Before we move forward, it’s important to know why Enterprise Data Management is key to every business.
Think back to the last time you ordered something from a retail website. As a customer, you created an account, chose the products you wanted to buy, entered your payment information, and then sat back to wait for your order to arrive. A pretty simple process that most of us undertake on a regular basis. However, from the retailer’s perspective, your order sets all kind of processes in motion and all of those processes create valuable data.
Your order creates data that marketing can use to promote new products, instructions for the warehouse that will fulfill the order who will then let their suppliers know that they need more items, shipping information so you can receive your order, and payment information that helps the company track its revenue.
Every step of the process generates data that the company can use to benefit the business in ways other than just fulfilling your order. Customer insights help marketing improve the effectiveness of their campaigns, which increase revenue. Forecasting made more accurate through data helps mitigate risks within the company. The same data could reveal inefficiencies in business processes that, when addressed, may help reduce costs.
The value generated from an enterprise’s data is limited only by the effectiveness of the enterprise’s data management. If the data isn’t properly collected, stored, organized, and analyzed, none of the value can be captured. That’s where Enterprise Data Management comes in.