Unlocking the Insight Inherent in Data

In today's business environment, the sheer volume and complexity of data demands new tools to analyze it. But traditional approaches to business intelligence and reporting solutions have focused solely on the technical challenges of accessing and delivering raw data. Visual IO, on the other hand, focuses on how to deliver that data "the last 18 inches"—the gap from the computer screen into the human mind—bridging the divide between raw data and actionable knowledge.

So where do we start? At the end ... the end user, that is.

Understanding human cognition
We take a user-centric approach to developing software that enhances human cognition. To do so, we look at the system and flow of information starting from its meaning to the user first. Then, we examine its logic and interpretation through the user interface. Finally, we take a holistic look at the system and data flow back through its organization, storage, and capture. By putting data in context like this, we can optimize your analytics output from the onset.

Our approach to output is two pronged—first, let's develop methods to effectively and usefully visualize data, then let's make it interactive. Combining visualization with interactivity gives end-users to "work" data while following a train of thought, to truly analyze by carefully examining details to identify causes, key factors, and possible results.

To optimize visualization, Visual IO merges the left and the right brain, uniting the analytical with the intuitive to interpret multiple dimensions and contexts of data through graphical metaphors. Color can communicate hidden information. Sizes can convey trends. Spatial organization and overlaid dimensions can reveal correlations and patterns.

Adding the ability to modulate the data—the element of interactivity—enables end users to test hypotheses and assumptions. Therefore, in a single view, we deliver instant insights that might take hours to discover through traditional database queries, static reporting, or dashboards. By transforming complex data into interactive pictures, we help everyday users ask and answer the difficult business questions they face every day.

Understanding the technical challenges
To date, traditional approaches to BI analysis has been focused on the technical challenges of getting the data from a bottom-up basis. And as a result, organizations are left with myriad reports and sources of analytical information scattered throughout the enterprise. But this creates several problems, including:

• Organizations are left with no BI "blueprint." If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there.
• New superfluous silos are created, adding to your BI "sprawl."
• Solutions built from a technical perspective, as opposed to an end-user's needs and understanding, usually result in solutions that require technical expertise that is beyond everyday users. And this can create an unnecessary layer between the data and the analysis that needs to be done.

In the end, a company can end up with Business Intelligence that is inherently not that intelligent. In other words, it's not aligned with corporate strategies and goals.

Visual IO's approach, on the other hand, takes a business-strategy approach to BI—one that aligns data with both short- and long-range business decisions regarding:

• Market share and projections
• Internal projections and plans
• Key metrics and established milestones
• Supply chain metrics
• Budgets
• Timelines
• Bottlenecks
• And more.

And as a result, by bringing data and decisions together in context at every level, organization can deliver the right data in the right form to the right people—facilitating the scope of decision-making from day-to-day process-driven decisions to long-range strategies.

In other words, by taking a north-south-east-west approach to how people digest information, we can align organization with common views and communal information across departments and functions, allowing users to share insights and allow management to drive strategy through visible activities and metrics up and down the management chain.

We also work closely with your IT staff to align technical requirements with your visualization needs. By introducing and accommodating visualization early in the process, we can help you avoid aggregating the wrong data and requesting ad-hoc reports. And that saves you a lot of time, expense, and frustration.

At Visual IO, we believe in rich interactive visualization that delivers analytics for everyone.
Ultimately, we think in terms of how the data can give the decision-maker a more meaningful perspective on the decision at hand or the problem being solved. That thinking is embedded in both our methodology and our patent-pending data visualization software solutions.