What is Data Management and why is it important?

In today’s digital economy, data is a kind of capital, an economic factor of production in digital goods and services and organisations increasingly rely on such intangible assets to create value. So, a robust data management strategy is becoming increasingly important and absolutely key to the success of your business.

Data Management is the practice of collecting, keeping, and using data securely, efficiently, and cost-effectively. The goal of data management is to help people, organisations, and connected things optimise the use of data within the bounds of policy and regulation so that they can make decisions and take actions that maximise the benefit to the organisation. Some of the benefits of effective data management include better decision making, better customer relationship management, increased productivity and better data analytics.

What are the four types of Data Management?

1. Data mining involves the extraction of raw data from a database. The extracted information can then be used to make business decisions and other decisions.
2. Data warehouse refers specifically to the storage required by a database that stores large amounts of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
3. Data integration is the process of combining data from multiple sources into one single, coherent view. This process allows organisations to make better decisions, improve operational efficiency, and gain a competitive advantage.
4. Data Governance is a collection of processes, roles, policies, standards, and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient use of information in enabling an organisation to achieve its goals. Each contributes to the overall success of implementation and helps organisations get the most out of their data.

Each contributes to the overall success of implementation and helps organisations get the most out of their data.Why is Data Management so important?

Proper data management is very important because it helps decision-makers understand the information that they have gathered. It also helps them understand how the information relates to other pieces of data that they have obtained.

The key benefits include:

• Visibility: One of the most important data management benefits is the ability to have complete visibility over your data storage, making it easier for people to quickly and confidently find the right data for their analysis.
• Improved efficiency: Improving business efficiency is another top benefit of good data management. Reducing the amount of time spent searching for data, improving data quality, and making data more accessible to employees enables organisation to be more agile.
• Improved reliability: Reliable, up-to-date data enables companies to respond more efficiently to market changes and customer needs. It builds trust in the data being used and helps minimise potential errors.
• Stronger security: Data management protects your organisation and its employees from data losses, thefts, and breaches with authentication and encryption tools. Strong data security ensures that vital company information is backed up and retrievable.

Additionally, security becomes more and more important if your data contains any personal information that needs to be carefully managed to comply with consumer protection laws.
Minimised data loss: An effective approach ensures that all data sources are available when needed and that backups are performed on a regular basis in order to restore them in the event of an emergency.

Improved decision making: Data management provides accurate and up-to-date information to identify trends and patterns that may not be immediately apparent and it can help to identify and track key performance indicators. It can also help to create a historical record of decisions that have been made in the past to help inform future decision-making.

Improved compliance with regulatory requirements: Managing data can improve compliance with regulatory requirements by ensuring that it is accurate, complete, and timely. It can also improve compliance by providing visibility into data and by providing tools to help identify and correct errors.

How to get the most out of your data

To get the most out of your data, invest in an effective data management strategy. This will help you to:

• Clearly identify your business goals: Clearly defined business objectives ensure you’re only keeping and organising data that is relevant for decision-making and prevents your data management software from becoming overcrowded and unmanageable.
• Focus on the quality of your data: Ensure you complete regular checks for accuracy so it isn’t outdated in a way that can negatively impact analytics. Train team members on the proper process for inputting data.
• Allow the right people to access the data: it is wise to set up different levels of permissions so that each person can access the relevant data to them in order to do their jobs. It can be difficult to find the right balance between convenience and security, but if your team cannot access the data they need efficiently, it can lead to a loss of time and money.
• Prioritise data security: Data should be appropriately accessible inside your organisation, but you must put protections in place to keep it secure from outsiders. Train your team members to handle data, ensure your processes meet compliance requirements and have a strategy in place for handling a potential breach.

Make sure you have the right data platform

Managing and storing data has become a critical function for modern business operations. Choosing a data platform that can handle vast volumes of big data, high speeds, reliability and ease of use, is a top priority.

You can ensure that your data, technologies, processes and governance are optimised by executing what we refer to as an Enterprise Data Management Health Check. This is a review of the condition of your company’s data and how well it supports effective, timely decisions and business objectives. The Health Check scores your data management on the key pillars of:

1. Data Sourcing and Quality
2. Data Integration
3. Data Warehouse
4. Data Governance

It then matches you to your best technologies and practices, demonstrating how you can ensure that your data management strategy and architecture is fit for purpose. If this sounds like something that your company would benefit from, request your impartial and neutral Health Check today.