9 Data Management Best Practices

Data management is one of the most important aspects of any business. By ensuring that data is properly collected, organized, and analyzed, businesses can make informed decisions that will help them reach their goals. Unfortunately, many companies do not have a formal data management process in place, which can lead to chaos and confusion. In this article, we will discuss some best practices for data management within your business and how these data management best practices can help you streamline your data processes and improve decision-making.

 What is data management?

Data management is the practice of collecting, organizing, protecting, and storing an organization’s data so that it can be analyzed for business decisions. Businesses of all types and sizes are using data management in their day-to-day operations, whether they know it or not.

Data is the lifeblood of any business. It helps you understand your customers, track your sales, and make better decisions. However, managing data can be a challenge, especially if you don’t have a formal data management process in place.

Best practices in data management

Want to know how to best establish a data management plan so you can get the most out of your data? Follow these tips to set up a data foundation that works across your business. 

1. Establish a data governance plan. One of the first things you need to do is put together a data governance plan. Data governance is the application of data management in business. A data governance plan is a document that should outline who is responsible for data management within your company, as well as how data will be collected, organized, and accessed. By having a clear plan in place, you can ensure that everyone in your company is on the same page when it comes to data management.
   
   Once you have a governance plan in place, you can start thinking about how a BI tool can help you implement your data management strategies.
2. Keep track of what data you are collecting and why. Understanding the data your business uses is an important step in any data management process. Different departments throughout the organization will rely on different data sources in order to perform their job functions. It’s important to establish a central location that outlines all the different data sources your company is using.
3. Build a data dictionary. Data dictionaries outline the different types of data your business is using, where that data is located, how it is stored, and the structure or schema of it.
   
   With a data dictionary in place, you can work with departments to understand why the data you’re collecting is important. Some data such as a customer database from your CRM are absolutely essential for certain departments. Other sources may not quite be as relevant and should be deprecated if they are no longer in use.
4. Establish trust in the data. As you establish a data governance plan, understand how and why data is being used, and create a data dictionary that helps to define that data, then you can start to focus on making your data a reliable source of truth within your organization. When you spend the time upfront to establish well-defined data management, showing what data is being collected and for what purposes, members of your team know they’re getting data they can trust. They know it’s accurate, it’s been collected in an established way, and it’s not out of date. As your team builds trust in the data, they’ll be able to better integrate data into their day-to-day decisions.
5. Use a reliable storage solution for your data. Understanding how your data is stored is also a critical factor in data management. Oftentimes, data can be stored in several different systems, duplicated, or require different types of security parameters based on the type of data being stored. For example, personally identifiable information (PII), consumer financial data like credit card numbers, or personal health information (PHI) have federal regulations around how that information should be stored. So make sure your organization understands what kinds of data you’re collecting and how it needs to be stored and accessed across your organization.
   
   You can utilize a single solution for data storage, or store data across a variety of different locations. For example, you can use a cloud computing vendor such as a BI tool or cloud storage provider for much of your data but store highly sensitive company info on-premises if needed. If you do use multiple storage locations, make sure your data management practices document what data is stored where and why.
6. Regularly back up your data. As mentioned previously, data is oftentimes copied or replicated in order to better protect it. A data backup is a process in which a business regularly copies its business data from source systems and stores it in a simple storage service. The idea here is to protect the data to ensure that your business will always have a copy, even when failures occur.
   
   Although they are not very common, a data failure can occur whenever servers or software systems go down. While only lasting a brief period of time, this can have severe consequences for your business, as you no longer have access to the data you need.
   
   Regularly backing up your data with a BI tool is an excellent way to automate the data backup process. Modern BI hosted in the cloud allows you to import data as often as you need — even as often as every 15 minutes. That data can then be stored in the BI tool for future use and will remain there even if the data source systems fail.
7. Have a plan in place for dealing with data loss or corruption. Establishing a plan to deal with data loss and corruption goes hand-in-hand with the previous step of establishing a regular backup. In the inevitable event that data loss or corruption occurs, it’s important to establish a recovery strategy as part of your data management plan.
   
   Data recovery is often delegated to IT teams within the organization. While working with IT, it’s important to establish clear expectations as to the procedures they will follow whenever data outages occur. Business and IT users should work together to create a plan that will allow the business to restore its data loss in a timely manner. Strong data management practices, like those described above, will help give your company peace of mind that information won’t be lost.
8. Restrict access to sensitive data only to those who need it. Data accessibility is another critical factor in any data management project. As a business, you most likely have sensitive data that should only be viewed by select individuals. Yes, you want to give data access to as many employees as possible, but you also want to make sure it’s the appropriate level of access.
   
   Best practice with data access is to restrict access to only datasets that a user has a consistent need for. With so many different departments and job roles, employees naturally will only need access to certain data sources within the organization.
   
   Data can also be restricted using row-level security, which is a new feature that Modern BI tools provide. This allows your company to share datasets with the entire organization, and restrict access based on certain attributes of the employee. An example of this is a sales rep who is responsible for sales on the west coast. By implementing row-level security, you can ensure that the rep only sees data that is pertinent to them, while at the same time excluding sensitive data that they shouldn’t have access to.
9. Build a culture of data-driven decisions. The final step to proper data management is consistent training of employees throughout the organization. These best practices should be shared with employees of all levels—from individual contributors to top executives. Data is handled by all of your employees every single day, which is why it’s so important to train them on data management best practices and how they can better apply data in their daily jobs.
   
   As employees buy into your data management practices and start to see how they can use data in their roles, you’ll create a data-driven transformation across your business, better enabling team members at all levels to make more informed decisions. 

Conclusion

By taking the time to properly manage your data, you are setting your business up for success. Implementing a data management plan can seem daunting, but with the help of the right BI tool, it can be so much easier. By applying the best practices we outlined in this article, you can ensure that your company has a sound data management strategy. Proper data management can provide great benefits to your company for years to come, and will help you make better use of your data.