As you know, data becomes immediately clearer with data visualisation. However, only mapping is capable of analysing the spatio-temporal dimension. It provides the opportunity to highlight key issues and identify real trends.
From the Wall Street Journal to the hit TV series Game of Thrones, everyone is converting to data visualisation. The latest must-have phenomenon, these devices reveal significant advantages for better understanding the mass of data that’s out there.
Maps take you further
With big data, and even more so with smart data, a huge mass of information useful to companies is constantly and automatically generated. It comes from a really diverse range of sources such as websites, connected objects and different business software.
But, while data viz diagrams and graphs are a means of communication designed to capture the attention, maps can go a whole lot further. Used in parallel, mapping adds context to the analysis and represents all sorts of potentially complex information in a simple and easy-to-read way.
Strengthening the visual impact of performance indicators
Bit by bit, mapping provides support for day-to-day activities and can be used in a wide variety of business sectors. In large-scale distribution, for example, with this system, you can see at a glance the performance of the entire store network, changes in turnover and even footfall and average consumer spend.
>>> To find out more, check our location intelligence blog.
To give you another example, let’s look at La Poste, the French postal service. Here, mapping helps to monitor the volume of parcels by sector or county. From this, it is possible to know whether delivery times are meeting set objectives 100% of the time. “There is no better resource than the map to get a snapshot of the business in real time for a given territory”, concludes Sébastien Connesson, Galigeo co-founder and CTO. As our brains are hardwired to interpret shapes and colours, mapping naturally strengthens the visual impact of all performance indicators.
More precise than simple data viz, mapping meets the needs of companies in the here and now, especially those that have taken the management cockpit road. This practice involves displaying the different performance indicators permanently on a large monitor. At the slightest problem, such as a drop in performance or security, an alert is triggered and the map then becomes an important tool to get things back on track.