If the up-front work is done to design an approach to easily access and visualize data, it frees up enterprise architects to focus on finding ways to address specific business problems and improving data quality. This is a much better use of their skills, provides immediate access to data, and increases the likelihood that enterprise architecture will influence decisions.

Often when enterprise architects send reports, they come in non-standardized or inconsistent formats. This wastes the time of the person who is trying to leverage the data for decision making. They have to understand and interpret particular reports, rather than quickly extracting the information they need. Pulling a report is only a snapshot in time. A weekly, monthly, or quarterly report might be enough in some situations. But often, having real-time access to data would greatly help decision making. The world is only getting more demanding in its data production and consumption needs.

Data visualizations are only effective when data repositories are well-managed. When an organization invests in data visualization, it often needs to improve its back-end enterprise architecture infrastructure. It is much easier to make the case for the back-end investment when decision makers can more clearly understand the data’s value.

LMI works with federal agencies and private industry on enterprise architecture best practices every day. We know which tools provide the reports needed for compliance with an eye for open-source tools that do not require additional acquisitions.