As businesses face many challenges due to inflation and general costs increasing, looking at effective ways to work is one of the things you can do to help keep your business running smoothly. The art of data management can seem like a daunting task, however, it doesn’t have to be.
Here at Tratech we take a holistic approach to digital services and the same can be said for data management. Working with you to ensure your digital solutions work for your business and not against you, enabling you to grow, scale and improve, even in times of difficulty.
What is Data Management?
Data management is simply the tools, techniques, and systems you use to manage information. The goal is to connect each aspect of the data to your business to ensure you receive the maximum benefit of all the information you have available to you.
The only 5 tips you need:
1: Compliancy is key – This comes first and foremost, ensuring that you obtain the data correctly, i.e. legally, and process it in the correct manner. GDPR is one of the most common compliance practices that you will come across but be aware of different compliancy laws for different countries. Never assume that you are compliant – be diligent.
2: Make it visible – This simply means you need to ensure you can view your data easily. Viewing the information in a more visual way will quickly show you where you can improve your strategy to scale your business. Having a visualisation of your information model can make managing it all that much easier and is particularly important if you expose certain data via endpoints such as API’s.
3: Data security – Arguably the most important tip we can offer (although we have it at number 3!). Having proper data security in place not only protects your data but also protects your business. Data security means many things, for example, segmentation and only giving required access and information to those in the business who need it. Not everyone needs the same permissions to access the data, this keeps the highest accessibility to only those who need it. Every organisation should have a nominated Data Security Officer (DSO) who governs and owns the data security. If you think you are a SME, then this should fall to one of the board members.
4: Back up, back up, and back up again – Anyone can make a mistake. We are only human after all, and while there are many technologies and systems that we can utilise to process some parts of work for us, it is always best to create back-ups. What would happen if you lost the internet during a task and hadn’t saved it before you started working? Back-ups give you that piece of mind that in worst case scenarios you have the information stored elsewhere. So back up your data to a cloud system, and a hard copy such as external hard drives or USB devices.
5: Good data vs Bad data – Being able to distinguish between good data and bad data will mean you can get more out of your data. Poor data quality leads to poor performance and poor decision-making. Basing your decisions on high quality data will be more effective but can take time to build up. Don’t give in, keep working hard to obtain the right data in the right ways and you will reach your business goals. Perhaps think about having an independent review of your data to make sure that you are delivering consistency.
Working with best practices and high-quality data ensures that you are doing all you can to find success as a business. Data management will help you establish good internal processes, as well as finding valuable information which you can then use to improve your products or services. Having good data can benefit your business in many ways, whether you need to back up your claims to shareholders or showcase your business to new investors. Proper data management will be the key to success.
What next? If you need help analysing your data Tratech can help, we take a holistic approach and work with you to find the best solutions for your business. Contact Tractech now to see how we can help you.
