Thousands of new small business owners enter the competitive business world every year. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that in the United States, there are 30.7 million small businesses, making up 99.9% of all the firms in the country.
To qualify as a small business owner, you must own a company with fewer than 500 employees and generate annual revenue of less than $7 million. A small business owner is in charge of almost everything from managing sales, purchasing, and finance departments to staying current on new technology and making strategic decisions.
One wrong move can bring the business to its knees. As a result, rather than speculating, it is critical to make crucial decisions based on a thorough analysis of all data generated in the company. In this digitized world, every customer action generates massive data, so implementing AI-powered data management solutions is an intelligent way to quickly manage all of the data and drive value in the organization.
What is data management?
In simple terms, data management is all about using effective techniques to ensure the information is collected, processed, and stored in a centralized location. An ineffective data management model leads to data silos and data quality issues, limiting the accuracy of the BI and analytics report. Having quick and secure access to data about the customer, stakeholders, and transaction using effective data management solutions multiplies the business growth and maximizes the profit.
Data management is not a one-size-fits-all process. Adopting a data management solution is a tedious task as you would be dealing with a massive amount of unsorted data generated over the years.
So, it is vital to identify your business objective, build a data process and finally spot the right data management solution to suit your business needs. Xtract.io offers custom data management solutions to empower data and develop strategic business ideas.
Why do small business owners need data management solutions?
85% of organizations see data as the most valuable asset, according to an Experian report on data management. But how many of them benefit from it? There are only a few. It is essential to start focusing on the data management practices to optimize the use of data within the confines of rules and standards to stay ahead of the market curve.
It’s a common misconception that data management is only for large enterprises and MNC’s. If you own or plan to start a small business, dispel the myth and begin investing in the best enterprise data management practices keeping your company a million steps ahead of the competition.
Data management practices have the potential to transform your small-scale business. It’s not just about managing or protecting your data; it’s also about putting it to use and monetizing it.
Data management best practices
According to a Forbes article, approximately 20% of small business owners fail within a year of starting their company, and 50% fail within the first five years. Indeed these numbers are not mentioned here to discourage you but do quite the opposite. Once you have analyzed all the data about why and how these companies ran out of gas in the initial years, you can be prepared and act differently!
Here are some of the data management practices you could implement in your business.
Follow comprehensive data governance
Effective data governance eliminates inconsistent data and increases data compliance and accuracy, providing decision-makers with a solid data foundation. Organizations are responsible for adhering to compliance requirements and safeguarding business and customer data. Failure to meet these requirements can result in legal issues and loss of customer trust.
The problem is that threat attackers typically target small business owners because they leave their data unprotected, believing it to be less critical. According to a CNBC article, 43 percent of cyber attacks target small businesses, and they are less likely to recover from the attack.
So, it is better to secure your data early than fight to bounce back. Adopting a data governance solution in your business ensures that your data is safe and compliant with business regulations and standards.
Powerful data governance practice is necessary for a company to provide a consistent view of data across the organization, make data assets usable and easier to locate, and offer a 360-degree view of each customer.
Achieve high-quality data
If your marketing strategies are consistently failing, it is time to examine the quality of your data. There is a good chance that the data is outdated or incorrect. According to a Harvard Business Review study, data quality is much worse than most organizations recognize, with only 3% of the data quality scores in the survey rated as “acceptable.”
There is no shortage of data in the digital business world. It is necessary to ensure that the data works for its intended purpose in operation and decision making throughout the lifecycle with the right data quality solution that fits your business.
Integrate disparate data sources
Gathering all of the data and achieving a centralized view will allow you to learn everything there is to know about your company and customers. Manage your data effectively and derive meaningful insights from the information gathered.
For example, if you want to learn everything, there is to know about customer X, such as his purchase history, why they buy your product, how much you spend to retain him, etc. Almost all businesses collect this data through separate departments such as purchasing, marketing, and even chatbot data fragments.
An intelligent data integration solution gathers all the data in a few clicks and provides a unified customer view. It allows you to track the customer throughout the process, which will help you increase customer retention.
Store your data in secured data warehouses and data lakes
Store all the sensitive business information into secured and centralized storage like data warehouses and data lakes. You can now actively support analysis, reporting, and other business intelligence activities by instantly analyzing various data sources gathered in centralized storage.
Small businesses can easily change their niche according to the growing market demand. But to do that, it is essential to have all the data laid out in a secure place. A robust data warehouse and data lake help you quickly analyze all the data, make intelligent decisions and gain a competitive advantage over other players.
Develop accurate data models
Data models provide a clear picture of all your company’s information. It explains the stored data in detail, the relationships between each dataset, and how to group all the required data. You can easily share the data models with all stakeholders to facilitate communication and interpretation.
With the right data modeling solution, you can reduce the error in the data and improve operational efficiency. It plays a vital role in planning IT architecture and supporting business processes. You no longer have to worry about investing a significant amount of time and money every time the business requirements change; the data models can be altered and scaled to meet the needs. You can quickly achieve a clear visual representation of your business requirements and identify gaps and opportunities with well-defined data models.
Data management is for every organization!
Data management is a critical differentiator in any business. Managing all of the data while focusing on all of the other business processes may be difficult. So, at Xtract.io, we understand your company’s needs, customer demands, and the type of data you deal with to provide a powerful yet cost-effective data management solution and make your life easier.
