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February 25, 2015

Business Intelligence Data Visualization vs. Data Discovery

Business Intelligence (BI) is a burgeoning software market, and customer demand for these types of products is changing rapidly. As users become more sophisticated and understand the value of good data, they want more integration, more visualization and most of all, better, more concise access to data with less effort. Businesses are looking for solutions that can support the need for swift, effective decision-making, while, at the same time, protecting their investment in the BI solution and supporting future needs.When an organization is considering a business intelligence solution, it will often focus on one primary need, e.g., data visualization, data discovery, BI self-service etc. In fact, it is imperative that a business weigh the importance of all of these needs and select a balanced solution that will give them most, if not all, of what they need. By making balanced choice, the business will avoid expensive customization, poor user adoption and poor TCO and ROI.

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It isn’t enough to display data in colorful charts, graphs and gauges. Today’s users are always fighting time and they need quick, effective access to ‘ah hah’ information – data that provides crucial nuggets of knowledge to drive business success. Deep Dive Analytics lets users drill into data to immediately see patterns and trends. Users can ask questions, solve complex problems using ad hoc analysis, bring in new data to supplement analysis using a variety of methods, so they can see information from different perspectives. The business can leverage the BI tool and cross-tab analysis, bring in new columns of data on demand, perform dynamic breakdowns using different dimensions, and change data operations and filters on fly, to quickly capitalize on opportunities and make course corrections.

Business users need sophisticated, flexible tools and personalized dashboard software to ‘discover’ and capitalize on those critical ‘ah hah’ moments. That’s what deep dive analysis is all about. Businesses expect team members to make informed decisions, yet a very small percentage of the total business user base is able to gain access to, and fully leverage BI within the organization. Deep dive analytics and intuitive data visualization is critical to making fact-based, performance-driven decisions, but many organizations are still struggling to effectively mine the ‘gold’ in enterprise data.

To satisfy business needs, a BI solution must provide visual analytics for data monitoring, and deep dive analysis for data discovery. This approach gives users the ‘nuggets’ they need to drive the enterprise to success and react rapidly to changing markets in a complex, competitive global business environment.

When an organization acquires an understanding of the value of balanced data visualization and data discovery, it is better positioned to choose a business intelligence solution that will meet the need for self-serve BI. The average user knows that they need good information to make day-to-day, tactical, operational and strategic decisions. However, that user may not have the time or the analytical skills to find, gather and perform complex analysis on enterprise-wide data. By providing a solution that ensures simple, concise data visualization and reporting capability along with powerful data discovery and analytical tools, the user gets the best of both worlds and the enterprise can achieve self-serve BI and ensure user adoption, low TCO and swift ROI.