“The data is the best asset of companies”.
It’s no news that data has been, is, and will continue to be the foundation for the functioning of businesses operating within the global economies.
Indeed, we cannot imagine life without data. In fact, data is everywhere: on the radio, on television, in schools, on social media, in companies, and so on. We could say that life is data-driven. In reality, almost all the decisions we make in our daily lives today are based on them. A very clear example is when we want to buy a product or service; we compare technical specifications, functionality, price, ratings, views, benefits, etc. At the end of the day, data tells us everything.
Regarding the business sector, and what concerns us, a large amount of data is stored every day. Here, the crucial point isn’t just storing them but rather, why store them? How do we manage them? And primarily, how do we derive value from them for the benefit of our company? Essentially, creating a “Data Awareness“.
Therefore, at Bimex Analytics, we consider data as the primary asset of companies, the foundation for decision-making, and the basis upon which the entire business is built.
What is Data Management?
Regardless of whether companies are large or small, Data Management plays a crucial role within them, as their smooth functioning and operation rely on effective data management.
So, how do we define Data Management?
Data Management is nothing more than the execution of a set of processes or activities for data management, from its origin to its consumption, encompassing each of the corresponding processes. The following are particularly relevant:
- Definition of Strategy: This is the starting point. Data alone tells us nothing. Having a clear strategy on how to extract value from our data is paramount so that from the data, we can generate wisdom. Data → Information → Knowledge → Wisdom.
- Collection and Storage: In this process, we gather data regardless of its type (structured or unstructured) and store it in our database.
- Transformation and Integration: This process involves treating the data by identifying the data’s sources, loading and transforming the data, and integrating it into a single location (Single Point of Truth). It ensures the quality of the data, making it ready and available for consumption.
- Security and Privacy: In this process, we define a security framework that ensures the safety and access protection of the data by users.
- Data Governance: Lastly, and no less important, creating a framework of responsibility for the appropriate use of data that allows the generation of value for the business is required.
All these processes are supported by technological tools, which will help us to guarantee the availability, security and accuracy of our data, and thus obtain the maximum value from them.
Data Management Tools
Making an analogy with cooking, we already have the ingredients, which in our case are the data. Now, we need to know with which utensils we’ll work our magic. What are the tools we can use to cook our data?
Among the most common Data Management tools are:
- Database (Relational, Object-Oriented, In-Memory)
- MDM (Master Data Management)
- Data Warehouses (ETL/ELT Data Integration)
- Data Lakes (Big Data)
- Data Governance (Data Security and Privacy)
These tools will be explained in more detail in future blog posts.
Conclusion
Data Management is the process of turning the data generated within companies into wisdom: Data → Information → Knowledge → Wisdom, through the implementation of a proper data strategy and management (application of processes), aimed at generating value for businesses.
If you have any doubts, need further information, or are interested in our assistance to define your Data Management strategy and select the appropriate tools to do so, please do not hesitate to contact us via our email admin@bimexanalytics.com.
Next Entries:
Data Management: Series 2 – Storage Tools
Data Management: Series 3 – Data Integration
Data Management: Series 4 – Data Security
Data Management: Series 5 – Data Governance
