Handling a Precious Resource: The Importance of Good Data Management

At the 2009 Technology conference in Lake Tahoe, CA, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously said  that every two days the world creates as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until  2003!

During his speech at the Google Cloud Next 2017 conference, Schmidt emphasized that data is a precious resource. Using the computing power available today combined with the ability to collect data that had previously been unobtainable has made data more important than almost any other commodity on Earth. Schmidt explained, "He who has the data can do the analytics and the algorithms ... the scale that we talked about will provide huge nation-state benefits, in terms of global companies and benefits for their citizens.” (View quote source here)

The ability to collect, analyze and use data is rapidly becoming a differentiator in the marketplace. Tech giants like Yahoo, Google, Facebook and many others derive their value by using data to attract audiences, track, analyze and predict consumer preferences and behavior. The benefits of data for other businesses may take the form of factory floor insights, productivity metrics or the ability to analyze financial data. Furthermore, the volume of data is increasing rapidly. The growth in unstructured data is putting pressure on organizations for retaining, structuring and deriving  insights to gain a competitive edge.

Here's an example of the importance of good data management. Hospitals regularly collect data such as patient blood types, date of diagnosis, prescribed medicines, etc. However, there may not be a standard process followed or a defined structure for collecting and storing patient data.

Collecting patient data manually and keeping it properly organized is challenging and can have grave consequences. Manually searching for and compiling medical data can delay time-critical, life altering treatments.

This may be an extreme example of the value of good data management and collection, but the consequences of a bad process play out differently in different businesses. The bottom line is that organizations, regardless of size and industry, must have an effective data management and data integration process.

Businesses tend to have silos of information stored in different software and applications across various line of businesses. The data is often inconsistent and not easily shared within or outside the organization. A proper data integration and management strategy will help organizations avoid human errors and save time and effort. The most mature data management processes provide effective and actionable insights.

A proper data integration tool like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) helps organizations remove the disparity among silos of information and retrieve and analyze data. This results in better decisions for the right audience at the right time.

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