August 21, 2012 // By: Heather McIlvaine // 5 Key Facts about Visual Intelligence
2. Data transformation – “the diamond in the rough”
After users acquire data from a given source, they’ll want to plug it in to analytical reports. But the data – as it existed in Excel or the ERP database – might not be suited for the analysis that users have in mind. They need to transform it first. This is a defining feature of SAP Visual Intelligence.
Leroux gives an example: “Say you’re doing a report on retail sales. You have data across five categories – Wal-Mart, Target, department stores, small convenience stores, and local stores. But you don’t really need detailed reporting on the last two categories. So you combine them – into ‘small stores’ – to make them less relevant. This is something you can do in a matter of seconds in Visual Intelligence,” he says. “You couldn’t even consider doing it in Explorer.”
The data transformation capabilities in Visual Intelligence are comparable to advanced reporting in Excel. But the key difference is that users don’t need a high level of expertise to do the same level of work in Visual Intelligence. This is because the SAP software automatically suggests changes.
“Everyone talks about the great visualizations in Explorer and Visual Intelligence, but I think data transformation is really the diamond in the rough,” says Leroux.
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