Category Archives: Topic 3 – Data / information architecture layer

All your eggs in one basket.. Is there even a basket?

I feel like I have quite a bit of experience in information silos as at my previous job it was something we tried to tackle. As a business analyst/client service manager, we were fully accountable for the books of business we ran. Although each person knew of the general guidelines to managing their books, we were still allowed to run our books however we saw fit. Therefore, there would be ways that I would experiment on my advertising campaigns that another person wouldn’t dare to on theirs. Operating in that manner creates information silos as if you have a question, you will probably get different answers depending on who you ask.

In David Newman’s article, Overcoming Silos: Evolving From Stand-Alone Information Architectures to Shared-Information Architectures for the Emerging Data Economy, he dives into ways that companies can transform from data silos to data sharing. Newman brings up  great point when he states, “data silos create multiple versions of the ‘truth’, which compromise organizational agility and strategic decision making, especially during periods of rapid and unpredictable change” (Newman, 2011). I can relate to this point specifically as once my company was acquired, our siloed business analyst/client service manager team had to merge with another extremely siloed team to learn all of their processes and how they run their business. It was difficult to learn something new in a short period of time where you constantly had to question what was the truth.

Source:

Newman, D. (2011, June 03). Overcoming Silos: Evolving From Stand-Alone Information Architectures to Shared-Information Architectures for the Emerging Data Economy. Retrieved September 19, 2017, from https://www.gartner.com/doc/1712915/overcoming-silos-evolving-standalone-information

There is a basket.. now what to put in it..

I always find trends so very interesting. Therefore, Data Integration Enables Information Capabilities for the 21st Century by Eric Thoo, Ted Friedman, and Mark Beyer hit the nail on the head as far as trends in data integration. Data integration and collaboration is a big part of any enterprise, therefore honing in on the best data integration tool for the companies’ specific needs is necessary. Two trends that stood out to me the most are:

Momentum Grows for Enterprise-Scale Data Integration Approaches: By the time I left my most recent organization, we had possibly 10+ tools that we needed to use for managing and gathering data. Not only did we have 10+ tools, we had 10+ different processes that needed to be completed in in order to use the tool, magnitude of different troubleshooting issues, etc. Therefore, I am a major fan of minimizing the amount of tools needed and this trend calls for the reduction in the number of tactical data integration tools used. The call for an enterprise standard is necessary. Additionally, this trend calls for scaling data at an enterprise level needs to be able to handle up-to-the-minute real time information. “Organizations will need to equip their data integration capabilities to suit a mix of latencies, while recognizing that real-time activity continues to gain importance” (Thoo, Friedman, & Beyer, 2013). I can relate in that there were times that data latencies caused major stand stills on any given business day which caused reporting to be delayed for clients, requests not being fulfilled, optimizations not being made since the data was not the most up to date, etc.

Enterprises Demand Synergies Between Data Integration and Data Management Initiatives: “Across data management- related efforts, capabilities are needed for diverse data delivery styles, tightened links to data quality tools, and an extended focus toward a model-driven approach that leverages common metadata across a technology portfolio (Thoo, Friedman, & Beyer, 2013). Data integration and data management go hand in hand or at least they should. In terms of a merger or acquisition, combining the data of two companies can be a feat of great magnitude as data is processed differently across different lines of business.

Source:

Thoo, E., Friedman, T., & Beyer, M. A. (2013, March 20). Data Integration Enables Information Capabilities for the 21st Century. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from https://www.gartner.com/doc/2378615/data-integration-enables-information-capabilities

What’s this Big Data you speak of?

Big data is definitely one of those buzz words in the industry but many might not fully understand what it means. I came across Bernd Leukert’s opinion piece, What can your data do for you?, where he provides some areas where “big data” can be of help.

The power and potential of big data – Although big data can seem very complicated, there are also a ton of benefits to incorporating it in your business. If the data is analyzed effectively then it can lead to informed decisions that can align strategy with business and technology. Data can show patterns and trends that will increase revenue and ultimately turn profits.

From “information” to “managed enterprise asset” – Most customers want to access their big data in a unified approach that also provides a high standard of data quality and enrichment. By having an enterprise data asset, you can provide customers with agility and the ability to manage processes and changes in real time. “It doesn’t matter whether it is in the cloud, on premise, in a data lake, a data warehouse, or application – business and IT users alike must be able to get the information they need wherever the data lives.” (Leaker, 2017).

Data as the foundation – Companies need to find a balance between stability and agility and data can be a foundation for both. Companies need to be looking to the future while also ensuring that the current business processes are running smoothly.

Source:

Leukert, B. (2017, September 23). What can your data do for you? Retrieved September 24, 2017, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-can-your-data-do-you-bernd-leukert/?trackingId=UjnkmWSbD7RKM6cgfmlk7w%3D%3D