Visualization
of data differs from one business process to another. While one process related
information is best explained in a tabular format, it might be too cumbersome
to represent a different process related data in the same tabular fashion. It
may be visually appealing and simple to represent it in a graphical format
instead. In this blog, I have discussed three business vignettes, the important
metrics and the best visualization techniques to represent them so that it is
easy for the business users to understand and make decisions.
Insurance
Wikipedia defines insurance as an equitable transfer of the risk
of a loss, from one entity to another in exchange for payment. The payment here
is the monthly, quarterly or yearly premium we pay for obtaining the insurance
policy. When we face a loss, we can then make a claim to the insurance company
to mitigate the loss. Some key metrics associated with the insurance process
are claim ratio, average cost per claim, customer satisfaction etc.
One
useful metric that insurance companies use is the Claims Ratio that measures
the number of claims in a period and divides that by the
premium earned for the same period. It's important to note that
insurance is the business of managing risks and, to do that well, the insurer
needs a thorough understanding of this metric. If this metric value is higher
than expected, then further investigation is required to find out the reason
(eg: fraud).
We can present this information using a line SPLINE chart that
shows the value for every quarter. Alternatively, we can present this
information in a pivot table. However,
I feel the combo chart that I have presented below; a combination of SPLINE and
Bar chart is the best way to present the comparison of claims/premiums and also
the claims ratio. This information is visually appealing and easily
comprehendible for a business user.
Healthcare
Some
important metrics that Healthcare uses to improve their operational efficiency
and patient care are: Time
to health care services, Average length of patient days, ER Waiting times and
current ER occupancy.
The Average
Length of Stay KPI measures how long, on average, patients stay in a
hospital after being diagnosed with a condition. This metric can vary based on
what type of conditions a patient is diagnosed with. This information can
help you analyze why the average stay length value is high or low. Is it
influenced by hospital-acquired infections, or by excellent healthcare service?
This metric helps answer these questions and to make changes or improvements.
We
can represent this measure in a pie chart, a pivot table or a bar chart
arranged by medical condition and days. However, this information is best
presented in a horizontal bar chart as shown below due to its simple and clear
representation.
Customer
relationship management
Customer
relationship management (CRM) is a system for managing a company’s
interactions with current and future customers and involves the various stages of
negotiations with the customer. Some metrics that are crucial in a CRM are:
sales pipeline, customer satisfaction, unconverted leads, sales order etc.
Sales
Pipeline measures future inbound revenue and the quality of the pipeline. For
example, it helps us to answer questions like what types of deals are your
sales people working on, and are those the right deals? More importantly, how
do they measure up to the company's revenue target? Is sales staff focusing on
the more profitable deals?
We
can analyze the sales pipeline by using one pie chart per month or by using a
line chart. However, I feel it is better to store this information in a tabular
format as shown below to keep it simple for the user.
In
conclusion, there is no one single data visualization technique that can be
employed across industries. Information needs to displayed to the business
users in the form that is simple, clear and easily understandable for them.
References:
http://www.claricent.com/categories/press-releases/
http://www.crmsearch.com/crm-kpi.php
