Why FP&A Teams Should Master Data Visualization
Big data is here to stay. Data is now collected on every human activity that touches technology. Through IoT (Internet-of-Things) devices, vast amounts of data are also constantly being collected on non-human activity.
How does this proliferation of data impact the FP&A team? For one, big data is not only here to stay, but it will continue to grow. For this reason alone, CFOs need a strategy on how to manage big data.
FP&A teams need to understand how to capture operational and financial data that impacts their ability to prepare and predict for the future. It also means that the FP&A team can no longer present all this data simply by providing summary reports to the business. They must strive to become ever more effective partners to the business and be relevant in helping craft corporate strategy and decision-making. To accomplish this with big data, the finance team must become experts at data visualization and storytelling. They must present the story behind the data in easy-to-consume formats and channels so that the business can understand key trends and take action.
Netquest, a market research company, has released a comprehensive eBook on the topic of Data Visualization.
They describe the need for better data visualization as such:
Thanks to the rise of social media, the ubiquity of mobile devices, and service digitalization, data is available on any human activity that utilizes technology. The generated information is hugely valuable and makes it possible to analyze trends and patterns, and to use big data to draw connections between events. Thus, data visualization can be an effective mechanism for presenting the end user with understandable information in real time.
This eBook will provide a crash course for professionals who need to become better at data visualization. Netquest describes their objective for the readers of this eBook as follows:
In effect, it seeks to provide readers with a basic vocabulary and a crash course in the principles of design that govern data visualization so that they can create and analyze interactive market research reports.
The eBook is broken down into 5 key segments:
- Introduction to Data Visualization
- Data Types, relationships, and visualization formats
- Basic principles for data visualization
- Storytelling for social and market communication
- Trends in market research and data visualization dashboards
FP&A teams evaluating a modern platform to support their key activities can look to FinLogic.io as a great alternative to the traditional and pricey options in the marketplace. FinLogic.io will compile all the Big Data relevant to analysis by the finance department into high-performance data cubes. FinLogic.io integrates with leading user interfaces including Google Sheets and PowerBI where stunning data visualization dashboards can be created.
Access the Netquest Data Visualization eBook