What is data management? Today we are going to take a look at data management and discuss why it is important.
Blue-Pencil has served over 6,000 organizations including small, medium to larger businesses, as well as Fortune 500 companies with their data management needs and we’d love to help you too!
We’ll take a closer look at what data management includes, why it’s important, and how you can find help with it. Let’s get started!
What Is Data Management?
So what is data management? Data management involves collecting, storing, organizing, protecting, verifying, and processing essential data and making it available to your organization.
Data management includes the following topics:
– data security
– data destruction
– data reference and master data management
– data warehousing and business intelligence management
– document and record storage
– records management
– data governance
– data architecture
– database management
– data quality management
– contact data management systems
If you need to build a data management plan, here is a great free resource from the University of California.
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Why Is Data Management Important?
“What is data management?” – an important question to answer and to deal with
Your Organization’s Data Is a Valuable Resource
Data management is important because the data your organization creates is a very valuable resource. The last thing you want to do is spend time and resources collecting data and business intelligence, only to lose or misplace that information. In that case, you would then have to spend time and resources again to get that same business intelligence you already had.
The Amount of Data Makes It Difficult to Manage
The effective management of data within any organization has grown in importance in recent years as organizations are subject to an increasing number of compliance regulations, large increases in information storage capacity, and the sheer amount of data and documents being generated by organizations. This rate of growth is not expected to slow down – International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts the amount of information generated will increase 10-fold by 2025. These large sums of data from ERP systems, CRM systems, and general business documents is often referred to as big data.
Losing Your Data Could Be a Disaster for Your Company
93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately. (National Archives & Records Administration in Washington). Having a strong data management plan is very important for the success of your company. Below are a few other benefits of a strong data management plan.
Importance of Data Management – Summary
The Benefits of Good Data Management
Data Management Will Increase Your Productivity
Good data management will make your organization more productive. On the flip side, poor data management will lead to your organization being very inefficient. Good data management:
- Makes it easier for your employees to find and understand the information that they need to do their job.
- Allows your staff to easily validate results or conclusions they may have.
- Provides the structure for information to be easily shared with others
- Allows information to be stored for future reference and easy retrieval.
Data Management Will Make Your Business More Cost-Efficient
Another benefit of proper data management is that it can make your organization more cost-efficient. This is because it will allow your organization to avoid unnecessary duplication. By storing and making all data easily referable it ensures you never have employees conducting the same research, analysis, or work that has already been completed by another employee.
Data Management Will Give Your Business Operational Nimbleness
Proper data management will help your staff access information faster
The speed at which a company can make decisions and change direction is a key factor in determining how successful a company can be. If a company takes too long to react to the market or its competitors it can spell disaster for the company.
With a good data management system, your employees will be able to access information and be notified of market or competitor changes faster. As a result, your company will be able to make decisions and take action significantly faster than companies who have poor data management and data sharing systems.
Data Management Will Help Reduce Security Risks
There are multiple risks if your data is not managed properly and your information falls into the hands of the wrong people. For example, electronics giant Sony was prey to computer attacks which led to the theft of over 77 million PlayStation users’ bank details. A strong data management system will greatly reduce the risk of this ever happening to your organization.
Data Management Will Reduce Data Loss
A proper data management system will reduce the risk of losing vital information
With a data management system and plan in place that all your employees know and follow, you can greatly reduce the risk of losing vital information. With a data management plan measures will be in place to ensure that important information is backed up and retrievable from a secondary source if the primary source is ever inaccessible.
Data Management Will Help You Make More Accurate Decisions
Many organizations use different sources of information for planning, trends analysis, and managing performance. Within an organization, different employees may even use different sources of information to perform the same task if there is no data management process and they are unaware of the correct information source to use.
The value of information is only as good as the information source. This means that decision makers across the organization are often analyzing different numbers in order to make decisions that will affect the company, and result in poor or inaccurate conclusions without a data management system in place. Data entry errors, conclusion errors, and processing inefficiencies are all risks for companies that don’t have a strong data management plan and system.
The High Risk of Having an Inadequate Data Management Plan
The corrective costs of inadequate data management can be significant and can run into millions of dollars from a single occurrence. The primary reasons for bad data and data loss are that there is no data management system or plan in place, or the plan or system is of poor quality. The unfortunate part is that often the organization is unaware of this until after an issue arises. Instead of being proactive, most organizations are reactive, which in the long run costs them significantly more.
When Is The Right Time To Review Your Data Management?
Don’t wait to review your data management system
There is no right time other than right away! You do not want to have an information leak with your business. Data management is an issue you cannot afford to put on the back burner as the consequences are costly. The right time to review and implement a data management system if you have not already done so is right away. If you already have a system in place then reviewing annually is recommended.
Should You Get Outside Assistance With Data Management?
There are many benefits to getting outside assistance with your data management. For one, an outside firm that specializes in data management will be more of an expert than your internal resources. This can bring added safety to your organization. In addition, it is usually less costly as an outside firm that specializes in data management can obtain economies of scale.
Make a commitment today to put a strong data management plan and system in place. If you would like assistance in this matter, contact one of our experts and they will put you in contact with the right resources to get a strong data management plan and process in place.
How Blue-Pencil Can Help with Your Data Management
Blue-Pencil can provide your organization with comprehensive data management services. We serve medical offices, private schools, therapists, legal offices, and any other type of organization that keeps data. Our data management services are state-of-the-art and will give your organization the high security and organization that you need.
Let Blue-Pencil help you with your data management
Blue-Pencil’s data management services include:
- Long-term secure document storage
- High and low volume document archive
- Emergency retrieval and delivery
- Digital delivery options available
- 24/7 security and alarm monitoring
Active File Management
- Storage for frequently accessed files
- Immediate record retrieval
- All files coded and indexed
- On-site or off-site file room management
- Physical or digital delivery options
Vital Records Protection
- Most critical records protection
- Secure, climate-controlled storage vaults
- 24/7 alarms and monitoring
- Storage conditions based on material type
- Shared storage options available
- Blue-Pencil Plus+ online system
- Central records management portal
- Locate records, request retrievals and more
- Run reports, post policies and resources
- Secure and controlled user access
Custom & Special Solutions
- Custom solutions based on client’s needs
- Records management consulting services
- File indexing and coding
- Backfile scanning
- Secure document destruction
Document Storage Supplies
- Durable, high-quality storage supplies
- Withstand long-term storage and handling
- Quick delivery
Contact Blue-Pencil today. We’ll work with you to provide you with a total records management solution to help you overcome the challenges of managing your vast amount of data.
Blue-Pencil’s Office Shredding Program
In addition to our data management services, Blue-Pencil can also provide you with secure shredding services to ensure that your sensitive records and documents are safely and properly disposed of.
Shredding documents can consume a lot of your staff’s valuable time – time that they could use in other pursuits to help your business thrive.
You can trust Blue-Pencil to properly and securely shred your sensitive documents
Outsourcing your shredding needs to a professional company like Blue-Pencil, who knows how to properly dispose of the private information that you have collected from your customers and staff can free up your employees and take that stress from them. Blue-Pencil can take care of your document destruction process for you.
Our unique and efficient paper shredding services begin with a full assessment of your current policies and procedures for security, legal compliance, and cost-efficiency. Next, we will give you a complimentary assessment and will provide you with a report that includes recommended actions as well as our custom program proposal. Learn more about our secure shredding services here.
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– Mozelle, a Blue-Pencil Customer
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Sources:
http://searchdatamanagement.techtarget.com/definition/data-management
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_management
http://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/research-support/data-management/why-manage-data
http://hubdesignsmagazine.com/2012/08/20/the-importance-of-data-management-for-business-people-by-lyndsay-wise/
https://dechatts.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/why-is-data-so-important-to-an-organization/