What is data management?

As your company grows, you will need to take advantage of new ways to reach out to customers. To do this, you will have to utilize data in such a way that you get the most out of the kind of data you have collected. But how does a firm do something like that?

Data management is the process by which companies find ways to maximize the return on the data they’ve collected. Data management looks into the activities of clients and employees and comes up with strategies to optimize the use of the resultant data.

HOW DOES DATA MANAGEMENT WORK?

Data management as a service for businesses began in the 1960s with the growth of data processing systems such as computers. Data management firms weed through a company’s aggregated data on customer and administrator habits to find out what data is useable and what isn’t.

After this data is retrieved, data management firms will come up with strategies for utilizing useful data based on their client company’s stated goals. This process goes on from the moment data is collected to the moment it is finally used, and occurs across the board for all forms of data.

Data managers also work with policies and laws regarding data usage to find out how a company’s data can best be used within a given framework of restrictions. For example, if a certain state were to bar companies from tracking client browsing habits, data managers would find ways to collect and use useful data without violating this restriction.

Data managers also make sure that data is ready for analysis. Data can often come in cumbersome and sometimes unintelligible forms. From pages and pages of data points to endless files, raw data is often difficult to read and interpret.

Managers take this data and format it in such a way that business owners with minimal training can put it to work without contacting additional firms.

WHY DO COMPANIES NEED DATA MANAGEMENT?

In an age of information, being able to gather and interpret information about markets, buyers, and business activities can be life or death for certain businesses. Firms hire data management companies so that they can capitalize on useful data and avoid bad strategies with low payouts.

If data is organized or used in inefficient ways, companies can lose big. Incomplete data means an incomplete view of your company’s state of affairs, and missing out on important trends within and without your company can mean big holes in your strategies.

IBM estimates say that improperly used or incorrect data will cost the US economy around 3.1 trillion dollars in an average year. This translates to lots of individual privately owned firms losing big on bad data.

The presidential election of 2016 is a recent example of the widespread use of bad data. Trusted sources such as the New York Times fell victim to improperly collected and interpreted data, which caused them to make inaccurate predictions about the outcome of the election.

Companies avoid flubs like this by hiring data management firms.

WHAT KINDS OF INDUSTRIES USE DATA MANAGEMENT?

Industries across the board use data management to ferret out the strategies that will bring big returns. From manufacturing to government, anyone with a need for intelligible, efficient data can take advantage of the services data management firms offer.

In government, data management is used to prevent fraud and increase the efficiency of local services like roads, water, and public health. Knowing your constituency is the first step to serving them, whether your organization is public or private.

In the manufacturing industry, data is used to efficiently manage inventory and prioritize data. Manufacturing data is changed from an unstructured mess of various data points to a highly intelligible aggregation of efficient business analytics.

Social media companies use data management to interpret user behaviors and optimize platform experience. When you see ads that fit your interests and draw you in, it’s because a bit of efficient data management has gone on somewhere up the chain.

HOW MUCH DOES DATA MANAGEMENT COST?

Data management service costs can change depending on various factors. Some data management firms are targeted at smaller buyers and upstart businesses. These firms often charge monthly fees ranging from $500 to $6000.

Providers also often charge set-up fees, which cover the costs of establishing an in-depth and comprehensive knowledge of your business’s database and practices. These costs give firms the funds they need to establish a foundation for their work and usually cost about the same as a monthly payment.

Data management costs will depend on the requested features and services in a data management plan. If a business is small and requires minimal data management to operate successfully- for example, a local flower shop or restaurant- data management costs will be very low.

If a company is exceedingly large and data aggregation a cantankerous task, plans can run up into the high thousands. Business size and the size of your database are key. Bigger businesses with more data to analyze will need additional functionalities and deeper pockets.

THE BENEFITS OF DATA MANAGEMENT

Data management helps business owners catch trends as they evolve, and create comprehensive and adaptive business strategies that work with the ever-changing business environment.

Companies that hire data managers can discuss data in new and previously inaccessible ways, and gain huge advantages. Whether you’re a small local business, a huge megacorporation, or not a company at all, you have ample reasons to get a team of efficient data management professionals to back up your strategies.

SUMMARY

To sum all of this up, data management is a means of parsing through data and integrating it in such a way that companies don’t have to lose on missed opportunities. Data can often come in disorganized and inefficient piles, and data management firms work to sort through these piles and pull out the cream of the crop- data that can be used to strategize and produce a profit for a company.