Delivering Business Value

Faster with Visual Data

Discovery
Fern Halper & David Stodder, TDWI
Joined by José Villacís, Oracle

May 25, 2016

Sponsor

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Speakers

Fern Halper David Stodder José Villacís

Research Director, Research Director, Sr. Group Manager,
Advanced Analytics Business Intelligence Analytics and Big Data Discovery,
TDWI TDWI Oracle
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
@fhalper @dbstodder

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Agenda
• The big picture: Drivers and
trends shaping visual data
discovery
• Steps 1-3
• Roundtable discussion #1
• Steps 4-7
• Roundtable discussion #2
• Audience Q&A
Speeding Business Insight with Data
• Data-informed decisions:
From business leadership to
the front lines in operations,
data plays an increasing role
– Data-driven business models for
new ventures; monetizing data in
B2B, B2C
– Customer engagement driven by Top objectives, TDWI research:
data intelligence; finance driven 1) Exec management insight (70%)
by more accuracy and flexibility 2) Customer insight and
– Challenging guesses and gut feel engagement (68%)
3) Predictive insights (58%)
assumptions with analytics
4) Faster response to change
• Business-Driven: Trends (54%)
5) Complete view of customer
indicate business side has activity across channels (51%)
growing role, budget for tech 6) Improved data quality (51%)

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Traditional Tools: No Speed to Insight
• Spreadsheets: Still the common tool
for most business users
– Not easy to get beyond simple functionality
– Problems of spreadmarts: poor data quality,
hard to share insights
• Traditional business intelligence
tools: Not easy for nontechnical users
– Disappointed users will revert to
spreadsheets
• Dashboards: Good for communicating
performance metrics and consolidating
views
– Problems: Often too static, too simple; still
just a “data dump”

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Enter Self-Service Visual Data Discovery
• What is visual data
discovery?
– Integration of data analysis with
modern, graphical ways of
expressing information
• Discovery: Unlike reports that
update standard views of data, TDWI: Top Self-Service Drivers:
1) Users are requesting to do more
users can explore data without on their own
knowing where they will end up 2) IT cannot keep up with changing
business needs; lacks expertise
– Analyzing patterns and trends to 3) Users are going rogue and IT
learn the best question to ask needs a comprehensive solution
• Flexible data interaction: 4) Current BI processes cannot
adapt to test-and-learn analytics
Using data visualization rather 5) Users need access to more
than writing code and queries types of data

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Tech Changes Enabling Faster Insights
New technologies change • Mobile computing:
the landscape – focusing need for easy,
• Cloud computing: An quick, self-service
alternative to long, on- visualization
premises deployment • Big data technologies to
cycles tap more diverse data
– Cloud for visual data
discovery: supporting
experimentation and
discovery
– Small and midsize
businesses: faster path to
competitive edge with data

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Delivering Business Value Faster
with Visual Data Discovery
TDWI Checklist:
– Focus on helping
organizations understand
and employ necessary
best practices
– Next up: Seven best
practices and roundtable
discussion

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1. Cultivate Data Discovery Skills

Easy to use does not mean skills are not

needed

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Critical Thinking

• Ability to formulate a question

• Comfortable creatively thinking in numbers
and attributes
• Inference

Above all: Questioning the results

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Data Sense
• Transformations, calculated variables
• Lots of new data types
• Interpreting results

Build the skills!

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2. Nurture Data Storytelling Skills

What good is the analysis

if no one pays attention to the results?

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Skills include:
• Understand your audience
• Build the narrative
• Engage with the data
• Get to the point!

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Storytelling has evolved
• Storyboarding
• Annotating
• Collaboration
• Dynamic updating

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3. Use Data Visualization
Effectively to Make Information
Actionable

• Data visualization is about presenting data

through graphical representations (charts,
scatterplots, geospatial maps, animated
effects, etc.) to make the data come alive

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Be Clear on the Purpose; Avoid Clutter
• No “eye candy” : Make • Enrich beyond
data and analysis standard reports: Data
easier to understand so can be made more
that users can make meaningful by showing
better decisions and integrated information
take smarter actions
• Know your audience:
What will they do with
the information?
• Mobile: Tailoring to the
form factor

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Discussion #1, Joined by Jose Villacis :
Building Skills, Storytelling, and Data
Visualization
 What are some best practices that organizations can
apply to build skills for visual data discovery?

 What are some best practices for improving data

storytelling? How do technologies today support data
storytelling better than in the “old days”?

 Data visualization is exciting, but how can users avoid

“eye candy” and apply it productively for data discovery?

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What Visual Analytics Leaders do Different

Consider more data than peers; run many experiments

Have a people development plan for applying visual analytics

Treat data like an asset

Recognize that analytics and discovery are two sides of the same coin

Obsess about learning, not technology

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Making Data Storytelling Work for you

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4. Provide Support for Data Blending and
Preparation
• Tools for self-service data blending
– Combining data from multiple sources
– Data blending, data munging, data wrangling
• Tools for managing data quality
– De-duplication, name and address cleaning,
etc.
• Tools that are flexible

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5. Weigh the Cloud for Business
Agility

There is growing adoption of

cloud for analytics

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Consider the following delivery models
• Software as a Service - SaaS
– Scalable
– Ongoing updates
– Maintenance
– Helps organizations get started
• Platform as a Service - PaaS
– Provider delivers a solution stack
• Other *aaS

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Ask Questions to cloud providers!
• Is the service easy to use?
• What data sources does it support?
• How much is it?
• Is there a free trial period?
• How is data upload treated?
• What about security?
• Etc.

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6. Strengthen User Empowerment
through Better Business/IT
Collaboration
• Good collaboration between business and IT
is essential to making analytics easier and
more productive for all types of users

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Building Culture and Reducing Chaos
• IT and business • Clarifying IT
leadership can responsibilities in a self-
collaborate on building an service age
analytics culture – Managing the data
– Evangelize the value of infrastructure; evaluating
analytics; address cloud options
shortcomings – Provisioning data differently
– Create a Center of to support discovery and
Excellence analytics
• Collaborate to reduce
data chaos, consolidate
silos, encourage reuse

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7. Establish Balanced Data
Governance to Support Discovery

• Data governance is about more than just

protecting sensitive data; it is also about all
the actions and procedures that ensure
decision makers have the best and most
appropriate data.

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Governance: Not Loved, But Necessary
• Governance: Pillar of a • Best practice: Forming a
strong analytics culture data governance
– Protecting sensitive data committee
during visual analytics and – Business/IT communication
discovery processes to improve development
– Adhering to regulations; and enforcement of rules
reducing data risks – Chief data officer emerging
• Stewardship: For as a key leader
improving data quality; – Finding the right balance so
helping users meet that rules are not
unnecessarily strict
internal standards for
content development
(e.g., visualizations)

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Discussion #2, Joined by Jose Villacis:
Data Prep, Cloud, Business/IT
Collaboration, & Governance
 In this second group, we addressed structural issues that are
critical to visual data discovery’s successful growth.

 What are some best practices for adopting cloud for visual
data discovery?

 Data preparation is evolving fast, including toward self-

service. How should organizations prepare for the future?

 What works for instituting data governance?

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Balancing Speed and Governance
What Works

• Data models built by IT must be easily consumed by business

people, and insights from business people easily curated by IT
into data models.

• Hybrid = best of both worlds: flexibility of cloud and security of

on-premises.

• Must allow consistent experience across cloud, on-premises,

individual and enterprise systems through visual analytics.

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New Market Expectations of a Cloud Provider
SIMPLE TO USE & CONSUME
LOW RISK GO-LIVE
TRANSPARENT FAST
PRICING
CLOUD
START SMALL
IMMEDIATE VALUE
80% USE CASE
KNOW MY BUSINESS–POV
APPS & PARTNERS INTEGRATED
BEST PRACTICES

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QUESTIONS?

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Contact Information
If you have further questions or comments:
Fern Halper
VP and TDWI Sr. Research Director for Advanced Analytics
[email protected]

David Stodder
TDWI Sr. Research Director for BI
[email protected]

José Villacís
Sr. Group Manager, Analytics & Big Data Discovery, Oracle
[email protected]

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Thank You to Our Sponsor

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Learn More with TDWI in 2016!

Accelerate
Analytics and Data Visualization Conference
Boston, MA | July 18 - 20, 2016
http://www.tdwi.org/BOS2016
Super Early Bird Discount until May 27
*
For more educational conferences, seminars,
Webinars, and more, see www.tdwi.org

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