Data Visualization: How Companies Are Optimizing Spend Management

Manual business processes are tedious and expensive. Accounting, in particular, often does not seem to have arrived in the digital age. Companies still send a third of their invoices in paper form. Whether post or fax – that is not precisely sustainable and ties up working time through manual processes.

The digitalization and data visualization of manual processes can significantly reduce the costs of data administration. These approaches also help to optimize costs further. A low administrative effort and a high potential for interpretation are the guidelines for successful data management.

Companies that pursue cost control through digitization are well-advised to follow one principle: Keep the administrative effort low and develop the tremendous possible interpretation potential. This principle of restructuring can lead to lasting success, especially in accounting. Following this principle, four central impulses can be identified that can lead to a digital and more efficient everyday work:

Data Visualization: More Openness For More Productivity

The decision-making processes can be shortened through comprehensive transparency of the data. If the information sovereignty rests with all employees, then the responsibility for the data also rests with everyone involved. For this purpose, all data must be stored centrally. All employees should be able to access it equally. In this way, the right people are provided with the correct data. In this way, the individual’s knowledge can become the entire company’s knowledge – from which each benefits in their everyday work. If, for example, management has direct access to data analyzes from accounting, options for action can be derived quickly and easily.

Empowerment For The Team And Corporate Culture

With access to the data, there is also a transfer of responsibilities. This must be taken into account when every employee is involved in data management. Data transparency cannot be achieved without a corporate culture in which every person is empowered to work. If everyone produces data, then everyone must be able to interpret it. It is not enough to make the information available to employees in confusing tables. The data must be visualized so that it is accessible to everyone. Because only those who can understand the data can cooperate.

New Working Models – Mobile And Decentralized

The corona pandemic has once again made it clear that decentralized work will take up an ever-larger part of our everyday work in the future. A study by the DAK shows that most employees work more productively in the home office than in the office. Nevertheless, the advantages of working in the hybrid working model can only be fully developed if the critical data is visualized. With the help of data visualization, employees can easily understand and work with essential data from home, from the café next door or the train.

Create Synergies Through Data Visualization

It’s a well-known problem: you get data from another department or a non-specialist area and don’t know their core information. Tiring tables and lists or graphics whose statements cannot be understood can lead to communication problems between the departments. Data visualization can help to understand complex issues. This also makes it easier for people who are not familiar with the subject to grasp relationships and interpret the data. This creates synergies between individual departments: budgets and strategies can be coordinated across departments. For example, through transparent data sharing between marketing and sales, synergies can be used: The visualized marketing data help the sales department to address customers in a more targeted manner and find the most efficient way to close a deal. Because 42 per cent of consumers still say that online advertising is not tailored to them personally.

Save Costs Through Digitized Processes

There are many ways to gain valuable competitive advantages from unused data: Thanks to digitization and data visualization, these are easy to understand and readily available to many employees. In this way, a good overview can be obtained. An overview of the expenses is helpful to identify opportunities: Where do employees spend money? Where do subscriptions run that might not be necessary? Which suppliers are the main cost drivers, and would renegotiations be worthwhile? With a clear overview, expenses in accounting and other areas can be made lean and efficient. Unnecessary expenses are recognized and stopped early, and essential resources are created for the company’s future.

Also Read: The Data-Driven Company – How Those Responsible Do Justice To The Importance Of Data