Blue Heron Bookkeeping Articles
Data Visualization Basics
Which has higher brand awareness, Coca-Cola or Microsoft Office? Though Apple’s iPhone is giving companies a run for their money, I would argue that Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel are the most recognized products in the United States. Our country is run on those programs with estimates ranging from 80-90% of businesses are running on Excel. Many people run their data from Excel into graphs for upper level reporting but Microsoft offers another program, PowerBI, which provides a data visualization program that is under-utilized.
My experience with data visualization was fantastic. A technology company which I previously worked for had access to vast amounts of data. We would visualize the data through PowerBI and present dashboards to prospective clients. The presentation quality was far above our competitor’s and the prospective clients knew it, as we had live data in action rather than a picture of a potential dashboard that really wasn’t realizable. Data visualization was a key contributor to our success and the reason we obtained many second calls versus someone not being interested in our services.
First, let’s detail the two big players in data visualization currently.
Using data visualization in sales can give you a large advantage when speaking about what you do. Companies who create data as a primary product or a byproduct of their main service may see large returns due to prospective clients having a better understanding of the capabilities of the data. It may also set the proper expectations on the uses of the data so that the companies who do end up purchasing the product or services understand how they can utilize their investment.
There are millions of possibilities for operational use of data and there are hundreds of ways to put data visualization into use. A couple of ideas which come to mind are using data visualization for marketing purposes.
The most common use case of data visualization within larger corporations is using it for financial health measurement. Many large companies now have analysts who prepare a dashboard for executives relating to key ratios they wish to manage. An example of this would be a dashboard comparing current year and prior year sales. This could be split by date, by product, or a multitude of other filters. Many companies also analyze their accounts receivable and accounts payable through data visualization, making sure they are aware of outliers which are important to the business.
Finally and most importantly, data visualization can be included as part of your product and services. Many marketing and utility companies, along with other highly competitive industries, are using data viz as a way to show results of their services. Their goal is to make the customer easily understand the impact they have on the client’s company. This typically involves showing incremental profit the service or product provided the client’s company along with where their savings occured. This builds client retention and also serves as a competitive advantage for many companies as the standard is likely just a static report with no dynamic parts.
Hopefully this was a helpful dialogue to help inspire data visualization you want to use in your company. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss your bookkeeping needs.
My experience with data visualization was fantastic. A technology company which I previously worked for had access to vast amounts of data. We would visualize the data through PowerBI and present dashboards to prospective clients. The presentation quality was far above our competitor’s and the prospective clients knew it, as we had live data in action rather than a picture of a potential dashboard that really wasn’t realizable. Data visualization was a key contributor to our success and the reason we obtained many second calls versus someone not being interested in our services.
First, let’s detail the two big players in data visualization currently.
- PowerBI – Microsoft
- Tableau – Salesforce
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PowerBI was created in 2014 and is owned by Microsoft. Though it was not heavily marketed or used early in its life, it appears to be one of the applications Microsoft is currently pushing along with its cloud computing service, Azure.
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Tableau was created by Stanford Alumni in 2003 and is currently owned by Salesforce. Tableau saw massive growth starting around 2009 and is considered one of the pioneers of data visualization software. Tableau was acquired by Salesforce to create an easier bridge between other Salesforce services with data visualization software.
Using data visualization in sales can give you a large advantage when speaking about what you do. Companies who create data as a primary product or a byproduct of their main service may see large returns due to prospective clients having a better understanding of the capabilities of the data. It may also set the proper expectations on the uses of the data so that the companies who do end up purchasing the product or services understand how they can utilize their investment.
There are millions of possibilities for operational use of data and there are hundreds of ways to put data visualization into use. A couple of ideas which come to mind are using data visualization for marketing purposes.
- Optimizing your marketing spend based on where your average customer is coming from
- Relating your marketing spend back towards website analytics you are also collecting is often misused.
- Displaying the campaign strategy with website results helps identify what worked and what did not work.
The most common use case of data visualization within larger corporations is using it for financial health measurement. Many large companies now have analysts who prepare a dashboard for executives relating to key ratios they wish to manage. An example of this would be a dashboard comparing current year and prior year sales. This could be split by date, by product, or a multitude of other filters. Many companies also analyze their accounts receivable and accounts payable through data visualization, making sure they are aware of outliers which are important to the business.
Finally and most importantly, data visualization can be included as part of your product and services. Many marketing and utility companies, along with other highly competitive industries, are using data viz as a way to show results of their services. Their goal is to make the customer easily understand the impact they have on the client’s company. This typically involves showing incremental profit the service or product provided the client’s company along with where their savings occured. This builds client retention and also serves as a competitive advantage for many companies as the standard is likely just a static report with no dynamic parts.
Hopefully this was a helpful dialogue to help inspire data visualization you want to use in your company. As always, feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to discuss your bookkeeping needs.
I want to bring solutions to people within our community around The Villages, FL. I run Blue Heron Bookkeeping, a bookkeeping and accounting firm, which focuses on helping those who run businesses within our community. I want to give back valuable time to owners so they can focus on their product. I also want to reduce costs to owners, making it more advantageous and easier to scale out the business. This, in turn, allows them to provide greater value to the community.
This post was authored by: Nathan Gauger
Managing Partner of Blue Heron Bookkeeping
BlueHeronBK.com