Guest Lecture to Masters students of the College of Information Science & Technology, University of Nebraska, Omaha

1. we connect. we deliver.

2. The Power of
Data Visualization
Dr. Gautham Pallapa
Director of Information Services
West Corporation
April 18, 2016

3. 3
Who is West?
4BTexts, voice alerts,
emails and
notifications
64BVoice minutes
annually
159MConference calls
annually
290M911 calls per year
Market-leader with nearly
30 years of experience,
driving cloud-based
communication solutions
for a connected customer
experience

4. West Services and Solutions
Revenue Generation Health Advocate Cost Management
Conferencing Messaging & Presence Tools Voice & Networking Digital Media Services
IVR & Self-Service Proactive Notifications & Mobility Cloud Contact Center Professional Services
Wireline Mobility Government Solutions
Toll-Free Services Direct Inward Dialing Termination Services
S A F E T Y S E R V I C E S
U N I F I E D C O M M U N I C AT I O N S S E R V I C E S
I N T E R A C T I V E S E R V I C E S
S P E C I A L I Z E D A G E N T S E R V I C E S
T E L E C O M S E R V I C E S
4

5. Solutions Customized By Industry
• Voice Platform
• Speech Services
• Application Development
and Testing
• Multi-Channel Notifications
• SMS Text Conversations
• Campaign Administration
• Preference Management
• Multi-channel Integration and
Routing
• Secure Transactions
• Contact Center Optimization
• Assessments and Design
• Strategic Account Support
• Network Management
and Security
• Business Analytics
IVR & Self-Service
Proactive
Communications & Mobility
Cloud Contact Center
Professional Services
NEARLY
3.5 BILLION
U N I Q U E C O N N E C T I O N S A N N U A L LY

6. 6
Internet of Things
* As a Service (S/P/I)
Smart Devices
Always On
Social Media
User Behavior Change
Data Mining
Driver for Data Visualization
Credit: http://scet.berkeley.edu/big-data-solutions-for-small-firms/

7. Modern equivalent of Visual Communication
• Communicate information clearly and efficiently to users via descriptive
statistics
• Make complex data more accessible, understandable and usable
• Help users analyze and reason about data, evidence, causality, and
relationships
7
Need for Data Visualization

8. 8
Methodology
Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_visualization

9. We understand better with pictures
Humans assimilate information better
9
A Picture is worth a 1000 words

10. 10
Transformation
Credit: https://www.climate-eval.org/blog/answer-42-data-information-and-knowledge

11. Story
The Right Questions
Context
Roles
Visual Representation
11
Show and Tell

12. 12
Show relationships of data points.
More used for scientific and exploratory uses
Not very useful for business cases.
Scatter plots

13. 13
Scatter Plots

14. Bar Charts are common and versatile charts used for comparison.
Useful because they are so common and information is absorbed quickly.
14
Bar Charts

15. Useful for visualizing numbers of different magnitudes and trend analysis.
15
Area Graphs

16. Plot continuous data, often over time.
16
Line Graphs

17. Communicating one or two pieces of information
17
Simple Text
80%of the folks here are reading this slide now

18. 18
Tables
Can communicate different
information to different audiences
• Useful when you have
mixed units of measure

19. 19
Visualize Data from a table
Color will focus attention
Better Visual Cues
Better perception of tabular data
Heat Map

20. 20
Combine for Powerful Visualization

21. 21
Combine for Powerful Visualization

22. 22
Combine for Powerful Visualization

23. Process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling
• Discover useful information
• Derive meaning
• Identify Patterns
• Establish relationships
• Support decision-making
23
Data Analysis

24. 24
Data Analysis – Misrepresentations

25. 25

26. German word for 'pithiness', which means 'concise and meaningful’
More with Less
26
Primary Theme – Pragnanz

27. What are we trying to Visualize?
Any Use Cases?
Prior History/Knowledge?
Assumptions/Constraints
System/Environment
Roles and Responsibilities
27
Identify the following
• Key Performance Indicators / Metrics
• Tools to capture data
• Create the visual
• Tools to Interpret results
• Data Analysis and Inference
• Information Retrieval
• Knowledge Management
How to Tell a Powerful Story

28. Clear and clean visual layouts are better – More with Less
Remove all unnecessary clutter
Lay out data along clean straight lines
Remove or push unnecessary messaging into the background
3D should be used when you have a Z axis
28
Guidelines for Visualization

29. • 2 Resource Days saved for every employee @ Interactive Services (9346 hours)
• 24.5 million lines of TXL logs parsed in Preproduction: 5 Million errors identified
• 4100 Resource Hours saved through Pheme
• 3604 Defects caught to date
29
Example – Value
$1,106,343
saved in 2015
0
100
200
300
400
Requirements
Engineering
Product
Quality
Quality
Assurance
Test
Engineering
Test Lab
Throughput
Initiatives

30. 30
Example

31. 31
Example

32. 32
Example

33. 33
Example

34. 34
The Sky’s The Limit

35. 35
But Always Remember the User!

36. Performance Analysis of a new
Product release
• Release Notes/Changelog
• Prior History/Knowledge
• Assumptions/Constraints
• System/Environment
• Roles and Responsibilities
36
Identify the following
• Key Performance Indicators / Metrics
• Tools to capture data
• Create the visual
• Tools to Interpret results
• Data Analysis and Inference
• Information Retrieval
• Knowledge Management
Specific Example

37. Demo

38. Modern equivalent of Visual Communication
Data Visualization is both an art and a science
Make complex data more accessible, understandable and usable
Help users analyze and reason about data, evidence, causality, and
relationships
More with Less 38
Conclusion

39. Questions?
39
Exciting Stuff, Right?
Dr. Gautham Pallapa – gpallapa@west.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gpallapa
West Corporation – http://www.west.com

40. Thank You