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It is important for businesses to manage their data effectively. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read “business data”? You instantly think of spreadsheets with names and numbers. This is what is known as structured data. But did you know, only 20% of the data is considered structured? The rest of it is stored as unstructured data...Learn more

A widely misunderstood, yet fundamental building block of the information economy, structured data refers to the method of creating, publishing, and maintaining information. In simple words, structured data is defined as information that is optimized and can easily be read by a computer.

Entrepreneurs are using data to stay ahead of the game. They are using data to understand current trends, look out for new opportunities, and streamline their work. Businesses often hold a mounting volume of data which helps them understand their customers better. This in turn helps them make informed business decisions.

However, it is important for businesses to manage their data effectively. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read “business data”? You instantly think of spreadsheets with names and numbers. This is what is known as structured data. But did you know, only 20% of the data is considered structured? The rest of it is stored as unstructured data.

What Is Structured Data?

According to KnowledgeHound, when data is formatted in a way that is easy to read and understand, it is considered structured data. Traditionally, data was often generated to fit in a table format so that it becomes easy to analyze.

Some common examples of structured data are SQL databases or Excel CSV files. Since the columns and rows are labeled, it becomes easy to aggregate data from multiple sources and analyze it.

While structured data make things easier, in some scenarios, it can pose limitations for evolving businesses. By only considering structured data, you may just look into a part of the story that the data is able to reveal.

What Is Unstructured Data?

As the name suggests, unstructured data is any form of data that is stored in a native form instead of standardized spreadsheets or predefined models. Unstandardized data often contains more text than figures or numbers, making it difficult to standardize it.

Example of unstructured data includes content from social media posts, emails, chat records, and web content. Unstructured data also contact formats beyond texts such as video recordings, audio recordings, scientific data, photos, and more.

Unstructured data can be useful for businesses and help make informed decisions only if it is properly leveraged. However, if unstructured data is stored in NoSQL database or data lakes, it can quickly become a potential risk for the organization.

What Is Semi-structured Data?

A combination of both, structured data and unstructured data elements are known as semi-structured data. However, it often falls under the unstructured data umbrella. While some parts of semi-structured data are readable and easy to analyze, those elements do not provide the full value.

HTML code is the best example of semi-structured data. While it is organized in a structured way, HTML code contains defined tags and elements that often pose a challenge for the database to make sense of it.

Structured and unstructured data play an important role in business. While companies have leveraged structured data, they are looking into tools to analyze their structure and unstructured data together.

According to a report by Fortune Business Insights, the global data visualization market stood at USD 8.85 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 19.20 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 10.2% during the forecast period.

The increasing use of the internet, smartphones, cloud computing technologies, advancements in machine learning, and the rising use of the Internet of Things are the driving factors behind the increase of the global data visualization market.

What is Data Visualization?

Before we discuss more on the data visualization tool, let’s first get a good understanding of data visualization. What does it mean?

According to KnowledgeHound Data visualization refers to the process of communication and translation of information and data in a visual context. As the name implies, data visualization often employs charts, graphs, bars, and other visual aids to describe the relationship between different types of data.

What are Data Visualization Tools?

Have you heard about Infogram or Google Charts? These are the tools that often support a variety of visual styles and are capable of handling a vast data volume.

Presenting data through visual elements makes it easy to analyze and understand. Here are the top 3 data visualization tools that are known for their incredible performance and impressive usability.

· Tableau

Tableau is one of the most commonly used data visualization tools, trusted by over 57,000 companies. Tableau provides integration for advanced databases, such as Amazon AWS, SAP, Hadoop, and My SQL, and creates graphics and visualizations from ever-evolving datasets often used for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

While tableau offers excellent visualization capabilities and supports connectivity with a wide range of data sources, the pricing is on the higher side. This can be seen as a con by many people.

· Google Charts

Google Charts has been one of the major players in the market space for a long time. Google Charts coded with HTML 5 and SVG have the capability to produce pictorial data and graphical data.

This data visualization tool provides users with unmatched cross-platform compatibility with android and iOS. Google Charts offer a user-friendly platform, is compatible with Google products, and has visually attractive data graphs. It is also easy to integrate the data.

However, it lacks customization abilities and network connectivity which is often required for visualization. Also, there are inadequate demos available on how to use the tool.

· Zoho Reports

Also called Zoho Analytics, Zoho Reports is a data visualization tool that integrates online reporting services with business intelligence. This allows quick creation and sharing of the reports in a few minutes.

This data visualization tool also supports the import of big data from databases and applications. Zoho offers the ability to create reports and modify them effortlessly. It also includes different features such as report sharing and email scheduling. The customer support is amazing.

However, the dashboard can seem confusing when you are dealing with a large volume of data.

While you can easily get your hands on some amazing data visualization tools, make sure to take your time to try out a few tools before settling for the best data visualization tool for your business.

Nowadays, companies have access to a humongous amount of data. Businesses use this data to create a foundation to take important business decisions. It is important for businesses to have access to the right data and thus they invest in data management solutions.

What is Data Management?

Data management refers to collecting, organizing, protecting, and storing the data required by a business to make informed decisions. Data management solutions become a vital part of a business because, in this digital world, companies create and consume data at unprecedented rates.

Different Types of Data Management

Data management plays an important role in an organization as it makes essential functions easier and less time-consuming.

Different data management techniques are:

Data preparation — This technique is used to transform raw data into structured data for easy analysis.

Data pipeline — This technique enables the transfer of data from one system to another automatically.

ETLs — The ETLs or Extract, Transform, Load makes it easier to collect data from multiple sources and streamline it into a single source. This system takes in data from one system, processes it, and uploads it into the organization’s data warehouse.

Catalogs — The data catalogs help manage the metadata. The catalogs help create a picture of the data, including a summary of changes and quality while making it easier to find the data.

Data warehouse — This is a place where data from various sources is consolidated and stored for further use.

Data security — Companies use data security to protect the data from getting corrupted or from unauthorized use. CAPTCHA is a perfect example of data security.

Is Data Management Important for your Business?

Data management plays an important role in an organization as it helps to manage the data effectively. With effective data management, people within an organization can easily find and access data to answer their queries.

Here are some benefits of data management solutions for your enterprise.

· Increased Visibility

Data management solutions help increase the visibility of the most important data of your organization. This makes it easier for people within the organization to quickly and confidently find the data they are looking for.

Increased data visibility also allows companies to stay organized and productive while finding data with ease, whenever it is required.

· Reliability

Data management helps eliminate errors by streamlining data. Data management solution establishes processes and policies that can be used to build trust and make the right decisions across the organization. With streamlined and up-to-date data, companies can make effective changes based on customer needs and market changes.

· Scalability

Data management makes it easy for businesses to scale their data effectively and keep it up to date. When it is easy to repeat a process, you can cut back on unnecessary costs of duplication. This saves you time and resources.

Data management makes your business more effective and responsive to your customer’s needs. With proper data management, you get insight that will help you offer more value to your customers and connect better with them.

Having the right data will make it easier to find key business opportunities while increasing your business revenue.