Over at Harvard Business, John Sviokla discusses the benefits of good data visualization and analysis tools, and how they can provide previously unknown insight into the massive mountains of data we accumulate.
The challenge is that if management teams do not consciously build in great visualizations, their organizations will waste an inordinate amount of time sifting through the river of bits, and not get the effective insights they need. Perhaps most perniciously, people will each be looking at their own part of the puzzle, never getting to the shared understanding that allows teams to take the right action in a tight time-frame.
In discussing it he shows some effective visualizations like a mashup of Google Maps with floodplain data to see what portions of buildings are at risk.
via Swimming in Data? Three Benefits of Visualization – John Sviokla – HarvardBusiness.org.
