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From pie chart to crystal ball: data visualisation changes SA business


Johannesburg, 23 Nov 2015
Haroon Suliman, business development manager at SAS SA
Haroon Suliman, business development manager at SAS SA

Visual analytics tools are empowering business decision-makers to forecast on the fly, which is changing the face of business in South Africa, says SAS South Africa.

Haroon Suliman, business development manager at SAS South Africa, says visualisation has long been used to help people understand complex scenarios and statistics. "People have depended on static graphs and charts for many years, to help them understand data better. What's changed is that advanced visual analytics tools are not only allowing people to dig deeper into the data to understand it better; the new tools are also allowing them to ask 'what if' questions and make predictions based on accurate data. For the first time, business decision-makers have an accurate 'crystal ball' or even just factual support of their own 'gut feel' around business decisions."

Data visualisation is an easy-to-use technology that allows business decision-makers to interact with their business data quickly and effectively. This is increasingly important as data volumes grow and the speed at which business must make decisions increases, says Suliman.

In years past, analytics entailed lengthy project cycles and delivery mechanisms involving business, analysts and the IT department. "It involved developing and building reports and then running the analytics back to managers and decision-makers," he says. "It could take a week to answer one query, and this system did not allow for rapid interrogation of the data and the asking of 'what if' questions.

"Now, business decision-makers need to work with data and analytics in a simplified environment. They need faster, better data that gives them the ability to predict the future with a degree of confidence," says Suliman. They need to quickly identify problems in operations and assess the likely outcomes of various steps to address these problems; or they may need to predict sales volumes or weigh up the impact of various cost-cutting measures. To do so effectively, they need to interrogate real-time data, and all the data - not just a sample, Suliman says.

Importantly, they need this data and analytics presented in formats that are easy to understand. Data visualisation presents information in a way that non-analysts can easily interpret, saving time and energy and empowering decision-makers to interrogate their business data effectively on the fly, says Suliman.

At the same time, business needs access to data analytics and visualisation tools wherever they are. "This is driving the uptake of advanced big data visualisation tools that are functional across any device."

In South Africa, both public and private sector organisations are moving to harness the power of big data analytics and data visualisation tools to help them make better business decisions, faster. "Local organisations typically start with one use case for big data analytics and data visualisation, then discover they have freed up resources and time, and start asking 'what else can we do with the data we have?' They interrogate their data more and more. To quote one SAS user: 'I started out asking a question and ended up having a conversation.' We are seeing growing uptake of analytics and data visualisation tools in South Africa because their time to value is significantly reduced compared to traditional IT projects," he says.

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