Overview: The importance of data analytics and interactive visualization, especially the opportunity to capture, monitor, and display real-time business results for executives, has never been more important. In fact, as of August 2019, Salesforce has acquired Tableau, the leading data aggregation and integration tool, to display critical key performance indicators (KPIs) for executive consumption. This business merger is indicative of the ever-changing evolution of sales and marketing data analytics and integration.
First, register for a free Tableau account in order to access training videos that you will need to utilize as you navigate this resource. Begin to learn these key data visualization points:
Create informational charts from existing spreadsheets (data sets)
Visually analyze and present various KPIs
Demonstrate the ability to drill down and link information in order to isolate potential problems and outliers, and identify root causes
Create and present interactive dashboards for senior management audiencesPrompt: Imagine you are the Marketing Manager for Global Superstores—a hypothetical corporation that is a global manufacturer and supplier of furniture, office supplies, and technology. This company is the one featured in Tableau’s video—“Getting Started”—and the dataset and spreadsheet on GlobalSuperstores’s KPIs are available to download for this assignment. You’ll create a presention of your assessment and findings to the senior leadership team. It’s agreat opportunity to demonstrate the importance of data visualization, the creation of executive dashboards, and your newly acquired skills in Tableau. Your analysis and assessments will include a 3- to 5-page document with data visualization evidence using Tableau.After exploring the Tableau video tutorials discussed above, download Tableau software as a free download for SNHU students. Then, follow the Tableau“Getting Started” video guide to import the existing dataset spreadsheets for Global Superstores into Tableau for data analysis and visualization. Also, refer to the Tableau Tutorial document for further support.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
Audience: Based on the readings and your experience, identify your hypothetical senior leadership team audience, including their titles and scope of responsibility. The audience could include senior executives such as CEO, COO, and VPs of Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. Identify any other potential key audience members such as IT, Operations and Business Development, if applicable. Explain why you chose these stakeholders.
Internal Factors: Global Superstores has several market segments (countries), major product categories (furniture, office supplies, and technologies) and subcategories within its three major product lines. Based on the existing datasets and KPIs, what’s likely to be the mostimportant information for your audience? What internal factors will drive your business forward? An example would be sales performance (orders sold by market, YOY growth, and sales seasonality).
Data Analysis and Assessment: First identify which product category has the largest sales. Then within this category, which is the largestsubcategory, based on the number of Global Superstores’s orders and clients? Conversely, which product category and subcategories are the least profitable?
Data Visualization: Include at least three visuals from Tableau—examples would be Superstores’s Global Market Distribution Map, YOY sales growth quarterly breakdown, and Sales Profitability by Sub-Category—to support your findings for responses to questions b and c above. Hint:Tableau’s Show Me data visualization tool option is a great way to obtain dashboard display options.
Key Takeaways: Referring to the selected company that you are working on for the final project, describe how data visualization and interactive dashboards can be an effective business tool for recommending the feasibility of bringing a new product to market.