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Andrew Mayne
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 2
Table of Contents
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 3
Rationale of Study
Data presentation, the process of showing any set of data to an audience through visual means,
has become increasingly prevalent in all industries. However, as Wesseigerber et al. (2015)
noted, the number of people correctly presenting data in all fields is not high (p. 4). Most people
need their data presented to them in a clear and concise way, but some researchers take this too
far and create misleading or false statistics that also prevent the audience from creating their own
insight. It is important to find an effective way to present data correctly while preventing data
from being over summarized and displayed incorrectly. This study aims to determine if Business
Concept Map
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 5
Statement of Problem
How can Business Intelligence (BI) Software Improve Data Presentation? The two main
problems with data presentation is the time to create presentations and the quality of them. One
of Microsoft Excel's limitations is that when dealing with large data sets and complex graphs, it
operates at a significantly slower speed. This extra time reduces the time analysts have to
evaluate their presentations and make them visually appealing. In addition, Excel is not designed
to present a visually appealing presentation and possess a limited ability to integrate into other
FSP 1: What is data presentation and what are the common mistakes in data presentation?
ASP 1: How can BI Software lead to the quicker creation of visual data presentations?
Hypothesis: Microsoft Power BI software will decrease the time it takes to create and
Independent Dependent
Hypothesis: Presentations created in Power BI and that show overall trends will be 20%
Independent Dependent
Definition of Terms
• Business Intelligence – an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and
tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and
relational databases and performing various operations on the housed data. Initially
developers writing data integration scripts and data analysts that are preparing and
• Data Presentation – includes the description of the table contents, with their data
span covered, adjustments to data (e.g., seasonal adjustments for time series) and
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 7
data as images that can aid in understanding the meaning of the data (Visualization,
2005)
• Effectiveness – The degree to which objectives are achieved and the extent to which
the current status of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise.
single screen. They may be tailored for a specific role and display metrics targeted for a
include a customizable interface and the ability to pull real-time data from multiple
• Slicer – A Microsoft Power BI that is an alternate way of filtering that narrows the
portion of the dataset shown in the other visualizations in a report (Slicer 2018).
• Big Data - high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand
Acronyms
• BI – Business Intelligence
Assumptions
• It is assumed that the researcher has equal skill in Excel and Power BI
• It is assumed that the researcher knows what graphs are used for a report before they are
made
• The study will only be looking at the direct impact within PT Solutions, i.e. Only
Importance of Study
The outcome of this study is vital due to the time it can take a financial analyst to create data
presentations. While they spend a significant amount of time creating these presentations, they
utilize time that could be spent analyzing the data and trends. By utilizing BI, the automation of
building presentations could be accomplished, allowing for the analysts to allocate their time to
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 9
the analysis of data and discovery of trends. This would also allow for them analyze their
presentations in more detail and determine how to make them more effective.
Introduction
Weissegerber et al. (2015) said “Data presentation is the foundation of our collective
authors present in their publications” (p. 1). However, many scientific researchers do not show
the full data set, and this can cause problems when data sets are shown in certain graphical
forms. This problem is prevalent throughout all fields, and as data science continues to grow in
prevalence in all fields, an adequate solution becomes more pressing to find. As Weissegerber et
al. (2015) found, “The summary statistics shown in bar graphs, line graphs, and boxplots are
only meaningful when there are enough data to summarize. Histograms are difficult to interpret
when there aren’t enough observations to clearly show the distribution of the data” (p. 5). This
has led many researches to study what makes a good presentation, and what can be done to
improve data presentation. In addition, Diong et al. (2018) have found that an editorial series
published in 2011 did nothing to improve statistical reporting practices in the years following (p.
7). Djalalinia et al. (2014) also notes that a solution to these malpractices is setting rules to make
sure researchers establish standard practices and choose their data to present carefully (p. 832).
Research has also been conducted to look into the most effective way to fix the problems
presented in the previous paragraph. Shah and Hoeffner (2002) suggest presenting the same data
in multiple ways to increase understanding (p. 62). This option could help people who better
understand certain data form a complete understanding. Valentine et al. (2015) discusses how
creating visual presentations always involves some sort of ambiguous judgment on the
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 10
researcher’s part, but by focusing “on rich description will help us arrive at an approximate
answer to the right question, instead of a precise answer to the wrong question” (p. 268). Part of
this research aims to determine what components of a visual presentation makes it effective. For
a visual presentation to be effective it must allow the reader to completely understand the subject
matter presented, and allow for the reader to make inferences on why the data set appears as it
Data is a critical part of scientific papers, so it is important to ensure that data is presented
correctly. In order to accomplish this task, data analysts need to be able to spend time ensuring
that data is being presented correctly and logically, and not just spending their time creating a
Intelligence (BI) software was created. BI software is defined by Belcheva and Yankova (2017)
analysis and database, which provide a company with simpler ways of using its own
information” (p. 298). These BI systems can be used to create dashboards, which can offer an in
(2012) is that “modern database systems are very efficient and capacious; therefore, the actual
problem is not how to store data but how to use it effectively” (p. 89). This can be best be
accomplished by having specific goals for dashboards in order to convey useful information to
all levels of employee who will see the report. In order to meet this goal-oriented approach,
Acosta et al. (2016) suggest that a “dashboard should be intended to achieve the goals of
decisionmakers. Thus, the metrics of a dashboard must be aligned with the goals of decision-
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 11
makers” (p. 682). This means that when a dashboard is designed, it should be done in a way that
management can easily draw conclusions about specific topics and make decisions.
Additionally, BI software can be used to focus on dealing with data sets that are
extremely large and complicated. In Mihai Andronie’s (2015) study of BI software in the Airline
industry, it was found that “dedicated airline industry business intelligence systems are not only
useful to airline companies, but also to others involved in related businesse” (p. 160). These BI
systems allow for a quicker and simpler way to manage big data. However, Marian Pompiliu
Cristescu (2017) notes that a BI solution should be capable of providing evaluations not possible
through other means (p.270). This offers up the idea that a BI software should not be used
opposed to another software, but in tandem with others. This would allow for a more
presentation.
The use of BI software could allow for analysts to create powerful and accurate
presentations even faster leaving time for analysts to analysis the data they work with. This
would greatly increase the usefulness of a data analyst in any field and increase the effectiveness
of a company. This would also give the analyst more time to ensure that their reports are accurate
and effective. This study aims to find out if Microsoft Power BI is a viable tool to complete this
Methodology
This study will consist of two separate parts. The first part will determine the time it takes
to create presentations in Microsoft Excel vs. Microsoft Power BI. This will be tested by
constructing presentations in both softwares and timing the process to determine which program
allows for less time to create presentations. The tasks will be planned before they are executed
and timed. The tasks will vary by data set used to create them. The different presentations will be
ones for actual referrals, visits, and units; budgeted amount of referrals, visits, and units, and
differentiating clinic structure. After collecting this data, total times and average times will be
compared to determine the percent difference between the two softwares. From this data it will
The second part of the research will be testing the effectiveness of the presentations to
provide valuable data via a decision matrix completed by end users of a data set. Participants will
view the presentations and afterwards will rate the presentation on a 1-7 scale, with 1 being
worst and 7 being best, in two categories: comprehension and inference. Comprehension refers
to how well the end user understands the data being presented. Inference refers to the ability of
an end user to identify problems and possible solutions from a given data set. These
presentations will have both a BI form and an Excel form, for comparison between the two
IMPROVING DATA PRESENTION WITH BI 13
softwares. These results will then be averaged and compared to see what features the
presentations that were highly rated have that differ from lowly rated ones. It will then be
determined if these characteristics show overall trends or not according to the hypothesis:
Presentations created in Power BI and that show overall trends will be 20% more effective than
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