Business data must be accurate, reliable and consistent, and must be accessible across the enterprise. This is important from the point of view of making the right decisions. Irrespective of the size of the business, data management has shifted from an important competency to a critical differentiator that can determine the competitive edge of every business.
Maintaining big data captured from different sources and in different formats is one of the major challenges faced by organizations. Other obstacles such as inadequate storage space, less infrastructure for data processing or data analysis also may lead to inefficient data management. Moreover, growing complexity of data, reduced availability of power, increased regulatory requirements, and shrinking backup windows have increased the necessity of data management in today’s dynamic business scenario.
Data capture is the first step in big data management. The captured data has to be converted to digital documents in the appropriate file format. Digital documents are indexed to make the search process easy and to make them freely available for information processing. Accurate business data is vital to obtain real-time actionable insights and also with regard to decision making. Businesses can plan their future activities based on the information gathered.
Data Management
Core Considerations
Setting up a Data Governance Strategy
Businesses may not often be clear on what data is needed; other considerations include the need for collecting and processing data, and what to do with the captured data. In order to address these issues they should have a strategy for the overall management of the data used in the organization. A reliable data governance strategy will take into consideration the availability, usability, integrity and security of data. Any data governance strategy must make full use of technology that will help to implement it widely across the enterprise and attain the full benefits.
Having a Centralized Repository
Building up a centralized system for data storage, allows all data to be housed at a single location. Availability of data at a single location allows easy integration, sorting, and analysis of data. Such a system can protect data, increase speed, convenience and efficiency. Other advantages of having a centralized storage location are:
- Ensures information security
- Quick and easy access of data, irrespective of geographical barriers
- Allows easy data transformation
Ensuring High Quality Data
Bad quality data can hamper organization’s ability to leverage analytics to operate effectively and efficiently. It should be organized and cleansed to ensure adequate quality, accuracy, consistency, and thoroughness. The process of data cleansing involves evaluating the entries and identifying and eliminating duplicate data. Data with adequate quality can improve the quality of decisions taken and hence predictive results.
Building a Data Management Solution
Big data generated for business will be of massive volume and may contain both structured and unstructured data. It is difficult to process unstructured data that exists in different file formats using traditional software techniques. With advanced techniques, it is possible to sort out relevant data, analyze, and extract it. Automated techniques can ensure better workflow management, scheduling, collaboration, improved operational efficiencies, and better customer service.
