Enterprise data represent some of an organization’s most valuable assets. Using enterprise data resources productively can spell the difference between a successful company and one that fails to meet its potential. The wise use of data can provide a business with a substantial competitive edge over its rivals. Companies working in the same market sector can differentiate themselves by the way they use their data resources.
Unfortunately, the tremendous volume of data available for processing in corporate databases can make it challenging to separate the important information from the background noise. Isolating insights and trends from copious amounts of raw data can be an extremely difficult undertaking for database teams. Data visualization is an excellent method that teams can adopt to make better use of enterprise data resources.
Benefits of Data Visualization
Gartner defines data visualization as a way to represent information graphically, highlighting patterns and trends in data and helping the reader to achieve quick insights. Organizations that take advantage of data visualization techniques can expect to enjoy several benefits that improve decision-making and impact the general corporate culture. Among them are:
- The ability to respond more quickly to market changes and new opportunities is facilitated by visualizations. Human brains process visual information faster and more efficiently than they do spreadsheets and statistics. Visualizations can get points across instantly so that timely and proper actions can be taken.
- Visualizations enable findings to be communicated more constructively than by simply enumerating the important points. In many cases, information needs to be disseminated to a diverse audience made up of technical and non-technical individuals. Choosing the right set of visualizations can help all audience members understand the salient points of the presentation.
- Emerging trends can be identified more easily with visual representations. Managers can observe changes in demand statistics at a glance when they are presented visually. Once the data in question has been identified, it can be more closely analyzed to uncover the reasons for demand fluctuation.
- Interactive data visualizations can be critically important for developing a deep understanding of the data behind the representations. The ability to manipulate data and immediately see how the changes impact the visualization can identify connections and interactions that could not be seen in other ways. This can lead to the kind of creative use of data that results in innovative business strategies.
Companies in virtually any industry can benefit from the use of data visualizations. It’s a tested method of obtaining more value from enterprise data assets.
Data Visualization in Healthcare
An illustrative example of where data visualization can lead to impressive gains can be seen in the healthcare industry. The worldwide pandemic has made it even more important to accurately and easily deliver health-related information to the public. There is great potential for visualization to streamline the process of delivering and obtaining healthcare.
Plenty of data is available in the healthcare field, but for it to provide real benefits it needs to be understood at a deep level and used intelligently. One way that visualization technology can be effective is in modeling healthcare workflows so they can be studied for opportunities where increased efficiency can be implemented. A case in point is reviewing COVID-19 vaccination statistics to uncover areas for improvement in distribution and delivery.
As with other businesses, the key to effecting change in the healthcare industry is to deliver the right information to the right audience at the right time. Visualization enables this information to be understood by healthcare professionals who may not be experts at data analysis. This allows the information to be acted upon and changes made that benefit the industry as a whole.
A Flexible Tool for Creating Data Visualizations
Aqua Data Studio offers teams a platform from which to develop informative data visualizations across a wide variety of database solutions. Whether you have relational, cloud, or NoSQL databases, Aqua Data Studio lets your database team interact, manage, and create stunning visualizations from a unified interface. It supports over 35 different database platforms from SQL Server and Oracle to MongoDB and Amazon RDS.
The tool has many features designed to simplify the creation of data visualizations. Dashboards can easily be created by dragging in visualizations from worksheets that can then be shared and interacted with by coworkers and customers. Multiple datasets can be aggregated to build pivot tables and charts. Custom visualizations can be built using results obtained by querying database servers. R integration enables Visual Analytics to be used as a front-end tool to quickly create complex visualizations.
With Aqua Data Studio you can take advantage of your data resources and increase their value with visualizations that bring the data to everyone in your audience. Don’t get left trying to make your point with a pile of spreadsheets when we all know a picture says it best.