The field of data science requires considerable knowledge and skill to analyse data at desirable speeds, retrieve and convert these data into useful information that is easy to understand for users.

Analysing data has become a necessity nowadays, especially with the current situation of working remotely. Business contracts and agreements need to be formalised quickly. As the rivalry among competitors intensifies, there is little or no room for slow decision making. Thus, in running the day-to-day business operations, a growing dependence on data will be the norm.

Results based on past records have to be translated into simple and easy to understand presentation materials to impress clients or higher management of the company.

Data-driven decision making requires strong understanding of data insights, facilitated by data visualisation. Whether you are a junior or C-suite level executive or decision maker, data visualisation skills are required to make numbers and text more engaging.

Data visualisation paints a thousand words using graphical images, which communicate the hidden insights from large chunks of data. It is important to grasp the basic fundamentals of data visualisation and understand how the visuals presented will need to accurately reflect the numbers, telling  the story in a professional way. Small and big data comprise facts and figures, which are stored in computers.

What about big data? It is a collection of massive datasets that are overlapping and complex. Processing them require costly data processing applications, not to mention time. Big data is usually collected in areas such as social media platforms, medical devices, and satellite images.

Interpreting huge amounts of data and converting them into useful information is undoubtedly challenging and requires a high level of expertise. Large enterprises like multinationals and government-linked companies in most industries such as healthcare, finance, technology, and design, will need to visualise data.

One of the reasons organisations have data is to gain insights, understand and study patterns that will help to establish baselines, determine benchmarks and evaluate  business goals to make well-informed decisions.

Citations from various reputable sources, have shared that :

• 93 percentage communication is non-verbal
• 90 percentage of information transmitted to the brain is visual
• 50 percentage is active in visual processing

Data visualisation enables viewers to grasp difficult large numbers and present them into pictorial or into a graphical format. These visuals can be interactive and engaging and with the right tools; it can drill your presentation charts and figures into more details for better understanding. This is especially useful for any department that needs a competitive win against the many organisation that is looking in upskilling their staffs.

So yes, you know that visuals are more compelling and easier to understand, but what does it mean for business for your organisation? Business meetings with presentation decks with visuals can be shorten by 24 percentage, and sources from Bain & Company reports that companies with the most advanced analytics competencies are :

• 2x more likely to use data regularly when making decisions
• 2x more likely to be top in financial performance within their industries
• 3x more likely to execute decisions
• 5x more likely to make decisions much faster than market peers

In the near future, data visualisation will be used commonly. If your competitor is using this tool in a better way compared to you, your business could be in trouble. Its application is wide-ranging, from computer scientists developing the next big thing in artificial intelligence to sales staff predicting customer preference with graphs and charts that reveal the vital findings of consumer behaviour.

When it comes to business, there is no foolproof way of knowing how your clients or customers behave without the support of data. Risks are high, leading to possible losses in revenue.

With data visualisation, analysts will generate information differently and issues can be resolved more rapidly. Staff can perform data exploration and experimentation. As the way they treat data would be different and more imaginatively, they will be able to glean for more insights. Possibilities are endless with data visualisation for small and big data.

Join in conversations to know more about data visualisation. Upskill yourself with courses such as Power BI, Microsoft PowerPoint – Infographic, Tableau and many more to meet the demands for data visualisation. Each one of these courses will provide reporting solutions and fact-based analysis through multi-device access such as mobile, web, and desktop.

Equip yourself and your people with the know-how of data visualisation to stay relevant. More importantly, stay abreast of market demands by retrieving, generating and converting useful data into easy to understand visuals for growing your business.

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