Why business users use data visualization and reporting?

What is Data Visualization?

Organizations started presenting big data in a pictorial or graphical format which is called data visualization. Data visualization enables decision makers to see complex and large data in a graphical format which help them to make precise decisions. Many organizations have revealed that they use data visualization to help make better sense of the information and tell a story with data.

Organizations are using data visualization to organize big data.

Big data is defined as high-volume, high-velocity, and high variety information assets, and managing this data is highly challenging.  Big data today plays an important role in achieving business goals, and organizations are using big data to improve decision making. However, making big data in an approachable and valuable way can be a difficult challenge for many organizations. According to SAS “The majority of tools available to work with Big Data are complex and hard to use, and most enterprises don’t have the in-house expertise to perform the required data analysis and manipulation to draw out the answers that the business is seeking.”

Why data visualization?!

Data visualization is an integral part of data analysis. The main reason for using data visualization is to help organizations easily and quickly explore and analyze data for making the right business decisions. Data visualization not only improves business decisions but also reduces the time required of IT staff to find the information needed and different sets of data required by business users. According to SAS,

"In most organizations, IT staff is inundated with requests from business users and analysts for different sets of data..... With solutions focused on providing visualization of Big Data, IT can give users access to more information and allow them to leverage data visualization to progress through Big Data analysis at their own pace.....IT can load data and make it available for multiple users, who can dynamically explore the information, create reports, and share information on their own".

Data visualization can also identify areas that need more attention and improvement. It has also a huge impact on interacting with data. Simplifying the data by using visualizations, allows business users to get the main picture of data and see the details at the same time which offer new ways of thinking and interacting with data. “The value of these tools is you can pull strands of insight out of a pile of data, which offers new ways of thinking,” says Pual Kent, SAS.

Most organizations use data visualizations to help comprehend information quickly and draw a conclusion from this information. Ultimately, Data visualization fulfills the business objectives and affect the bottom line.

“With analytics and data visualization, enterprises can begin tapping into the value of Big Data to boost overall effectiveness and realize a greater return on investment. And enterprises that use data visualization can be assured they are getting the best answers from the Big Data they collect, limiting missed business opportunities and helping them focus on strategic growth.” SAS

Defining your business goals before collecting data.

Before implementing data in a visual form, business users should first determine their business goals, target audience, and their business needs. Generating data is much easier than managing and analyzing it. That means organizations should take into account that they have to prepare the amount of data they will be working with and define their goals before starting collecting the data, or they will be lost in a data pile.