Data sits at the core of modern business. When information enters an organisation from many different sources, the chances of disparate, fragmented data can be high.
Unified data management solves this common business headache by collating data into one unified source of truth. When data is centrally located, it can result in several impactful benefits.
Throughout this blog post, we explore these benefits and how you and your organisation can successfully leverage unified data management.
Defining unified data management
Unified data management (UDM) is a comprehensive approach to integrating and managing your organisation's data from various platforms and systems. The process has a clear goal — to create a consistent and accurate view of your data, ultimately helping you make better business decisions.
Performing UDM consolidates siloed data into a single data warehouse that gives you an overall view of information, enabling you to use it more effectively. It also promotes cross-department collaboration by utilising a central data repository in which all company data is stored, actioned, and analysed.
With UDM, your organisation can benefit from faster decision-making, improved operational efficiency, and heightened data integrity.
How does UDM work within an organisation?
Implementing UDM processes involves integrating your data sources and platforms into a single data management framework. For this to be successful, your organisation will need to combine several areas of your existing data management practices into one simple repository.
Imagine you work for a large retail company with hundreds of stores and a strong online presence. Your company would naturally collect vast amounts of data through in-store sales, online purchases, and customer feedback.
Data flowing into your business from several entry points and departments using various systems would easily lead to fragmented data. This is where unified data management plays a crucial role.
UDM integrates your disparate data from various sources into a data warehouse, allowing different departments to utilise and benefit from the data available across the entire business.
Using the tools supplied by a unified data platform, your company could implement a rigorous and efficient data cleansing process to remove duplicates and correct errors, define data ownership, and analyse consumer trends.
The benefits of unified data management
Consolidating your data in a centralised data warehouse can lead to several benefits for your organisation.
Improved data quality
Unified data platforms leverage automated processes, reducing the errors and inconsistencies associated with manual data entry. A robust solution will improve your data accuracy and quality, supplying you with reliable data on which to base business decisions.
Increased efficiency
Removing the need for manual data entry improves company efficiency and data quality. Alongside faster data entry, having data located in a central repository simplifies data access and retrieval. This time adds up and will free up significant space for more value-added activities like data analysis and customer engagement.
Business and customer trend analysis
Having your data in one central location also facilitates more straightforward business and customer trend analysis. UDM makes your data far more accessible and usable, allowing you to quickly identify market patterns and increase your business’ revenue.
Revenue growth
Spending less time manipulating data before you can use it allows you to make better business decisions quickly and use additional time on activities that proactively drive business growth.
Minimised data volume and reduced duplication
UDM works to minimise your organisation's data volume. Data is processed and stored in one central location, making it far easier to manage. A successful UDM strategy allows you to consolidate your data from multiple sources, reduce the risk of data duplication and provide a single source of truth for your departments.
Reduced costs
UDM can reduce your business costs in several ways. You'll have the benefit of fewer duplications or data silos that often result in costly errors — and you can reduce your cloud or physical storage too.
Added compliance
Data is vital. With this comes many regulations businesses must adhere to in order to stay compliant. UDM ensures the data your organisation holds will remain secure, as data storage rules are automatically applied to everything within your UDM system.
This will help you avoid costly non-compliance fines and remain a trusted business to your customers.
The components of successful UDM
Successful unified data management boils down to robust data integration, high-quality data management, governance, security and analytics.
First, you'll need to collate your data into one unified view from varying sources; however, this can be daunting when you have lots of data.
You’ll need to ensure your UDM system facilitates the easy import of data and allows data storage in the structure and format you need so you don’t spend ages manipulating data formats.
Then, you’ll need to rely on some automation. Automation can help with data governance by cleansing data to remove manual errors. It also means you can take specific actions based on your data as it changes and free up time to do more value-added tasks. Any reputable UDM system will have an automation engine built in.
You’ll also need a way to analyse and leverage your data to make big business decisions. Your UDM system should offer the ability to view data and build dashboards so you don’t have to move your data into another tool to analyse it en masse.
The Starhive difference
Looking to gain a complete view of your business data, improve business decisions and enhance performance? Want to strengthen team collaboration, improve data quality and benefit from a single source of truth?
Starhive is the unified data management solution of the future. With unparalleled flexibility, a powerful automation engine, and comprehensive dashboards, you’ll have everything you need to take your data further.
Join us on our journey to shape the journey of unified data management. Sign up for a free Starhive account below and start managing your data in a better way.
