There can be little doubt that literally everyone has been in a situation where mountains of verbal, textual, or numerical data swoop down on you, leaving you unable to perceive the heart of the matter.
Better See Once
That is why, in modern times, compelling visuals like graphs, maps, charts, and timelines can provide an accessible way to communicate information. As the old saying goes, better see once than hear about it ten times, which is very true in the world of miscellaneous data visualization.
Data viz can be defined as a graphical representation of information. It allows people to glean insights from visual images of the total volume of facts. The created visuals play a drastic role in data digesting and making significant business decisions. The most prevalent and familiar types of data depiction are as follows:
- Bar, line, or polar graphs;
- Tree, pie, polygon, or PERT charts;
- Mind maps;
- Choropleth maps;
- Dichotomous keys.
These graphical means together with other types of information viz are resorted to by various viz tools to facilitate the monitoring of your business information.
Data Viz Tools
Software allowing professionals to exchange their ideas and research more effectively through visual depiction is called a data visualization tool. Modern tools are flexible, easy to use, and positively characterized within several aspects you can take significant advantage of:
- Big data analysis. Since big data processing often concerns audio, video, and textual information altogether, the analysis is not going to be just a walk in the park. Visual reports generated by viz tools help the audience perceive the full picture of business processes in less time;
- Time-saving. Oh, yes, viz tools save you time as well as your money;
- Error detection and correction. Data viz tools can spot errors in your datasets and take certain steps for their correction.
Now, the time has come to draw detailed comparisons among modern software tools to help you pick the proper service visualizing data to suit your business needs best.
Top 6 Viz Tools in 2022
1. Microsoft Power BI
The platform presents a high-quality business intelligence service enabling users to thoroughly examine statistics and track goals. It can be effectively used for conducting predictive analytics, making consistent reports, and sharing insights with other business actors.
Supporting both mobile and web, Microsoft Power BI is very potent in terms of integration with MS services, as well as many other popular SaaS products. Generally, it functions as a centralized vault for your significant analytical data providing access to everyone involved in the workflow.
Strengths:
- Competitive pricing;
- For a big and active community;
- Cloud-based;
- A single-view dashboard;
- A mobile app available.
Pitfalls:
- Desktop version not compatible with Mac;
- Hard to learn;
- Not for bulk data.
2. Tableau
The service is a favored business intelligence tool used to build interactive graphs, charts, and maps in the shape of dashboards and worksheets to receive perfect business visions without delay. Learning Tableau to make it your day-to-day tool takes some time and effort but finally allows you to connect and analyze almost any database. Possessing excellent visualization capabilities, Tableau provides analytics for anyone from everywhere, supporting integration with almost all business information sources.
Strengths:
- Outstanding performance;
- Ease of use;
- Multiple data sources integration;
- Fast-obtained insights;
- Informative dashboards;
- Mobile-friendly.
Pitfalls:
- Pricey;
- Static and rigid options;
- No automatic reports refreshing.
3. Qlik Sense
Based on artificial intelligence, Qlik Sense aids users to analyze and leverage business info more effectively, empowering your focus on the most critical information from any place you require. It is a part of the Qlik Active Intelligence Platform, which provides accelerated analytics, revealing fresh business insights and accurate results.
Being a robust data integration platform, Qlik Sense supports mainframe modernization, data lake creating, and real-time data warehousing. It is available as both a SaaS solution and a hybrid service.
Strengths:
- Artificial Intelligence insights;
- Drag-and-drop interface;
- Flexibility and ease of use;
- Easy-to-create representative dashboards;
- Good filtering capability on viz.
Pitfalls:
- Not for large datasets;
- Needs more customization options;
- A new product in need of constant updating.
4. Klipfolio
Klipfolio is a lightweight business intelligence software tool that allows you to access, distribute, and incorporate data from multiple services, building informative dashboards and reports. This cloud-based service shows a high ability to automate relevant updates for your business statistics, assisting you to uncover and communicate insights within your entire company. The tool axiomatically stores data history for you to compare time periods if necessary.
Strengths:
- Multiple integrations;
- Limitless dashboards, metrics, and viewer users;
- Direct data editing;
- A free plan available;
- Good value for money.
Pitfalls:
- Development time (a lot of customization);
- Takes time to master.
5. Looker
This cloud-based big data analytics tool implements an intuitive approach to info exploration making it both effective and efficient. It provides expandable functionality for any team to determine critical data-based insights and form reports without any delay.
Looker is a potent service in terms of data storage and protection, the creation of exploration and collaboration models, and the preservation of key data distinctions. The platform can smoothly integrate with your current workflows and tools.
Strengths:
- Advanced analytics;
- User-friendly workflow;
- Facilitated dashboard collaboration;
- Helpful customer support;
- Quick organization of huge data sets.
Pitfalls:
- Lack of visualization features;
- Not for small teams;
6. Zoho Analytics
This versatile data viz service features AI-guided assistance for you to receive insightful and profitable reports. Zoho Analytics allows importing information from multiple data services to conduct further extensive analysis with drag-and-drop ease. With its prolific forecasting and smart data alerts, the platform offers augmented analytics to guide your decision-making processes in the best possible way.
Strengths:
- Intelligent assistance;
- Highly collaborative;
- Fast implementation;
- Great value for money;
- A free plan is available.
Pitfalls:
- Insufficient customer support;
- More customization is required;
- Complicated integration.
7. Storydoc
Storydoc is a tool for storytelling with data visualization. It is an addition to your primary data viz tool rather than a replacement. With Storydoc you can present complex information gathered by your BI or Analytics tool of choice in an engaging and easy-to-follow manner. After creation presentations are easy to personalize, share, and track at scale.
Storydoc integrates with your Analytics and CRM tools to help you quickly deliver a compelling and memorable presentation, whether long-form or short. The tool comes chock-full of specialized interactive components for visual data storytelling, such as a scroll narrator, live graphs, video, interactive timeline, and more.
Strengths
- Simplified presentation of complex data;
- Progressive scroll-based data storytelling;
- Integration with Analytics and CRM tools;
- Templates for the entire spectrum of sales and marketing collateral;
- Integral analytics suite for tracking user data.
Pitfalls:
- Only works online;
- Is not a BI or Analytics tool:
- Expensive for single users.
Are you an experienced data specialist looking for a remote position? You will need to create a professional CV before applying for a job. Do include the tools discussed above if you have some experience in using them.
Conclusion
In the present time, it is information that rules the world of business. So, no wonder that receiving prompt and accurate analytical results is extremely important for fast and balanced decision-making.
But first, draw your comparisons to make the right decision about your optimal tool for data visualization. If you want to find more, check out the detailed software reviews on Pearl Lemon Reviews.
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