What is Data Visualisation in Business Intelligence and Why Does it Matter?
Business intelligence is the process of collecting and processing data to generate actionable insights.
Data visualization is the art of presenting data in a visual form.
And human brain processes visuals 60,000 times faster than text.
Did you get the correlation here?
The combination of the three statements above summarises what I am going to convey in this article.
Data visualization and business intelligence are inseparable. With the deluge of data that we are producing every day, making sense of such data is simply an overwhelmingly difficult task. Without visualization, business intelligence can only answer the “Whats” of your business. To get the answer to the “Whys”, you need data visualization.
Why Does it Matter?
Today, businesses understand the importance of data visualization. Irrespective of the industry, type or size, every business is using data visualization to empower business intelligence and analytics. Here is why it matters —
Visualisation makes data understandable for every one
Once you get meaningful data at hand, there comes the moment of communicating it with your team and superiors. Data visualization converts this data into information which everyone can absorb irrespective of his/ her familiarity with the data.
Empowers interactive dashboards
When visualization integrates with business intelligence, it gives birth to interactive dashboards that beautifully present high-level summary as well as give you the capability to drill down to deeper levels of data analysis to get answers to key questions that can empower better decision-making.
Understanding data from different viewpoints
Different data visualization techniques suit different types of data. More than one technique can be used on a set of data to look at it each time from a whole new perspective. This can open your eyes to insights which were hiding in plain sight.
Comprehend information quickly
We, humans, are cut out for absorbing data in visual form. Our brain receives 90% of its total input of information in visual form. It is capable of making sense to a visual scene lasting just 1/10th of a second in front of our eyes. Therefore, pictorial representation can make a very large amount of data quick & easy to comprehend. Instead of spending hours & hours looking at spreadsheets without making any sense, data visualization can be used to save time consumed in analyzing data. Hence, enabling businesses can make timely decisions.
Identify relationships and patterns
Sensible graphical representations can make your data talk to you. Some correlations between various data points are obvious, but data visualization can make subtle correlations easily identifiable. You can extract useful insights on areas which influence your business goals.
Even massive amounts of complex data start to make sense when presented in a pictorial form.
Pinpoint emerging trends
Being able to forecast the condition of the market opens the door to many opportunities while curtailing risks. By implementing right data visualization techniques in business intelligence, you can gain a competitive edge by identifying emerging trends, both in your business as well as in the market. You can identify outliers that affect your production, customer churn, employee attrition & so on. This gives you time to address the issues before they become disasters.
Great analysis with brilliant story-telling
Converting data into the fancy charts isn’t data visualization. You need to translate your data, uncover valuable findings and communicate that in a language that everyone can understand. Don’t simply show your data – communicate effectively.
Find out more about how we can help your organization understand data with impactful visualizations that drive quicker and smarter decision-making.