Data Visualization: Accelerating the Decision Management Process

International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released a new

International Data Corporation (IDC) recently released a new study – Worldwide Decision Management Software 2010-2014: A Fast-Growing Opportunity to Drive the Intelligent Economy, which emphasizes a systematic approach to the process of decision making across the organization.

The study press release gives three reasons for increasing the importance of the decision-making process – the flood of data, faster cycle times and the adoption of analytics. With these three factors in mind, IDC says the “convergence of intelligent devices, social networking, pervasive broadband networking and analytics is ushering in a new economic system that is redefining relationships among producers, distributors and consumers.”

In addition, IDC says that organizations are realizing a need to move away from the art of decision making to the science of it all. The study calls for “greater visibility into the intra- and intercompany business processes behind the demand for decision management solutions.”

As we often discuss on the Trends and Outliers blog, data visualization is a key component of this process. Giving decision-makers a clear view of what’s derived from the data is a way to accelerate the process.

With a forecasted $10.8 billion market by 2014, the technology behind decision management is gaining ground as not just a software tool, but as a key component of the organization’s business infrastructure.

With a projected growth of 15.8% enterprises are seeing the value of making decisions based on data. IDC suggests that this is a growing competitive differentiator.

“”Enterprises succeed or fail based on the decisions made by executives,” said Maureen Fleming, vice president of business process management and Enterprise Middleware for IDC. “They compete effectively or lose market share based on the operational decisions made by their managers. And they are more or less profitable based on the day-to-day decisions of various knowledge and line workers who make up most of the workforce.”

That’s why data visualization is such an important part of the overall decision-making processes. It helps close the loop between all the stakeholders and gives users across the organization the power to facilitate decisions that benefit the entire company.

IDC’s model for decision-making focuses on the process and says decision management software “can have a profound impact on creating competitive advantage in commercial transactions, enabling sustainable management of communities, and promoting appropriate distribution of social, healthcare, and educational services.”

Our Take
Speed to informed decisions will be a key component of the decision management process. Data visualization gives all users the power to gain buy-in and help decision makers process data even more quickly.

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Amanda Brandon
Spotfire Blogging Team