In today’s modern business landscape, data is quickly becoming the currency of success.
Organizations across virtually every industry both create and collect data, and these practices are growing exponentially.
But, unless you’re a keen student of data analytics and a master of statistical interpretation, this data can be a struggle to understand. To unlock its true potential, businesses need a way to unearth insights, tell stories, and incorporate it into decision-making.
This is exactly where data visualization becomes important.
But what is data visualization, and what are the benefits Kentucky businesses can realize when they incorporate it into their workflows?
This article will help your business make sense of the data revolution and understand why data visualization is such an essential component of any data-driven operation.
What Is Data Visualization?
Data can provide powerful insights into the decision-making process. But, for stakeholders to make sense of this information, it’s crucial to present this data in a compelling, visual format.
In short, data visualization is the process of analyzing and summarizing data in an engaging, easy-to-interpret format.
This process helps businesses extract insights, recognize patterns, and identify trends without the need for advanced data analytics training. Using visualization software like Tableau or PowerBI, data can become easy-to-read charts, graphs, maps, and infographics, among many other formats that help stakeholders take in and understand these complex data sets.
Why is data visualization so important?
Research from the Aberdeen Group shows that 48% of managers can find the information they need without the assistance of IT staff when they leverage the power of visual data discovery tools.
This saves time and resources while getting individuals the information they need fast.
Examples of Data Visualization
What does data visualization look like in practice?
Let’s explore some examples:
- Real-time financial dashboards: these dashboards aggregate data from various sources to provide decision-makers with an at-a-glance view of financials.
- Supply chain analytics: by aggregating data from various stages of the supply chain, businesses can identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and predict possible disruptions.
- Healthcare analytics: dashboards can collect data from patient records, lab results, imaging data, and more to drive creative insights into patient care.
These are just a few ways businesses might leverage the power of data to create streamlined graphs and charts that power enhanced decision-making. In reality, the possibilities are endless – selecting the right options for your business demands careful consideration and expert guidance.
6 Reasons Data Visualization Benefits Kentucky Businesses
By adopting powerful data visualization tools, Kentucky businesses can turn their data from an under-utilized resource into a strategic asset. This can help drive better decision-making at every level of an organization as well as offer improved efficiency and, ultimately, better business outcomes.
Benefits Kentucky businesses unlock by adopting data visualization tools include:
- Unlocking the ability to generate custom, real-time reports
- Discovering new business trends and opportunities
- Improving operational efficiency
- Leveraging richer customer insights
- Practicing data democratization
- Harnessing predictive analytics
These are just a few standout benefits of data visualization for businesses. In truth, data is an incredibly valuable asset that can affect all aspects of operations.
Let’s take a closer look at these data visualization benefits for Kentucky businesses.
1. Ability to Generate Custom, Real-Time Reports
The ability to create custom reports in real-time is invaluable for businesses.
Real-time reports provide up-to-the-minute insights that enable your team to respond quickly to evolving trends or changing market conditions. For example, when a sudden drop in sales occurs, relevant parties will know immediately and be able to access a report tailored to their exact business needs.
2. Discover New Business Trends and Opportunities
When raw data is translated into insights that are easier to understand for non-technical individuals through visualization, businesses can recognize patterns and trends that may otherwise have gone unnoticed in traditional reports.
By noticing these patterns in data, teams can unlock new opportunities for growth, such as untapped potential markets, possible product enhancements, or changing customer behavior.
3. Improved Operational Efficiency
With data visualization, businesses can monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and other relevant operational metrics to quickly identify possible inefficiencies and areas for improvement.
This can allow leadership to take steps to act proactively, thus reducing costs and increasing overall productivity.
4. Leverage Richer Customer Insights
Representing customer data in a visual format offers businesses deeper insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and needs.
The outcome of this activity is often incredibly valuable. From understanding patterns in purchasing habits or product preferences to informing marketing strategies and product development, data visualization is the key to understanding a customer base.
5. Practice Data Democratization
It’s not only leadership that can benefit from data visualization. By presenting data in an easy-to-interpret format, employees across different departments can work together to make better decisions and foster innovation.
This not only benefits individual productivity levels but also encourages an organizational-wide culture of transparency and collaboration.
6. Leverage Predictive Analytics
Through historical data visualization, businesses can interpret patterns and trends to help inform future decision-making.
Forecasts like this can help teams anticipate market challenges and help organizations mitigate risks and seize on upcoming opportunities. Predictive analytics, powered by data visualization, can serve as a roadmap for the future, helping companies navigate the business landscape more effectively. This also plays a crucial role in Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A) – a critical financial planning exercise for businesses aiming for lasting success.
Data Visualization Services for Businesses
The ability to generate optimized visualization from data is essential to powering the data revolution for businesses of all sizes.
No matter if your company is in construction, government, or healthcare, the benefits of data visualization are overwhelmingly apparent. From generating custom real-time reports to understanding advanced customer insights, data visualization is helping businesses make more informed decisions that drive growth, productivity, and efficiency.
By unlocking these benefits, businesses across Kentucky and Indiana can effectively leverage their data to meet business goals and drive success in an increasingly competitive environment.
Here at LBMC, we provide businesses with the data advisory services they need to harness the power of data analytics and develop strategic choices. We can work with your business needs to develop a customizable approach that unlocks actionable insights fast.
Our services are tailored specifically to the needs of businesses across the Kentucky and Indiana areas.
For more information on how LBMC can help your team leverage the power of data visualization, get in touch today.
Content provided by LBMC Business Intelligence professional, Jon Hilton.