Data visualization leads to better decision making

Our brains take better to visual representations than they do to text and numbers. We can remember long lists when we assign pictures to them. This is why data visualization tools enable people to easily understand and draw insights from large and complex data to aid decision-making.

The use of huge amounts of data is transforming businesses in ways that we could never have imagined. Organizations in traditional and non-traditional sectors are using data to understand their customers better through improved targeting and value creation. In addition, organizations are leveraging data visualization to identify new growth opportunities, streamline costs, explore business insights, increase productivity and sales, and make better human resource decisions.

A survey conducted by KPMG LLP showed that 59 percent of market leaders use data analytics to connect the management of enterprise risk and performance. Companies in the survey expect the main benefits of data analytics efforts to develop new revenue streams, improve operational efficiency and gain greater customer insights. Through powerful data visualizations, one can easily identify trends and insights on complex data for the purpose of analyzing customers’ feedback, shopping habits, as well as recommendations.

An article on GlobeNewswire estimated the global business intelligence market to register a CAGR of 10.23 percent from 2021 to 2028.The market growth is predominantly attributed to key factors, including the impact of globalization on businesses, the increasing need for real-time information and decision-making, and the growing customer-centric business approach.

By understanding the value of data visualization and the advantages of having interactive and intuitive dashboards to analyze trends and insights, we help our clients with their decision-making processes.

For example, we can make a dashboard containing complex data on profit and sales by country, city, product and segment, and any other criteria that you can imagine. Specifically, this process can help stakeholders answer the following questions quickly:

• How much are the sales and profit for a particular year?

• What locations are driving the sales and profit?

• What products are not performing well?

• What is the sales trend? Is it looking good throughout the year?

Dashboards enable organizations to have a better perspective on their performance without the need to view large and numerous tables of data.

Through data visualization, organizations can achieve the following:

• Accurate and real-time reporting

Have a centralized data and information portal where real-time data can be pulled quickly

• Effective analysis and communication

Help employees better visualize their sales trends and KPI tracking through an intuitive dashboard

• Improved planning and decision making

Create a data-driven and insights-based strategy

In this mega-data era, businesses can no longer afford to ignore the information that it has (but hasn’t used), but must leverage the insights that can be gleaned from this information.  Data visualization is the first step that business owners and top executives must take to understand what their customers want and what it takes for their organizations to deliver.

Jennifer V. Diaz is a senior lead consultant from the IT advisory group of KPMG R.G. Manabat & Co. (KPMG RGM&Co.), the Philippine member firm of KPMG International.

This article is for general information purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice to a specific issue or entity.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of KPMG International or KPMG RGM&Co. For comments or inquiries, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

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