While corporate data is growing exponentially, the need for data intelligence is growing just as fast, if not faster. Do you feel that your organization has sufficient insight into its data? Not only can it be very costly if you are not compliant with data regulations, but you run the risk of falling behind your competition and losing valuable revenue if they are better able to leverage the data than you are.
According to Forrester, companies that take advantage of data insights grow at an average of 30% each year, and as a category these companies are predicted to earn $1.8 trillion by next year. Here are six data intelligence trends your company can’t afford to ignore.
6 Trends in Data Intelligence to Watch
1. Data Privacy
Data privacy has been an especially hot topic since the EU’s GDPR went into effect in May 2018, and other countries quickly followed suit, creating their own data privacy laws. The California Consumer Privacy Act implements similar measures for California residents and affects businesses worldwide. Brazil’s General Data Protection Law is in the process of being implemented. As cybersecurity attacks become increasingly common and companies continue to explore big data analytics, consumers want to understand what data companies are collecting about them and have control over that data.
These countries and laws are just the beginning of what we will see in the years to come. It is vital that you are on top of the applicable laws that would govern your business and that you are able to comply with the requirements. The fines for being out of compliance are big enough to force many organizations out of business altogether.
Data intelligence tools like The Aparavi Platform make it easier than ever to find and understand your files so you can ensure compliance with data privacy regulations. A true data intelligence solution allows you to search in-file content and metadata fields, make use of pre-defined classification policies and global patterns, and quickly respond to consumers’ DSAR (data subject access rights) or other information requests.
2. Data Governance
Not only do you need proper data governance to remain in compliance with data privacy laws, but improper data governance can also lead to massive inefficiencies in your business.
The last thing that you want is for individual teams within your organization to determine how metrics are defined. You may end up with incompatible data because teams have defined metrics in slightly different ways. Without proper data governance, it is easy for your data to quickly become unmanageable, and you will end up paying for these inefficiencies eventually. Invest in good governance from the beginning to avoid unnecessary costs in the future.
Automating your data governance will remove inconsistencies and human error and ensure that your data stays clean and free of errors, which can happen quite often if you are pulling in data from 3rd party platforms. In addition, an intelligence and automation platform like Aparavi can create a single source of truth and make sure that the data is utilized in a uniform manner across your organization.
3. Integrated Platforms
If you are unable to connect your data together, it will be less meaningful to your business. You will end up missing out on opportunities because you’re unable to connect the dots effectively across business units, products, or customer types.
If you already have a lot of data in disparate systems, a data intelligence platform like Aparavi can break through silos and index your files in one searchable data lake. The resulting data insights can pay off in other areas of your business as well, reducing costs and increasing profitability.
4. Data Automation
Data automation has become increasingly important for any company managing large volumes of unstructured data, particularly because we’re seeing data grow at astonishing rates. As we calculated in a previous post, if a team of file reviewers had to manually go through a single petabyte of files and do a basic risk analysis, it would take a team of 100 employees more than 86 years to look through every file—and that doesn’t account for the rapid rate of data growth over those years.
As it stands, according to a CrowdFlower study, data scientists spend nearly 60% of their time cleaning and organizing data, time that could be devoted to more meaningful tasks if they were able to automate more of their data management processes. In addition, IDC estimates that 80% of corporate data is actually ROT (redundant, obsolete or trivial), which could be archived (in accordance with data retention policies) or defensibly deleted.
While a speedy human may be able to process 60 files per hour, full automation can process up to one million files per hour. Regardless of how fast your business is growing, automation enables you to keep your data under control.
5. Business Insights
Data analytics for business insights may not seem like a recent trend, but the fact is many businesses are still relying on basic reporting to drive business decisions without extracting real insights from the data. If you don’t know what data you have, you can’t begin to perform meaningful analysis or make informed business decisions. Many companies have files stored in massive, indecipherable blocks or know only the most basic file details, like file size and name.
True analysis goes beyond basic reporting and answers “why?” and “what next?”. With the amount of data available to today’s businesses, an analysis should be able to answer these questions across all corporate data, not just a small subset, to intelligently inform their next steps.
Many organizations today are seeking better ways to gain insights into their data. Data intelligence applications shed light on your data so you can develop a better understanding of what you own and ask those deeper “why?” and “what next?” questions.
6. Data Visualization
A data intelligence platform like Aparavi can make reporting on the enterprise data set easier than ever. Aparavi’s dashboard allows you to create and collect reports about the data intelligence you and your company need, and our easy-to-use report query builder takes your selected data fields and generates smart reports, enabling you to make better decisions about your data.
This could mean faster business decisions, more funding opportunities, or better presentations to Wall Street. The tools are available to make data accessible and understandable to everyone, and the companies that can best visualize the data will be leaps and bounds ahead of the pack.
Data intelligence no longer means a few slides with bar charts or line graphs. Companies collect and store massive amounts of data on their business and their consumers, and it is vital that the data is utilized in intelligent ways. In addition to staying on top of data privacy and data governance, there are tools available to help businesses integrate, extract insights, and visualize data in meaningful ways.
If your business is looking to take the next step in taking control of your data to ensure it is delivering the most value possible, Aparavi has solutions to meet your needs. Contact us to learn about how The Aparavi Platform can keep you at the forefront of data intelligence.