We collect and analyse a large amount of data, from financial numbers and sales statistics, to marketing campaign conversations and customer demographics, to help us make better decisions.
Yet data are just numbers.
Without putting data in the right context and giving it meaning, we wouldn’t be able to assess whether our financials are on the right track, evaluate the effectiveness of our campaign, and analyse our customer behaviours, and gain key insights.
Driving your decision-making
Being able to collect and measure meaningful data provides great insight into an organisation’s operations, how well they are ranking within the market, whether their stakeholders are satisfied, what employees think of their work conditions, whether those campaigns have been as effective as the management teams were hoping they would be, and so much more.
It’s a key component of applying data analytics to drive your decision-making and using it to your advantage.
Seeing is believing
Collecting the data is only one part of the story. The other part is when you make sense of the data and turn it into useful analytics. One of the most effective ways of interpreting anything is through sight; one of our five senses which helps us process information the quickest.
So what does this mean?
Research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania calculated that our eyes can transfer data at approximately 8.75 megabits per second; and with approximately 30% of neurons dedicated to vision in the brain’s cortex, it becomes clear why we process visuals so quickly.
Basically, being able to visually see what all the numbers are telling us, creates a meaningful and easier to digest way of interpreting a lot of information that would otherwise just look like a mountain of numbers.
Answering your questions
In the process of data discovery and trying to make sense of your collected analytics, you’ll have questions. Questions such as, how much did we turn over this year? How much profit did we make? What elements of this process can we make more efficient? How did this campaign compare to the last? If all things stay the same, what will my sales look like over the next two months?
To answer these questions you will need to:
- Understand your business and the questions you will be asking
- Have an easy-to-use platform that you can easily create reports in
- Understand the data sets you have, how to bring them together to answer the questions, and identify which visualisations work best to deliver each answer
Putting it all together
Having a clear idea of what questions you want to be answered, how to best collect the info you need, and envision how you’d want to see your data is when you can start putting it all together. With a BI analytics and dashboarding solution, you’ll be able to understand your data with ease and improve your decision making.
So why not start now?
Check out our dashboards and analytics solution INX +BI, and see how you can use visual analytics to your advantage.
Want to know more? Then don’t hesitate to get in touch with us >
