Data has been compared to oil, gold, and even land to encourage businesses to treat it like the asset that it is. Nevertheless, data is still seen as an intangible asset whose value cannot be fully accounted for. A major reason for this is a lack of proper data governance automation.
Data governance goes beyond data management and instead considers the entire data cycle, starting with assessment and valuation, and proceeding to investments and data utilization. Without the proper tools, you’ll have data chaos instead of data opportunities. Fortunately, data intelligence and automation can help organize your data and maximize its value.
6 Advantages of Automated Data Governance
Traditional data management often involves multiple databases that fail to interact with one another, redundant and wasteful backups, and human intervention that can lead to errors and even security breaches. Automated data platforms resolve these problems and provide numerous benefits for your company. Here are just a few of the biggest advantages to using an automated system.
1. Automatic Optimization Eliminates Silos
Data silos, where a data set is accessible only by one department or branch of an organization, limit productivity and increase redundancy. Silos are the result of using numerous applications, each with their own set of data. In a 2016 survey, more than 50% of the respondents reported using up to 200 applications on their networks. This can lead to a problem known as ROT data.
ROT data is redundant, outdated, or trivial data. When dozens of applications are in use, they often create their own data sets, leading to redundancy. Subsequently, programs that are used more frequently will have up-to-date information, while others may end up with outdated data. This leads to confusion and the need to manually verify which data set is correct.
An automated system can take data from various storage locations and applications and compile it into a single unified hub. Intelligence can parse data and categorize it accordingly through simple analysis. Conflicting data can then be quickly resolved.
2. Minimize Employee Hours and Frustrations
Data and privacy specialists represent a large part of a business’ personnel costs. Simply automating the process of data collection can slash personnel hours by over 90%. In addition, automating data processes enables your employees to spend more time understanding the data and putting it to use, rather than wasting time searching for data and compiling it.
How serious is this problem? Forbes reported on a CrowdFlower study that showed data scientists spend nearly 60% of their time cleaning and organizing data. This limits the time they can spend on more important tasks, such as mining data for patterns or improving algorithms. It’s also bad for morale, as data scientists agree that cleaning data is the most agonizing part of their work.
3. Automate Compliance with Data Classification
By using an automated system designed with these regulations in mind, you can save your company the hassle of ensuring that all of its data sets are up to code. You can also quickly determine what data is subject to which legislation and provide prompt responses to consumers who ask for data reports or request their data to be blocked from sale to third parties.
The costs of running afoul of these laws are many, and preventing them should be one of your top priorities going forward.
4. Simplify Data Management
Not only does an automated system allow you to find all your data in one convenient place, regardless of where it’s stored, it also solves the problem of dealing with backups and local copies taken from the cloud. These are common causes of ROT data. The Aparavi Platform will scour through all of your organization’s dispersed data, identifying outdated versions of files so you know what to keep and what to throw away.
Redundant backups that rarely get used hog up significant resources. With intelligent tagging and reporting, you’ll be able to keep more of your server space free or decide which data to move to cheaper storage tiers. Your IT department will likewise have more time available to worry about more important tasks.
5. Connect Your Own Applications
Once your data is neatly organized in one central location, you can connect your own applications using Aparavi’s open API. This allows your team to build its own tools or use existing ones with our platform. You can seamlessly transition to a cloud-based platform without having to completely reinvent your data analysis tools.
6. Save Money and Earn More
Ultimately, the goal of any investment should be to get a good return. Investing in a data platform to simplify data governance for an organization not only cuts costs, but it also enables more earnings.
Amplify earnings by using data to forecast demand, identify locations for expansion, and improve customer retention and satisfaction. How you use data will vary depending on the nature of your company, but the evidence is clear: big data equals big profits.
Change How You Govern Your Data Now
If your business is still stuck managing data the traditional way, it’s time to make a change. Contact Aparavi to find out how our cloud-based, automated data intelligence platform can take your data chaos and turn it into a valuable asset. Simplify your data management, ensure compliance with modern regulations, and speed up your operations by making the switch to smart data now.