Page 125 - DCAP208_Management Support Systems

Management Support Systems

Notes maximum insight. How results are deployed is also important – through operation systems
such as customer relationship management applications or real-time fraud applications to
interactive dashboards, data movies, in databases – wherever needed to ensure decision
makers have the information they need when they need it (and in the way they can best
consume it).
5. Keep the process transparent: Transparency implies openness, communication and
accountability; it is key to successful business analytics projects.

!
Caution The value delivered from an investment in business analytics must be visible and
measureable.

Who the analysts are and what they’re seeking to accomplish should be clearly
communicated to the business, as should their findings.
6. Develop an analytical center of excellence: Create a centralized team approach – an analytical
center of excellence (ACE) – which promotes the use of analytics and associated best
practices. Your implementation of an ACE will depend on your organization’s maturity
and requirements, but the most effective implementations address all elements of the
organization’s analytic infrastructure: people, process, technology and culture to support
the business’ strategy and operations.
7. Transform the culture: A strong analytical culture has executive sponsorship and encourages
creativity. Experimentation should be seen as part of learning, and employees should be
given permission to fail as they learn from trying new things.

8. Revise your strategies – often: Your competitors will often duplicate your analytical
initiatives. Staying ahead requires continuous review of strategy and development of
new skills and capabilities.

8.1.2 Usage of Data Visualization

The modes of information communication evolve constantly in order to improve its efficiency,
clarity and aesthetic appeal. Generally, there are no wrong ways to communicate information
but the traditional textual forms are slowly giving their way to data visualisation. Whether the
latter is really the best way to communicate information or not depends on several factors
including the type of data you want to present and the target audience to which you are
communicating information
If you are having difficulties deciding between communication of data in the “raw” form or
using visualisation methods such as graphs, dials, charts, etc. instead, the following overview of
advantages of data visualisation may help:

Clarity: It is a lot easier to understand a dial or graph than numbers. The viewer
understands what you are trying to say at a first sight.

Saving time: Since a “picture is worth a million words”, using data visualisation helps the
audience quickly absorb and interpret the presented data. As a result, data visualisation
enables you to present a considerably larger amount of data in comparison to the textual
format which often requires repetition in order to help the audience understand the
information.

Less confusion: It is not difficult to get confused when dealing with lots of numbers as you
actually need to memorize them to be able to understand the communicated information.
Using visual presentation of numbers, however, dramatically reduces confusion because
the audience does not need to process the numbers to be able to see where you are going.

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