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January 2, 2009
How Web-based Charting Software Helps Business Decisions
A good Web based charting software is to the business intelligence (BI) decision-maker what a reliable GPS system is to a driver. Yesterday's charts and graphs are like a static map: they only tell you one thing, and you can't ask them additional questions. Conversely, an advanced Web-based charting software lets you analyze the information presented in different ways--always visually--but with a level of depth and creativity unheard of until a few years ago. In other words, today's best charts and graphs can help your competitiveness--if you don't use them, you can bet your competitors do.
In the see-understand-act flow of BI, any feature or tool that compresses this three-part flow and puts more emphasis on the "understand so you can act" part gives more value. That's why, for instance, an actionable KPI gives the decision maker more value than the same information presented in a table.
Here is a brief overview of items that make a charting software more helpful to the business decision-maker.
Drill-down and drill-through capability. You are the sales manager, and a Web-based bar graph shows you year-to-date sales by rep. A versatile Web-based charting software will let you click on a salesman's bar and see, for instance, the breakdown of revenue by product line (drill down) or a report showing all the relevant sales metrics pertaining to that rep (drill through). Through the immediate and easy navigation of the Web, this will only take a few clicks and will offer you a focused way to ask the chart questions and receive answers.
Ability to display data in different ways. Not all data is the same. Not all data lends itself to asking it the same questions. A pie chart is often best to display percentages. A bar chart discrete quantities. A line chart progress overtime. But a good Web-based charting software will give you much more than this. For example, it will offer you the possibility to display your data in a heat map or even a geographic map, each of which has tremendous benefits.
Sizzle and persuasive power. Data does not have to be presented in a boring way. Visual impact can make the difference between a lost opportunity and a deal won. With point and moderation, for instance, a Flash-animated chart or graph can give your report the sizzle you need to be more persuasive and impress your clients or colleagues in ways that will do your business good. A good Web-based charting software will give you possibilities like this, as well as the means to easily customize the look and feel of your charts and graphs to the message you are trying to convey.
Ability to analyze data from the chart itself. A chart tells you the "what." To understand the "why" or the "what if?" you will need to analyze the information presented. A good charting software will let you do this from the chart itself, without forcing you to go back to the underlying table. Web-based features like interactive data viewers give you precisely this type of capability: perform different kinds of calculations, find statistically-meaningful numbers behind your data, view hypothetical scenarios at a glance--all displayed in graphic format.
These are only a few of the capabilities you should expect from a good Web-based charting software. Ease of use, reliable connection to data from different data sources and flexible personalization are of course among other basic requirements, but we will delve into these points in a future post.
Posted by Hound of the BI-skervilles at January 2, 2009 10:30 AM
