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Value of Visual Analytics to South African Businesses

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Book cover Decision Support Systems VII. Data, Information and Knowledge Visualization in Decision Support Systems (ICDSST 2017)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 282))

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Abstract

There is limited literature on the value that visual analytics provides for businesses, and its broad use in organisations. This research provides some understanding of how South African businesses are using visual analytics in their day to day operations, and the value derived from employing it. The study was interpretive, exploratory and descriptive, producing both quantitative and qualitative data. Individuals within organisations making use of visual analytics completed an online survey, and interviews were conducted with informed business, IT and BI stakeholders. Results were compared with those from an international survey, and thematic analysis highlighted four main themes: usage, value, challenges and technology. Most respondents noted the high added value obtained from visual analytics versus tables of numbers. The research also identified a set of good practices for organisations to employ when embarking on a visual analytics strategy and suggested ways of mitigating potential challenges.

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Acknowledgements

This work is based on research partly supported by the South African National Research Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Wisaal Behardien & Mike Hart

Authors
  1. Wisaal Behardien
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  2. Mike Hart
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mike Hart .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Business Administration, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Isabelle Linden

  2. Graduate School of Management, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom

    Shaofeng Liu

  3. Department of Business Administration, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium

    Christian Colot

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Behardien, W., Hart, M. (2017). Value of Visual Analytics to South African Businesses. In: Linden, I., Liu, S., Colot, C. (eds) Decision Support Systems VII. Data, Information and Knowledge Visualization in Decision Support Systems. ICDSST 2017. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 282. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57487-5_8

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