DigiTech Magazine - US CIO2020 - Fall 2015 | Page 9
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WHY VISUAL ANALYTICS?
Grids, gauges, rows, columns, and the
need for a magnifying glass in order
to analyze an organization’s data is
something that too many businesses
have been doing for far too long. Seeing
organizations invest heavily in data
warehouse solutions, ETL packages,
and architecture is a step in the right
direction. However there has been little
or no emphasis on portraying the visual
analytics of such valuable data. Big data
needs to be presented in a way that the
business can quickly understand and
act on. This is not a minor consideration.
Mining millions of rows of data creates
a big headache for analysts tasked with
sorting and presenting data.
Typically organizations often approach
the problem in one of two ways:
1. By building “samples” so that it is easier
to both analyze and present the data
2. By creating template charts and
graphs that can accept certain types
of information. Instead, businesses
should consider pairing big data with
visual analytics so that all the data
is used and automated help enables
the selection of best ways to present
the data. This frees staff to focus on
gaining insights from data
THE BENEFITS
Visualization can offer a number of
benefits over analysis of data using
numbers only. These benefits are based
on people’s ability to process images
efficiently. We can scan, recognise, and
recall images rapidly. In addition, the
human brain is an amazing pattern-
recognition tool, and it can detect
changes in size, color, shape, movement,
and texture very efficiently. The following
highlights some of the main benefits of
visualization
1. Answers questions quickly –
Visualization can provide a quick, high
level summary of the main information
contained in the data.
2. Poses new questions – Quite often
the initial data investigations can
lead to more questions and further
exploration.
3. Explores and discovers – Sometimes
the data shows some unexpected
patterns and outliers – data points
which are well outside the normal data
range. Exploring these data points can
lead to new discoveries.
4. Communicates information –
Graphical representations of data
are more effective as a means of
communication than long textual files.
A story can be told more efficiently,
and the time to understand a picture
is a fraction of the time that it takes to
understand the textual data.
5. Supports decisions – Visualization can
provide quick answers and can improve
situational awareness. This in turn can
lead to faster and timely decisions.
6. Increases efficiency – A well designed
chart can save a lot of time otherwise
needed to read pages of numbers and
long textual reports. This time can be
better spent on making sound business
decisions.
7. Inspires – Visualizations can enhance
the way in which data is presented. This
can in turn challenge current practice.
Using innovative data visualizations can
make your audience more enthusiastic
about what is being communicated to
them, inspiring them to take action.
IN PRACTICE
Having worked with several organizations,
the most common problem that we at
North Highland have encountered is data
that is coming in from disparate sources
such as internal source systems and/or
external drivers like Facebook or Twitter,
which is treated separately without any
meaning or emphasis. Organizations tend
to drown in their own data but are starved
of reliable, consistent, and actionable
information.
Working with industry,
we have been able
to demonstrate the
benefit of obtaining
data in real or
batch time and
then portray these
results in a way
that turns data
into a story that the
user can ultimately
control. We see Visual
Analytics being able
to sit alongside the
large custom reporting
solutions in order to bring
the deep and broad data sets
to life, making it easier and
quicker for you to get insight into
capital, risk and solvency performance.
Providing visual concepts such as
storyboards, combined with psychology
behind the real estate these visualizations
sit on, impacts the reporting consumer
far more than going to each row and
column, and analysing the data until it
becomes insightful. Looking at where
you will be visualizing data is extremely
important – will it be on a web browser, a
PDF, an email, a mobile device and is it to
be interactive?
At North Highland, we design and
implement the tools that enable our
clients to:
• Self-serve
• Create appropriate visualizations
• Use granular data to focus on trends,
patterns and insights
We work closely with the business as
well as the technical teams in order to
harness value from the infrastructure
already in place. Organizations may
already have the infrastructure but just
not realize it…
For more information on
how we can help you in the
ever-growing area of Visual
Analytics, talk to Vivek:
[email protected]
CIO Magazine Fall 2015 Issue
9