It is no secret that the low-code solutions provided by Microsoft’s Power Platform create a far more user-friendly and intuitive experience for users, but the benefits of services like Microsoft Power BI extend far beyond the easy creation of applications and data-analytics visuals. As companies around the world adapt to a new, digital landscape, many companies are sitting on a wealth of data, overwhelmed with the task of how to fully maximize the potential of this treasure trove of information. By making data analytics more accessible, Microsoft Power BI provides companies with the opportunity to enhance the creativity of their employees.
An August 2020, study published in the International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing shows how “using Enterprise Content Management (ECM) in the ideation step of the innovation process may enhance the creativity of users to create new knowledge.” The articles goes on to say that, “the access to large databases of information can overwhelm users, in their innovation process, and tend them to return to known solutions which will decrease the creativity.” The study explored the potential of combining ECM with visual graphics. The study presents a case where “a team participating in an innovation competition uses [this] approach at the ideation stage to enhance their creativity.” Such a study scratches the surface of unlocking the potential of visuals in data analytics. And Microsoft’s Power BI is an industry standard platform that provides user-friendly business intelligence.
When you think about it, the results of this above study is no surprise. A complicated ECM design and a confusing information architecture is not accessible to all employees in a company. If an employee is tasked to think of a creative solution to a problem, but also needs to rely on data, the act of parsing through all of the information is, essentially, a waste of energy and resources. If data is presented to employees through clear visuals and graphics, the information is accessible and digestible without using too much brain power. Therefore, employees will have enough bandwidth to explore all potential creative solutions, without resorting back to more structured and unoriginal forms of creation.
The article, titled “Enterprise content management systems: a graphical approach to improve the creativity during ideation sessions—case study of an innovation competition”, highlights the science behind “graph theory”. The foundations of graph theory are simple: data is more easily understood when it is accompanied by a visual in order to fully explain and define relationships between two different items or objects. The rapidly growing world of Enterprise Content Management has revolutionized the ways companies store and organize their information; Microsoft Power BI’s visual representation of data marks the next evolutionary step of ECM and data analytics. Now that companies have information readily accessible to all employees, the next step is to figure out ways to present this data in a legible fashion so all employees may use these presented results to their benefit.
As always, we would love to chat with you about how services like Microsoft Power BI could help increase creativity of your workplace. Do not hesitate to reach out for more information.
