What are the challenges that businesses confront with data management, and how can they be addressed?
Data management challenges can affect a host of concerns. Poor risk management decisions, data loss, data breaches, illegal access, data silos, noncompliance with legislation, an unregulated environment, limited number of resources, and so on are examples of these.
Businesses all around the globe are becoming increasingly reliant on data to operate their day-to-day operations and make educated business decisions. With so much data being created, it has become challenging to manage data throughout the enterprise, which may be dispersed over different geolocations and using tens of business lines applications.
Implementing best practices for DM can help organization overcoming the challenges associated with it. In addition, organizations should also follow the latest data management trends to get the most out of their most essential asset.
We are all aware that data is the new oil for any organization. Unlocking its worth may result in tremendous opportunities for companies, which is why it is vital to have well-defined plans in place in order to face the most difficult challenges that data management implies.
In this post, we will look at the most common data management challenges, pain points, and how to solve them.
Top 11 Data Management Challenges
Companies invest significant money and time in developing reliable decision support systems in order to make timely business decisions. The quality and availability of data have a direct impact on a company’s decision-making approach and the outcome of its operations.
In order to accomplish so, company owners are frequently confronted with a slew of challenges while working with data, some of which are described below:
1- Sheer volume of data
Every day, it is estimated that 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created, and guess what? The majority of this data is generated by various types of enterprises. As a result, the organization now faces new challenges in terms of obtaining, maintaining, and generating value from data.
The more data is collected, the more monitoring and validation would be required and the hardest it becomes to manage the full lifecycle of data.
By effectively managing them, they may gain a better understanding of consumer behavior and market trends, allowing them to make more forceful decisions, enhance processes, improve their marketing campaigns, and optimize products and services.
Typically dealing with data introduces challenges such as data categorization, raw data processing, data accuracy, and so on arise.
A skilled team equipped with the appropriate tools and technology may assist in controlling and managing the exponential expansion of data created or gathered.
The trick is to comprehend the data itself. How is it created? What is it used for? What are its applications? How accurate is the data? Is a single point in time value more essential than a trend value over time? what are the elements of data management?
2- Multiple data storages
This is one of the most significant challenges that businesses confront. Enterprises may end up with tens of business solutions, each with its own data repository, such as databases, CRM software, ERP, and so on.
Having this much data storage poses a significant barrier that must be addressed appropriately in order to evaluate and handle it.
When data is kept in separate siloed systems, it is difficult to identify and consolidate in a universal data platform to speed up data-driven choices.
Creating a single source of truth for your data by removing data silos and linking data from consumers, products, and suppliers should be an organization’s top focus. This can be achieved by setting up a well-defined DM strategy and plan.
3- Data quality
Data quality is one of the most obstacles confronting many companies today. Most businesses utilize a database to update information, however maintaining data quality becomes difficult while processing or recording information.
At the end of the day, you must get rid of unnecessary data while retaining high-quality and accurate data that your business will most likely require to function.
Always keep in mind that not all data is created equal!
Data saved in your systems, like any other resource, may be out of date, incorrect, or malfunctioning. Making judgments based on this sort of data might result in your firm losing a lot of money every year.
As a result, it is critical to have adequate data quality monitoring standards in place to guarantee that choices are based on reliable data.
4- Lack of processes and systems
When data is gathered from many sources, inconsistency in the data is unavoidable. Inadequate DM processes and systems contribute to inaccurate data. As a result of the insufficient amount of data, the data is of poor quality and does not fulfill the criteria.
5- Data integration
This is one of the most common DM problems and pain points.
The ultimate purpose of having quality ready data is to have it available for further analysis and processing by other business intelligence tools in order to deliver it to senior management for more informed decision making.
The ability to effortlessly integrate this data with the many tools available will simplify your life and help you speed up the processing step.
6- Lack of skilled resources
There is a severe lack of experienced specialists available for immediate recruitment. In reality, these skilled professionals often have larger pay packages since they are required in any firm that has to maintain strong control and management of their data.
Training entry-level personnel will be costly for a firm that works with new technology, and they must do an excellent job of retaining these people after they have mastered this skill set.
Organizations are increasingly depending on automation, which includes cognitive technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to produce data-driven insights.
7- Data governance
Data governance is in charge of establishing rules and regulations for an organization’s information state. A data governance framework is comparable to a constitution in that it aids in the implementation of policies, rules, and laws for data-related procedures.
In order to comply with industry-specific or federal norms and regulations, an organization-wide data governance plan should be in place.
Read more about the difference between DM and data governance.
8- Data security
It is a significant challenge that causes concern among organizations. When compared to other data-related concerns, it is one of the most difficult hurdles for them and should be planned for in any DM policy to be applied.
Data is a very valuable asset that is gathered after careful study and resource allocation. It contains sensitive information that might be harmful to both the company and the responders in a variety of ways.
Properly safeguarding your data using cutting-edge technology and knowing how and by whom this data may be accessed would undoubtedly aid in avoiding data breaches. That’s why some organizations couldn’t manage their data on the cloud and prefer on-premises.
Encryption management necessitates the use of data security professionals. Its mission is to prevent illegal access and to search for any unintentional movement, deletion, or other impending impediments.
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What is Data Risk Management? Why You Should Care? (theecmconsultant.com)
9- Data automation
Collecting, collecting, and categorizing this data is a massive effort that cannot be completed manually. This is where data automation comes into play.
Without requiring much human participation, the procedure streamlines the whole cycle from collection to analysis. However, necessary knowledge is still required, otherwise, the entire endeavor would be futile.
10- Data analysis
Even if the data is of excellent quality, it has little relevance in its raw form. The advent of technology is assisting in the analysis of data, but many obstacles remain, such as operating the tool without mistakes, extracting data methodically, and so on.
There are several complex tools available to assist your company in importing data and temporarily manipulating it in order to evaluate it depending on specified parameters.
11- Going from unstructured to structured Data
According to existing studies, more than 80% of data collected is unstructured, which is a major problem.
The ability to convert unstructured data into structured data is the real thing. When data is first acquired, it is typically dispersed and unstructured. To derive value from such data, businesses must mine through it and analyze it before it can be used.
Conclusion
Avoid common challenges that organizations face by looking at these obsticles and how to overcome them.
FAQ
What is the key challenge of managing data?
The key challenge of managing data is the sheer volume of data. In the era of digital data, we are generating more and more data every day. It is not just the volume that poses a challenge but also the variety. We have different types of data such as structured, semi-structured, and unstructured.
Why is it difficult to manage data?
Managing data can be difficult because there are many different ways in which data can come into existence. Data can come from different sources like social media, IoT devices, sensors, databases, and more. There are also many different formats that data comes in such as structured or unstructured formats and raw or processed formats.
