business intelligence

Research

The field of data visualization is essential to the business industries and organizations since it depicts and interprets figures and statistics. The set of data or information being analyzed may also contain risks, and irrelevant information, which would give undesirable results that will not be accurate. Some of the risks related to data visualization include:

Mediocre data: Data visualization becomes essential based on the quality of data. Poor, incomplete, and low-quality data would give wrong results. The low quality or incomplete sets of data could raise questions on the trust and credibility of data. Though poor-quality data is a risk, it acts as a motivator toward data improvement. Another significant risk is the absence of numerical knowledge and intelligence among the audience (Rocha, 2019). If those intended to be reached with the information don't have needed knowledge, then data visualization can pose a more significant risk by making wrong decisions.

Other risks include staff lacking skills in preparation for data analysis. There is an assumption that anyone using a computer is conversant with the matters of statistics, but that is not the case. Not every computer user can produce a well-designed chat. There must be a lot of practice and more time applied to practice the skills to produce the best visuals of the right quality (Kirk,2012). This challenge can be controlled by the staff, conducting a lot of practice and dedicating their time to training. There is also a risk in which there is a lack of understanding of how business and information are related. Charts not portraying the right information could be misleading. The business also benefits from understanding the trends.

The figure above is a graph showing the data of the vector stock company

Vector stock company (Shutterstock) has grown tremendously over the last decade. It includes millions of high definition pictures and videos that grew in recent times due to the organization and visualization of data in a proper format. The data visualization is likely to benefit the business or an organization in many ways, especially when there is a need for the stakeholders to check and analyze the reports. It becomes easier for the business to pay more attention to specifies areas where loopholes are identified. The visuals act as a substitute to allow reaction by being easily understood. Errors that were committed in the past could be revisited and put the organization on the right track (Huang, 2013). With the help of data visualization, errors are spotted and negated early, and businesses are kept on the right track. Data visualizations allow the business to benefit from dashboard capabilities and storytelling dramatically so that stakeholders could easily understand; it also saves time since the storytelling should be done simply with no need for the use of complex data sets. Below is a sample depiction of coronavirus database and visuals.

The figure above shows an example of data visualization on coronavirus (covid-19)

It is essential to identify how data or information visualization can be brought to utilization or usage. In the above figure, we could easily understand and digest the line charts and pie charts than understanding the table on the top left of the figure. Through a widget, it is possible to convert volumes of data to essential and meaningful pictorials that are attractive to the eyes and are easily understood. It is also possible to automate data and be easily refreshed with visual on a daily, or monthly basis. There is also a possibility of sharing visuals with others in the organization. Some rules or guidelines render visuals best in use (Knaflic, 2015). A lot of focus should be directed to colors to make them appealing to the audience. Widget choice is essential, which enables information conveyance and will be well received by the audience.

BI Tools -Various BI tools clarify the data at best such as SAP, IBM Cognos, Tableau, Microsoft, etc. Magic quadrant is a graphical representation and standing of the various BI tools over the years. As per Magic quadrant -

• Microsoft & Tableau have been leading BI tools for the last 3 years

• Due to the growing importance of data visualization, a lot of niche players emerged

Advantages of data visualization

With the adoption of data, visualization allows a business to significantly assimilate business information in which information is easily grasped and can be memorized without any inconsistencies. Relevant insights can be accessed as quickly as possible and enable the business to act accordingly to avoid possible risks. Improvement in finding information is boosted by up to 28%, while those who depend on dashboards are likely to be efficient by an excess of 48%. With data visualization, there is a better understanding of business operations. Hence, ensuring efficiency is critical, which puts a business in a better competitive advantage over the rivals, and data can be used to anticipate potential opportunities and innovations.

Research summary

Based on the research, we can confidently say that data visualization has immense benefits if adopted properly. Although there are risks in visualizing data, fortunately, it could be mitigated and rectified easily with proper implementation and management efforts. The research shows that many organizations that are adopting visuals and revealing data to their stakeholders are in a better position to make timely decisions, improve their strategies to attract and retain customers, improve their business model, and be at par with the competitors.

Discussion of the findings

The finding of the research is that data visualization should be adopted due to the likely benefits the business will accrue. The challenges that can cause mistrust and negative publicity should be dealt with, including giving out irrelevant information, substandard data, and mediocre data, which would make the finding, or the pictorial representation not meet the best levels. The results of the research showed that there are negatives and positives of the visual data. Most importantly negatives are outweighed by the positives. Data visualization is likely to put the business to the next level if well adopted since it is less costly, not complicated in terms of application and interpretation, as well as being appealing to the audience.

Conclusion

Data visualization is essential to any organization across the globe. It is crucial to note that data visualization has been improving consistently from hard to read data to excellent visuals. It provides better visibility on an organization’s success and failure stories, current trends, and anticipate potential risks, opportunities and innovations. The paper discussed the importance of visualization with the real-time data set of Corona Virus as shown in the visuals under the research section. Those visuals are more effective in conveying the spread throughout the entire world. This paper has also discussed the limitations and how it could be easily mitigated with proper measures. The demand for Business Intelligence tools is grown exponentially over the last decade because data visualization is a vital aspect for any organization. The magic quadrant explained in the research section throws some light on the various BI tools and their standing as of Jan 2020. Furthermore, the paper also mentions the historical roots of Data Visualization.

References

Aguilar, A. A. (2018). A Python Implementation for Discriminative Multivariate Data Visualization Using a Grand Tour of Manifold Learning Nonlinear Methods. NJ.

Huang, M. (2013). Innovative Approaches of Data Visualization and Visual Analytics. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Kirk, A. (2012). Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process. Birmingham, NJ: Packt Publishing. ISBN 13: 978-1-84969-346-2

Knaflic, C. N. (2015). Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Rocha, H. D. (2019). Learn Chart.js: Create interactive visualizations for the Web with Chart.js 2. Birmingham, NJ: Packt Publishing.

Staley, D. J. (2013). Computers, Visualization, and History: How New Technology Will Transform Our Understanding of the Past. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.