28.03.2018
Philipp Kiencke
Author: Philipp Kiencke
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Sharing analysis results — ACL GRC story­boards

Data analytics can produce interesting results. They help to identify problems in processes, to reveal cases of fraud, to trace weakpoints in master data, and to recognize many other abnormalities or peculiarities. Nevertheless, results alone are relatively worthless if not properly processed for presentation, and made accessible to persons empowered to make decisions. But not only sharing is of great importance, you must also think of the "how". If you just send your result tables with hundreds of fields and thousands of data records, dealing with them is bound to be a patchy affair.

There is no clarity, and the conclusions from such a table first have to be worked out. Often the knowledge lacks in specialist departments about how precisely data have originated, plus the time to filter them further, condense or otherwise consolidate them.

A solution to this is the results module of ACL GRC ™. Analytics results in the form of tables can be loaded to this module. Based on these data records, so called "Interpretations" can then be created including, extra to filters and references, the generation of visualization.

Creating visualization and the layout of storyboards are what I will now look at in detail.

 

 Graphically processing results — at the level of analytics

As already indicated, your analytics results, graphical and clear, attract much more attention, better attention. In our example there are already analytics results in the form of tables in the results module of ACL GRC™. Visualization can now be added to these. You can choose from eight different diagram types to find the graphics matching your results.

In most cases the diagrams can be expanded in color for further dimensions. That is a way to clearly visualize your results. There is still a problem in that, if you generate diagrams within interpretations, only those users get to see the diagrams who can also access them. So the diagrams in interpretation are not suitable for presenting your results, and to a wide span of recipients, but are rather intended for single data analysts or case workers. But they do form the basis of graphics that can later be compiled and shared in the form of storyboards.

 

Presentation of results — at decision-maker/management level

ACL™ has developed what are called storyboards to present and further process your results at a higher level. These offer you the possibility of clearly collecting text, visualization and tables, and sharing this in the company. In this case it is irrelevant whether the persons hold an ACL™ license or not. Storyboards can be shared in any way. Still, for non-ACL™ users it is not possible to "drill down" into detailed data records.

In the screenshot you see a cutout of a storyboard. You can add any number of metrics, visualizations, texts, and table extracts. The information, with the exception of the texts, that you have to enter yourself is only linked. This means that if your data situation changes, your storyboard is also adapted. That very much simplifies your reporting because you only have to share the storyboard once, and then it always contains the momentary data situation.

But how can you share your storyboard with your colleagues, other departments, or seniors? In this case you have two possibilities. For one thing you can add your ACL™ contacts to the storyboard. But if you want to share it with contacts outside ACL™, you can simply generate a link that your contacts can access!

If the circle of persons changes, delete the link for the storyboard, and create a new one. In that way you can control access to the storyboard at any time, and do not need to create a new storyboard all the time.

With the latest update you have a further possibility of presenting your results. If you need to present your results quite spontaneously, you can change your storyboard to a screen presentation by a single click. That gives you the opportunity of short presentations without long times to gear up.

Examples of storyboard use

Our clients use storyboards in many different areas. I would like to show you a couple of examples to promote better understanding of use of the tool.

 

Dashboard for the CFO

Often it is not that easy to overview ongoing corporate data. Monthly figures may be sent to and fro, but they are usually rigid. Storyboards are dynamic, updating automatically as soon as new data load in your tables. If you do not overwrite the old data, but simply attach them, you obtain an overview with time extra to a momentary summary.

For you that means time-saving because you need not create new reports for new figures, but just upload them.

 

Overview of audits

In the case of an audit in which you analyze data, you can share the latest status of your audit with your colleagues at any time through a storyboard. So any interim results and status can be shared. For seniors in particular this can be an interesting application of storyboards, because there is often a very long time span between starting analytics and a ready report. The storyboard can tell you about the momentary interim status, or concisely wrap up the result of an audit from the data analytics viewpoint.

 

Sales dashboard

Similar to the mentioned dashboard for the CFO, current sales figures can be presented graphically, and shared with your colleagues. Automated uploads, which may be daily, show you sales trends in realtime. That way you and your colleagues maintain an overview. Here too, the storyboard only needs to be set up once, because it updates dynamically as soon as new data appear.

 

Conclusion

I hope this blog post was insightful, giving you a good look at the topic. If you are further interested in ACL GRC™, I can recommend the blog posts „Self Assessments mit ACL GRC™“ and „Questionnaires“.

Plus, we regularly report on our blog about innovations in ACL GRC™, and other topics in analysis of mass data and data analytics with SAP data. So call in regularly, or subscribe straight away to our blog here.


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