Running a business is often like running a marathon. And just as a marathon runner needs plenty of energy and water to sustain their run, a business relies on data to keep its operations running smoothly. But while the right data can provide a valuable source of fuel for your company, managing it can be just as much of a challenge as managing your hydration during a long-distance race.
You know you need to keep all that important info handy—but how do you do it? Your first instinct might be to simply store everything in one massive folder on your computer. But doing so can make it difficult to find what you need when you need it.
That’s where data management software comes in. Read on for our detailed guide to understanding what exactly data management software and how it can help you stay organized and efficient in your business!
What Is Data Management Software?
Data management software is a tool that helps manage and organize large amounts of data. It’s a broad term that can encompass many different types of software, but its main purpose is to ensure data is organized, easily accessible, and consistent. It also provides an interface for users to browse data, query it, modify it as necessary, and take action with it.
4 Important Features of Data Management Software
Data Quality
Having a clear view of your data is critical to any business operation. This means having an accurate and complete build of all the data assets in your company’s possession, where they are stored, how they are being used, and who has access to them. Determining what those assets are allows you to prioritize which ones require protection and for whom.
Data Control
You need to know exactly where your sensitive information is located and who has access to it at all times. Your data management platform should offer a dashboard that shows you the state of your entire data ecosystem across every department, with each employee’s security clearance, displayed clearly and easily understood by everyone on your team.
Data Security
Once you know what assets require protection, you will want the ability to enforce stringent measures on them – restricting access according to role or department or ensuring certain documents can only be accessed by certain individuals or groups – with the ability to change or revoke those permissions instantaneously whenever necessary.
Risk Management
The ultimate goal of most strategies is risk mitigation through prevention rather than damage control after the fact via insurance claims or expensive legal battles resulting from lawsuits brought against your company due to negligence when it comes time for compliance audits from regulators like FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority).
3 Examples of Data Management Software
Data warehousing: Data warehouses are different kinds of data management software. The main purpose of data warehouses is to store historical information that companies can use to create business reports, forecasts, and metrics such as sales reports, financial statements, etc.
Data analytics: Data analytics solutions allow users to analyze their data once it’s been collected and stored in a database. This type of software makes it much easier for people to fully understand the meaning behind their data. They can create graphs, charts, and other visualizations that help them draw conclusions about the information they have on hand.
Data compliance: A part of managing your data is also ensuring that you’re using it safely and legally. As businesses gather more information about customers, users, and employees for analytical purposes, there are legal restrictions on how long you can hold onto this information and what types of things you’re not allowed to know or share publicly. To stay in line with those rules when handling your data management operations, you may choose to purchase a compliance tool or work with an external provider who offers their own solution for keeping your business compliant with the laws in your area.
Data management is crucial for your business
Data management software is crucial for organizations to successfully manage data sets. They are designed to meet the specific needs of individual companies and thus should not be used as a universal solution. It can be difficult to navigate all the features of a data management tool, but there are resources that exist to help you determine what kind of software will best serve your business.