that sales of their flagship product are down eight percent in the Southwest region. The director can then drill down to see where the variances are occurring and start formulating a plan.

4. Identify and Embrace Emerging Trends

Data visualization can expose many new opportunities for adaptable companies. To best take advantage, it requires that they are consistently collecting and analyzing this information. By using big data visualization for monitoring key indicators, business leaders can more readily spot market shifts and trends in varied, large data sets.

Imagine that a clothing chain sees that in the Northeast, sales of darker suits and skinny ties are on the rise. This may allow them to promote clothing packages including both, or a new line of skinny ties well ahead of rivals who haven’t noticed the trend yet. Companies doing things the old way will be left in the dust.

5. Interact with the Data

Do you like to play around with numbers? Unlike static charts, interactive data visualizations encourage users to easily explore and manipulate the data. These interactive tools can show a boat manufacturer that sales of larger craft are down. This could be due to many reasons. But team members actively exploring related issues and correlating them to actual boat sales can quickly determine the root causes and find ways to minimize their impact to drive more sales.

6. Flip the Switch

One advantage to big data visualization is that it provides a ready means to tell stories from the data. Heat maps can show the development of product performance over time in multiple geographic areas, making it easier to see those that are performing very well or underperforming. This allows executives to drill down into specific locations to see what’s really going on.

They may learn that targeting higher-income market segments doesn’t sell higher-priced products. They might discover that traditional cleaning products are now less popular than environmentally-friendly green products. These insights could be used to brainstorm marketing strategies to support higher sales.

7. Real-time Data Consumption

Want to put your workforce into hyperdrive? Make sure that your B2B integration software incorporates a data visualization component. With it, companies can turn raw data into business insights and ultimately into fast decisions about strategy operations, supply chains, logistics, and how to grow their business. By embedding human workflow steps in the process flows, you provide meaningful data to the end-users who can consume, analyze and make decisions in real-time!

Conclusion

Get on the Data Visualization train or you’ll be run over by it!

Big Data is only getting bigger. Data Visualization helps companies condense and control their growing data stores, turning inert raw data into useful, instantly actionable information. If companies don’t start making their large data sets coherent, their operations could drown in an ocean of misinformation.

The antiquated, manual process is tiresome, limited, prone to human error and takes too long. Automated Data Visualization tools can manipulate data quickly and effectively. Different teams can present their data in different forms and levels of detail, depending on their specific objectives and target audience. What’s more, the software can also pick up on important patterns and tendencies in the data that are easily missed by the human eye.

Visualization offers a fast, efficient and highly accessible means of identifying important customer trends. It assists professionals operating in fast moving and highly competitive environments gain instant insight, while minimizing the burden of manual analysis.

Data Visualization is an essential element of Business Intelligence. It can help companies identify new opportunities, meet tough challenges head-on, and stay up to speed on important market conditions, all of which brings better operational and strategic decision-making across any organization.

Reach out to our experts at Sales Beacon. We’d love to show you ways to bring the power of Data Visualization to your company, today. Looking forward to hearing from you!