Blogroll Data-visualization - page 1 of 1

Did you know that 90 percent of all the world's data has been collected only in the past few years? It's almost impossible to imagine today's world without the word 'data'. We've been aware of data's possibilities for only a few years. And yet, it appears that we've not been making maximum use of all those opportunities because we use only 12 percent of all data collected by organizations. Of course, there are always exceptions to this rule; there are organizations that have discovered the potential of business intelligence. Companies where analytics get deeply rooted in business operations in a short time and that serve as the basis for making daily decisions.

De Woonplaats, a real estate company, created from a merger of 7 housing associations in the East of the Netherlands, can be characterized as an innovative real estate company with strong ambitions, which operates in a dynamic market. The transition from a more task-oriented to a fully process-oriented organization has been put in motion. The objectives here are to achieve a ‘smarter organization’ with ‘lean’ processes and more direction in business operations. It also necessary to anticipate and take into account the expectation that government, at a national and European level, will be taking (more) measures in the coming years that may have financial consequences.

The Intelligent Organization will uses visualization and simulation to ensure that employees can rapidly absorb information and knowledge –which encourages action. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words and “every problem can usually be solved, provided that we use an appropriate model” (Winston, 1992). Even though people have their own specific preferences when it comes to tables and graphs, a single good quality picture can often communicate a message much faster. A picture may tell us, at a glance, whether our market share increased or decreased in relation to prior periods. Of course you can still use tables (with text), however graphs and charts offer much more variety when it comes to depicting information effectively so that we can quickly interpret that information.

A recent study by one of the analysts firms tells us that “in 2011 the world will create a staggering 1.8 zettabytes” and “by 2020 the world will generate 50 times the amount of information [now]”. In this article we explore the three biggest challenges of using big data and what to do about it: intelligent filtering, outstanding performance and good data visualization. The main question here is if the business intelligence software we are using today is capable of tackling these challenges.