"Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change – this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress." -- Bruce Barton
We all want to be part of progress. In fact, most of us want to BE progress! However, becoming the leader is not without risk. We have all experienced the one step forward, two steps backward mentality. This eventually leads us to abandon our current path in favor of shelter from uncertainty. As Aran Levasseur stated in his article, Teaching Innovation Is About More Than iPads in the Classroom, "To varying degrees we've all come through the traditional model of education that has trained us to seek certainty. Combine that with the fact that we are wired to look for negative information -- and uncertainty would definitely fit into the negative category for most of us -- and we have a compound society that is increasingly risk averse. Yet without taking risks, we can't have breakthroughs." Breakthroughs become the hope we seek in order to keep progressing.
By utilizing Instalytics, CFO Rapid Fire continues to make breakthroughs. Analyzing variances allows companies to investigate where they may have deviated from the budget, prior year, benchmarks, etc. The following provides you a static illustration of variance visualizations. Detailed analyses would be completed utilizing the drill down feature with the "live" version.
Visualizations provide a clearer vision that allows companies to make decisions which ultimately affect their bottom line and progress to the next level. Analytics are the newest (and scarcest) resource companies are taping. IDC reports the business analytics market will grow at a 9.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2016. The abundance of data in every aspect of business is driving a need for deeper analysis. Couple this with the increasingly mobile generation and you've got a market ripe for data visualizations available anytime, anywhere.
Remember, C.S. Lewis said, "It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad." Embrace the wave of Business Intelligence! Innovate from Within!
