Over the last decade, data has grown in importance to become a strategic asset to businesses. While a select few companies have come to realize the full potential of using the right data to make smarter business decisions, the vast majority of them are still struggling to catch up with the trends. These flagship cases for data analytics have shown time and again that the richness of data (volume, velocity and variety) is key to unlocking the best business outcomes in today’s competitive market. Given that, a lot of businesses are facing the problem of managing these enormous amounts of data being collected and processed. To delivery timely and optimal outcomes, smart data management methods are a necessity.
Benefits of Effective Data Management
Data management is yet another facet of running a modern business and as such needs process improvements and streamlining to promote positive outcomes. For instance, by automating the data discovery, governance, and consumption we can reap the following benefits:
- Battle Internal Inefficiencies - A well laid out data pipeline promotes automation and an overall elimination of redundant & manual processes. This form of process automation boosts overall productivity and reduces scope for human induced errors.
- Cuts Unnecessary Cost - Not only does an automated and an optimal data workflow reduce the amount of related human capital and IT resource expenditure, the benefits of being able to reduce time to decision brings about a significant reduction in the opportunity costs as well.
- Avoid Data Loss & Improve Data Security - A good data management policy ensures data loss protection and a good security posture. By employing mechanisms such as Data Backups, we can protect one of our most valuable assets from accidental loss and even attempts by bad actors such as hacks and ransomware attacks. Additionally, these techniques promote well-structured data lineage and access, making sure that sensitive information is fenced off and can thereby be in compliance with internal as well as state mandated privacy requirements.
- Customer 360 Experience - Being able to act on events throughout the customer journey, by being able to personalize services and communication across channels and to understand and keep up with evolving customer expectations is a huge step towards greater customer retention and satisfaction.
- Improved Decision Making - Insights gained from rich and often vast data sources enables enterprises to make data driven decisions. While human decision making will always have its place, given the complexity and scope, leaders are best served in utilizing these tools to make informed decisions.
- New Opportunities & Revenue Streams - The flip side of analyzing and inferring from data is the ability to use existing information to predict likely outcomes. Being able to effectively forecast potential service offerings to meet customer requirements or capture new markets is an invaluable tool. With the right data management strategies, enterprises can leverage their AI/ML toolkits to take calculated risks.
Fueling Factors
To be able to reap the above benefits and stay ahead of the competition, enterprises need to be aware of the factors that are fueling growth in the data management market, such as:
Multi-Cloud Technologies
As organizations begin to leverage cloud offerings from multiple providers, be it to avoid lock in or otherwise, it has the inadvertent effect of creating data silos. To be able to tap into these clustered sources of data is both powerful and a challenge. This has in the past few years spawned a lot of interest in developing data management techniques to facilitate such access patterns and to do so safely and securely.
Reliable Artificial Intelligence and AnalyticsOps
AI, ML and automation have been the hot topics of innovation in the recent past and the key driver for all these technologies has been data. AnalyticsOps is a framework for monitoring & managing the automation of analytics & AI/ML models across a business organization. The foundation for such a model is built on smart data management.
Data Governance
Given the complexity of the data ecosystem, it is essential to monitor or orchestrate the data flow. Data governance ensures consistency and quality by defining roles & responsibilities, quality standards, a common glossary of terms, and reporting frameworks. It is done by setting right data management strategy in place.
Data Fabric
It is a cloud-based architectural approach that simplifies data access by granting centralized access from multiple sources. It automates data discovery, governance, and consumption, all in all integrating end-to-end data-management capabilities.
To Conclude
In conclusion, nearly every enterprise today is bogged down by the weight of its own data. Market leaders however will emerge to be the ones who leverage efficient data management and analytics. This will open the door for new market opportunities and revenue streams, allow them to devise better strategies, manage changes more effectively and innovate quickly. To be that modern market leader, you need the help of data and cloud experts.
