Complex data is defined by the size and complexity of the data itself. It is typically difficult to manually prepare and translate complex data into a format that can be digested. Business Intelligence (BI) tools are used to prepare, process, analyse, and visualise data. The more complex the data is, the more advanced a company’s BI tools need to be to handle the data.

Understanding the complexity of an organisations data is imperative for deciding on the BI tools needed. It is also important to understand how an organisation’s data will grow, and what the future requirements of a company’s BI tools will be.

Complex Data: Defining Factors

There are a few defining factors of complex data that determine the type of complex data that is being dealt with.

• Data Volume: the size of the data can determine whether the data can be classified as ‘complex’ or not. The bigger the data gets, the more complex it is to process.
• Data Structure: the more sources that data is retrieved from, the more complex the data is. This is because data is typically structured differently depending on their origin source, making it harder to centralise, prepare, and process.
• Data Diversity: in complex data, there are various values. An example would be the difference between text, audio, video, photographic, and numerical data. They are all different types of data and cannot be processed in the same way.
• Data Abstraction: complex data can be abstract, making it harder to prepare for analysis.
• Data Detail: the more detailed the data is that is being analysed, and the more in-depth the data research is, the more complex data becomes.
• Data Growth: the faster your data grows, the more complex your data will become; thus, this will have an impact on the choice of BI tools.

At B2IT, we stock BI tools such as Qlik Sense, that can easily integrate complex data. This is done by direct integration. Complex data can be processed and analysed, allowing the user to search through the data and view the relationship between the data. The insights found via the searches performed can be easily shared with other users through a central and secure hub.

To find out more about Qlik, and other complex data BI tools, contact us at B2IT.