6 Elements to Build a Strong Data Management System
Data is the backbone of any modern business. It’s used in a variety of ways, all with the purpose of improving some aspect of the business. For example, according to RingLead, 98% of Fortune 500 companies use data to improve the customer experience. However, collecting, maintaining, and utilizing all the data you need isn’t always easy.
It’s essential for any business relying on data to have a strong data management system in place. This will make it easier to collect the data you need, ensure that it gets implemented into your system quickly and that you have an effective way to analyze it. Below we’ll outline 6 elements you should have to build yourself a strong data management system.
Decide on Your Goals
The first order of business is to decide on your goals. What exactly is it you’re looking to do with this data? Are you looking to improve customer satisfaction rates or the efficiency of your employees? You can have as many goals for your data as you’d like, it’s just important that you write them down before beginning to build your data management system. By defining the specific goals you want to achieve with your data management system, you can make better decisions throughout the process that will help lead you to those goals.
Outline Data Processes
Next, you should outline the processes that your data will go through. This includes things like how you will collect your data and how you want to input it into your system. This outline is called a database schema. Designing one is the first step in building the foundation for data management. If the design is ineffective, it can create databases that are heavy consumers of memory and other resources, without a clear definition, difficult to maintain and administer.
Some questions to ask yourself during this step include:
- Who do we need to get data from?
- How will we get our data?
- Who is in charge of entering this data into the database?
- Who else will have access to this data?
- How will we separate the different kinds of data we are collecting?
As you go along, you may need to adjust your database schema due to your specific hardware or software capabilities. However, it’s a good idea to have an outline to work from as you build your database management system, even if you need to end up altering it.
Focus on Security and Data Integrity
Two elements of your database management system to consider from the start are security and data integrity. It’s essential that any data you collect and store within a database is secure. This means unwanted intrusions are blocked and only the right people within your business have the ability to access or alter the data. The last thing you want is to spend months or years developing a comprehensive database that’s essential to your business, only to have some outside actor or disgruntled employee compromise the entire system.
While the security of your database largely depends on the software you use to run it, there are other things you can do to keep it safe. One simple thing you can do is require strong passwords of anyone who has access to the database. Another thing you can do is set different permissions for different database users. For example, allow your marketing manager to access your marketing database but not your employee database. The number of people who have full control over every database should be very limited.
Improve Remote Access
More and more businesses are transitioning to allow their employees to work remotely. If your business has remote workers, or if you think you might one day, it’s important that your remote workers can access the information they need in your databases.
When building your database management system, ensure that it can not only be accessed from employees who are in a different location but that it’s easy to do so. You don’t want your employees to lose their efficiency due to a poor remote database setup.
Regularly Reassess Your Hardware and Software
As your business changes, so too will the needs of your database management system. The perfect database system you set up today may no longer be effective a year from now. It’s important that you regularly assess the hardware and software you’re using to run your database. Some questions to ask include:
- Does it still operate fast enough?
- Is it secure?
- Can it hold enough information for your growing business?
- Are your employees able to use the database without issues?
- Is your team able to use the data efficiently?
If the answer to any of these questions is “No”, then you’ll want to look into upgrading some aspect of your database system.
Have a Recovery Method Ready
Finally, every database management system needs a recovery method ready to go. No matter how careful you are, there may come a time when your database crashes or malfunctions. Maybe the hard drive you’re running it on fails or some outside intruder finds their way past your security. When this happens, you’ll need a system in place to restore your data.
This typically includes creating a backup of your data frequently. How often you need to backup your data depends largely on your business and the data you’re tracking. For example, a business with a small database of just employee information may only need to backup data once a day, while a database full of thousands of customer interactions may need to backup data every hour. In addition to a backup in a safe location, you’ll also need a pre-planned routine for restoring your data from this backup so that your business can get back to operating quickly.
Build a Database Management System You Can Rely On
Data is already likely important to your business but it’s going to become increasingly essential as the years go by. One of the best things you can do to ensure long-term growth for your business is to build yourself a database management system you can rely on. This means building a system that is secure, easy to use, and reliable. By including the elements above, you’ll be well on your way to building a database management system that suits your business perfectly.
