Today’s world is generating immense amounts of data compared to two decades ago.
Undoubtedly, it requires adequate and effective data analysis types, methods, techniques, and tools that can respond to constantly increasing business research needs.
To analyze data faster and inexpensively, you need the best tools you can find in the market. We understand Excel is one of the go-to charts for business owners and professionals. But the spreadsheet application generates very basic charts, which does not fulfill requirements of any professional data analyst, which can slow down your momentum and you cannot perform all data analysis types with basic charts.
Well, you don’t have to ditch your Excel and Google Sheets for other expensive tools. In fact, you can supercharge them by installing a particular third-party application called add-in.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
Before we delve right into the heart of the blog, first learn the definition of data analysis.
Definition: Data analysis is an internal organizational function you can easily perform and present the key findings to the stakeholders, such as top management and investors.
The analysis process requires a much more in-depth approach to recording, analyzing, and dissecting data for easily digestible insights.
Let’s explore the main roles of a data analyst.
So what does a data analyst do? Check out the day-to-day tasks of a data analyst below.
Below are the 4 data analysis types.
Descriptive data analysis focuses more on historical data. You can use this methodology to track key performance indicators (KPIs), such as revenue, sales, leads, and more. In the descriptive analysis, it’s essential to know how frequently a certain event or response occurs.
The key role of diagnostic data analysis is to explain the changes in key data points. Once descriptive research shows you that something negative or positive happened, diagnostic analysis uncovers the reason behind a particular behavior.
For instance, once you’ve discovered your growth is positive, it’s the job of the methodology to help you uncover the reasons behind the sudden shift in your KPIs.
Predictive data analysis can help you forecast the future behavior of key data points. For instance, you can use the current financial year’s data to predict the next year’s expected revenue.
If revenue has been going up by 20% for the last 3 years, you can confidently predict that the next year’s revenue will be 20% higher than this year.
Prescriptive data analysis combines the previous 3 data analysis types to help you formulate an action plan.
Data analysis is an internal organizational function you can perform and present key findings to the stakeholders, such as top management and investors.
The process requires a much more in-depth approach to recording, analyzing, and dissecting data for easily-digestible insights.
With solid data analysis skills, you can help your business or workplace using different ways of data analysis skills.
One of the key uses of data analysis is that it can help you to identify hidden trends and patterns in your business data quickly.
Use the four data analysis types to extract answers from your data, which you can use to create compelling stories for investors.
Bulky data provides unlimited opportunities for businesses to extract actionable insights. Yes, insights could spell the difference between success and failure.
Analyzing raw data can help you uncover the hidden relationships and patterns between metrics. Exploring these patterns helps you can enable you to save immense resources, such as time.
The reason why we analyze data is to create stories. Remember, poring over numbers in spreadsheets is monotonous, especially if you’re in front of an audience. You need to create a compelling story with insights extracted from the raw data.
Figuring out the data to collect is the first step.
Data can be derived from multiple sources, such as social media, CRM, and websites, among others. Evaluating the accuracy and pertinence of your data is also critical. It would help if you investigated how the data was collected to flag potential errors.
Lastly, you should conceptualize your raw data for actionable insights to take maximum benefits of data analytics. In other words, you should transform your vast data sets into easy-to-understand informational representations and stories.
For all the analysis types you need a data visualization tool, you can click below to install a visualization library for your desired tool.
Our brains can process images faster than texts and numbers.
It makes perfect sense to use charts, graphs, and maps to display insights rather than work with raw data. Visualization charts are the bridge between raw data and strategic business decisions. In other words, to power data-backed decisions, you need a solid visualization strategy.
Secondly, images without an accompanying story are less like to pique interests or even arouse the emotions of the target audiences. It would help if you had a combination of easy-to-interpret charts and an interesting narrative to persuade your audience (or readers). Data visualization is a quick and easy way to explore and display insights into raw data.
Leverage data visualization to enjoy the benefits below:
According to statistics released by Microsoft Excel has over 750 million users worldwide. More so, it’s one of the go-to data visualization tools for professionals and business owners. However, Excel lacks ready-made and visually appealing charts you can use to conduct the four data analysis types.
Besides, the spreadsheet tool lacks advanced charts that you may need to create compelling data stories.
You can supercharge your Excel to access ready-to-use and visually-appealing charts by downloading and installing add-ins.
The add-in we recommend you install in your Excel is called ChartExpo.
So what is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo is a super user-friendly application you can easily install in your Excel. Also, the intuitive tool has over 50 other advanced charts to help you succeed in data storytelling.
A complete guide is available to install ChartExpo in Excel.
Once it is installed you can find it as mentioned below:
Like we said, use ChartExpo to conduct the four data analysis types without wasting time, so you will be able to find all the available list of charts in front of you.
Let’s talk about the best charts in Excel you can create using ChartExpo.
Let’s visualize the tabular data below using the Double Bar Graph (one of the examples of data analysis’ charts).
Brand | No. of Cars Sold | Average Price Per Car |
Toyota | 336 | $29,217 |
Honda | 180 | $29,899 |
Hyundai | 264 | $30,303 |
KIA | 330 | $31,605 |
Suzuki | 306 | $32,480 |
Data analysis is an internal organizational function you can easily perform and present the key findings to the stakeholders, such as top management and investors.
The analysis process requires a much more in-depth approach to recording, analyzing, and dissecting data for easily digestible insights.
The purpose of data collection is to acquire useful and usable information for analysis. On the other hand, analyzing raw data can help you to uncover the hidden relationships and patterns among key data points.
Exploring these patterns can save you immense resources, such as time.
Data analysis is incredibly critical in today’s business world.
Why?
It can help you cut the amount of time you spend fishing for answers in raw data tremendously. Besides, it transforms data into a form that management and other stakeholders can leverage to make strategic business decisions.
There’re four types of data analysis, namely:
Tools you can use to make full use of the four data analysis types (mentioned above) are a must-have.
Excel should not be your go-to tool if your goal is to conduct a comprehensive investigation using the (four) types of data analysis. And this is because the spreadsheet application lacks ready-to-use charts you can use to get started with data analysis.
There’re tools you can leverage to create insightful, visually appealing, and clear charts.
We recommend you to install a particular third-party application called ChartExpo into your Excel to access advanced charts.
ChartExpo is an add-in you can easily download and install in your Excel app.
More so, it’s loaded with over 50 more advanced charts to get you started with four data analysis types. You don’t need coding skills to visualize your data using ChartExpo.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access easy-to-interpret and visually appealing charts for your data analysis process.
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