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An enterprise always needs to adopt multi-directional approaches. Unidirectional goals and objectives are quite present, as every organization has to perform multiple tasks. From consumer analysis and market research to sales optimization and HR analytics, businesses have diverse responsibilities. Quite naturally, they are always in dire need of resources and technologies capable of accelerating their bottom lines. If you are a part of this ever-expanding business landscape, you must be aware of the importance of effective data analytics. Let’s take a look at what Big Data analytics has in store for businesses today.
Also Check: How to Use Microsoft Excel as a Web Scraping Tool
The Importance of Data Analytics
There’s no denying the fact that we are living in an age, where Big Data analytics seems to be the key to achieving unsurpassed success. Whether it’s a startup or an established business, data analytics happens to be a crucial necessity.
Entrepreneurs, project managers, and business leaders are embracing the data revolution, thus sharing a unique professional camaraderie with their employees. Let’s turn to some stats for deeper insights into the matter.
Statistics Reveal the Significance of Data Visualization
A reliable survey report conducted on the UK and US employees reveal the importance of data visualization and analytics. According to reports, a whopping 80% or more employees wish to have access to crucial information on business performance. That’s not all; nearly 25% of employees have resigned from their respective job roles because they weren’t a part of business information sharing.
These reports reveal a lot about the importance of data sharing and effective visualization. From project managers to associates, every member of your workforce will wish to gain access to crucial data sets that can help them gain ideas of business performance, KPIs, and profit margins. It’s here that data visualization tools enter the scenario. By ensuring comprehensive data presentation, viewing, and sharing, these tools promote effective communications within an organization.
Why MS Excel isn’t the Numero Uno?
Although MS Excel has found widespread application across projects, thou MS Excel is a poor choice for data projects. If you are working with extensive data sets and on large-scale projects, MS Excel won’t be the right option to choose. Here’s why!
1. Crucial Data is Invisible
With MS Excel, you will have the opportunity to view the raw data all at once. That makes it impossible to differentiate between crucial data sets and unimportant ones. Visualization tools help you highlight certain significant portions of these data sets. The prime emphasis lies in drawing your employees’ attention to crucial information. However, Excel spreadsheets simply don’t make that happen. It’s quite tough to identify important data amidst other information.
2. Difficult For Data Analysis
When it comes to performing successful data analysis, spreadsheets take a backseat. With huge data volumes being represented in these spreadsheets, employees might find it difficult to analyze it. Quite naturally, the poor analysis leads to severe misinterpretations which result in wrong decision-making.
3. Data Distortion
Most of the time, people using MS Excel and related tools create graphs, pie charts, and tables to represent data. However, these things can distort data to a great extent. This distortion can creep into your data projects and create havoc.
4. Historical Data Loss
MS Excel spreadsheets aren’t appropriate for historical data storage. When an organization decides to update the spreadsheet for managing it, they risk losing huge amounts of historical data. Such huge data loss creates problems in data analysis and comparisons, thus making it quite tough to identify trends.
5. Difficulty In Sharing
Sharing an Excel spreadsheet is a highly tedious affair. Spreadsheets create ample opportunities for accidental data loss, which makes it impossible to share crucial data and information. Most importantly, the data sets can’t be shared in real-time, which happens to be a severe disadvantage.
6. Bad Reputation Among Data Analysts
Although the reasons aren’t quite known, MS Excel doesn’t have a very good reputation among data analysts. Especially those who don’t work on this platform aren’t quite comfortable using it. While experts might have a great time working on them, the rest of your workforce would feel the opposite. As a result, alienation will take place within the enterprise, which isn’t good for its productivity.
These aspects clearly reflect the demerits of MS Excel as a data visualization tool. Since effective data visualization is the key to proper communications, you will need to identify the right tools. With MS Excel failing to offer desired results, it’s high time to check out the important alternatives. Here we go!
Tracking the Benefits of Dedicated Data Visualization Tools
A state-of-the-art, dynamic, and effective data visualization tool can ensure numerous benefits. Alternatives such as Qlikview and Tableau are rapidly emerging as the best options. These tools are revolutionizing data visualization big time and making it easier for inexperienced users. Here are some remarkable benefits to these dynamic tools.
1. Constructive Data Absorption
With innovative data visualization tools, you will have the opportunity to absorb information and data in constructive ways. You can gain access to crucial information on business performance, objectives, profits, and other significant aspects. That’s a huge benefit for decision-makers, as they get to know the pain points and strengths.
2. Striking A Balance Between Business and Operational Activities
Effective data visualization helps you maintain equilibrium between operational and core business activities. With the help of highly functional and innovative tools, you can draw similarities between business and operational functions. These tools also help you identify crucial differences between these two activities thus making it easier to identify trends.
3. Data Interaction and Manipulation
The most functional and high-efficiency data visualization tools enable effective and swift interactions. Users will have complete and unique opportunities to interact with crucial data. Most importantly, the top data visualization tools will help you manipulate and change data, as and when required.
4. Detailed Reports
Unlike MS Excel, innovative, and dedicated visualization tools represent data in a detailed manner. These tools help project managers and business owners gain crucial insights into the real scenario. Detailed reports will also help them perform predictive analysis.
5. Promoting New Business Lingo
With the right data visualization tools, you can narrate a comprehensive story about your company, its performance, and objectives. Your employees will develop crystal clear ideas of their growth alongside knowing the advancements made by the company. Effective and unique data visualization tools promote a new business lingo, which helps you take your dream venture to unsurpassed heights.
These are some of the remarkable benefits associated with dedicated data visualization tools. By using these tools, business organizations will have complete control over crucial data and can perform successful data analytics.
6. Identifying The Significant Alternatives
Emerging technologies have revolutionized in various sectors. When it comes to successful data visualization, analysts and business owners can have the best tech support. With the advent and emergence of innovative tools, data visualization has become easier than before.
If you wish to experience effective data visualization without using MS Excel, some of the top tools will help you do so. Let’s take a quick look at these alternatives in the market.
- Open Refine
- Data Wrangler
- Tabula
- NVD3
- Wolfram ALPHA
- Tableau
- Qlikview
These tools have revolutionized data visualization to a great extent. The prime emphasis is on leveraging data for better business decisions. Companies are shifting focus and considering data visualization as an integral part of business functioning.
Promoting Communication
Communications and meaningful interactions are integral parts of business functioning, and what better than effective data visualization can make that happen. Crucial business data reveal some of the important aspects of an organization and unveil the important facts.
With good data visualization tools, business owners, project managers, and employees will have the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about the growth and development of their company. As businesses understand the significance of data visualization and analytics, embracing the right technologies becomes important.
Signing Off
With MS Excel failing to offer optimum results and performance, organizations across the business landscape are in search of better tools and technologies to bring out insights from mere numbers. With the advanced data visualization tools mentioned here, they will have perfect opportunities to leverage the power of information and data. When it comes to being on the same page with your employees, management team, and technical team, there’s nothing like successful data visualization.
