What Is Data Management and Why Should You Care

Data Is the New Oil

With so much data surrounding modern businesses, organizing and standardizing it has become an essential task. Failing to do so can prevent your company from benefiting from all the information you gather across your digital ecosystem. So, if you truly want to leverage data, you need to have a strategic approach to it, anchored in data management solutions.

At BairesDev, we can help you develop such solutions and provide you with a customized platform to unify your data in a central source. But before getting into what that may mean for you, let’s review what data management is about and why you should care about it.

What Is Data Management?

Data management is the process through which a company gathers, stores, and access data from multiple sources across its digital ecosystem. It defines how you handle the data your business uses on a daily basis and determines how your software solutions work with one another to offer you increased control over the information you collect.

This process has become increasingly complex over the years driven by data proliferation and the multitude of data management software available. That means that you now need to define more in-depth data management policies to rule over specialized data subsets while also controlling the different data sources you have in your system, including accounting platforms

CRM software and POS applications.

Data management deals with virtually all the data you come in contact with, including:

Customer data
Financial data
Social media data
Product data
Employee information
Business knowledge

Why You Should Use Data Management

Among the chief benefits of using a data management system you can find the following:

Increased productivity.
Data management makes data more accessible to everyone in your company by organizing it. Thus, your employees can use the data whenever they want in an efficient way, which results in less time spent on looking for the proper information and more in actually working.
Streamlined operations
A good data management system connects all the essential areas in your company through digital solutions. That way, your employees can collaborate with one another more easily, making communication easier, and working in a more straightforward manner. Overall, your entire organization will run more smoothly with a robust data management system in place.
Better security.
When you manage your data in a more organized way, you’ll have a better shot at protecting it. A good data management solution prevents your data from falling through the cracks and into the wrong hands while also leveraging the benefits of the latest security technologies to safeguard the information you have.
Better decision-making.
Handling your data in a more organized and streamlined manner will lead you to a dramatic improvement in your decision-making. That’s because you’ll get better access to the information you need when you need it and, thus, enhance governance over the data. From that, you can get more precise insights without losing sight of any important information.
Decreased costs.
Data management systems can be very cost-effective, mainly because you’ll get rid of the issues you run across when you don’t have a centralized solution to handle your digital data needs. This means you’ll spend less time dealing with data-related problems (like duplication or access issues) and more doing actual work.

Developing a Data Management Strategy

Before committing to a particular data management solution or developing your own with the help of a custom software development company, you need to have a clear understanding of where you want to go with data management. Thus, you should consider the following:

• Understand your key business objectives and check what data you’re collecting (and which one you can collect) towards those goals.

• Based on your goals, define who’ll get access to each data set, detailing why any given individual or area should have the authorization to access that information.

• Define strategies for protection, storage, and usage of the data, applying specific policies to each data subset.

• Establish different levels within the strategy to ensure that your data management is flexible enough to address different goals.

Best Data Management Practices

Not even the best data management platform can improve your entire operations on its own. You need a data management strategy that provides the necessary framework for sound practices to come into place. After developing the strategy with the steps mentioned above, you should take the following best practices into account.

Have a data management team available at all times.
Given the complexity of data management-related tasks, it’s essential for you to have a dedicated team to handle it correctly. Having the right professionals can help you develop and adjust your approach, even as you. Naturally, you can always trust an outsourced team or augment your staff with the right professionals if you don’t have someone in-house.
Focus on data privacy.
Compliance with new legislation over data protection is a must for anyone considering data management. This means that you have to have to implement the proper measures to protect and store your data, while also allowing some room for data auditing that demonstrates your compliance.
Periodically update your approach.
There isn’t a data management strategy that’s set in stone, simply because data management is a dynamic field that’s constantly evolving. That’s because security systems and regulations are ever-changing, which means you’ll have to keep a vigilant eye on how you do things to introduce relevant modifications that keep your system robust in the face of cyberattacks and in compliance with regulations.
Assess your data management performance.
All business strategies need to be measured and assessed for performance - and data management isn’t the exception. Define metrics that will help you understand how your data management efforts are paying off and that lets you dive into your system’s performance. If something is failing, maybe it’s time to change providers or develop your own custom data management solution.

A Must for Modern Businesses

Having a strong data management system went from being a “nice to have” to an absolute must over the last years. That’s why you need to consider implementing one for your business if you haven’t done so already. Integrating a thoroughly planned data management strategy can take out the inconsistencies and issues related to your data-related tasks and provide you with a more streamlined workflow.

If you already have a data management system in place, then remember to keep it updated and monitored to ensure you’re getting the best performance out of it. Period upgrades and adjustments on your data management focus are essential to staying ahead of the curve. Don’t know where to start with data management? Then BairesDev data experts can help you. We have vast experience developing and working with data management solutions and can help you create a strategic plan for you to leverage its benefits. Contact us now to learn more.