With other projects, a little or a lot of automation may come in handy. With some projects, you may want to do everything yourself. A better solution? Choose a data visualization tool that connects with a platform designed to address all business analytics tasks. Many companies have an analytics ecosystem featuring multiple tools: one for production reporting, another for management reporting, another for discovery, and so forth, which can be expensive, require a variety of skill sets, and create compatibility issues. And it should be designed so that it can be accessed across your enterprise and shared with your coworkers anytime, anywhere. Your data visualization tool should have prebuilt connections to load and integrate data from a wide variety of sources-making data sets easy to blend and helping you quickly decide what really matters. The end result? From sales and marketing managers to business analysts, end users can handle the business analytics on their own, minimizing IT involvement. Why waste time going back and forth with IT for answers? Choose a data visualization tool designed for self-service-one that has an interactive environment with guided, step-by-step navigation and built-in functionality so that customization is not required.Ĭonsider a self-service tool that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning into the analytics to make certain tasks easier, particularly for users who are not analytically savvy. Yet, if the tool is difficult to use, requiring an in-depth knowledge of SQL or extensive scripting for data preparation, IT could still be involved in the process, handling a flood of help requests. Today, sales and marketing managers or other nontechnical users have taken over the job in many companies. In the past, IT was often responsible for business analytics. You want a tool that lets you quickly and easily add information or make edits, such as changing layouts to present new insights. For example, point-and-click or drag-and-drop features, as well as the capability to see your data visualized automatically or to highlight one graphic and automatically see related information in other graphics, save you from doing those tasks manually. You want a data visualization tool with features to keep things moving smoothly because the last thing you need is a solution that slows down your analysis and presentation-that creates barriers. With machine learning, uncovering what drives your business, understanding data behavior, and discovering hidden insights to make better decisions can be automatic. Your analytics can be on your phone or tablet wherever you go. You won’t have to be chained to your desk to analyze information. It can translate speech to text for mobile voice-based queries and alert you when new data is available to analyze while you’re travelling. For example, it can determine what business report and graphics are required for your business meeting in New York. You can have a personalized assistant that understands what you need, when and where you need it. That capability is available in a tool with machine learning. Imagine proactive, personalized analytics offered with a mobile data visualization application. In addition, without any advanced skills, including knowledge of coding, a user should be able to access predictive analytics and forecasting in one click to determine patterns and forecast future outcomes and trends. The interfaces can also be used to modify requests and data set parameters.Īnd it should be a tool that gives you a choice, allowing you to decide on the best graphic for presentation or automatically making a recommendation based on data results. Natural language interfaces that make it possible to interact with your data sources in human language can achieve that goal. You want an interactive data visualization tool that lets you quickly and easily ask questions and receive answers, to search for what you need and get to the data directly. The tool should also be able to augment your analysis by recommending new data sets to include in the review for more accurate results. This accelerates the process and reduces the chance of errors.
#Best data visualization tools for real time analytics manual#
Traditionally, preparing data for analysis has been a manual process, often time-consuming, frustrating, and prone to errors.Ĭonsider a tool that can automate data preparation by collecting information from one or more sources and consolidating it. So look for a smart data visualization tool that comes with enhanced analytics fueled by embedded machine learning.Ī tool with that capability should have the power to help you with all the steps in analyzing and conveying information, starting with data preparation. A data visualization tool with a brain: You want a solution that will make your life easier