What is your company’s greatest asset? Your staff, your marketing team, your knowledge process? All of these are extremely important, but your single most important asset is your data. 

Data drives everything. So, the obvious question is: do you understand yours? Is it correct, clean, and organized in a way that others can immediately access it, read it, and use it so your company reaches its maximum potential? 

It’s no longer enough just to manage your data. It must be streamlined to reach its full potential and it must be protected. Data is the driving force behind every successful organization. 

Since data is your most valuable resource, questions you must consider include: 

Is your data easy to access, clean, integrate and store? 

Do you know which types of data are used by everyone in the organization? 

And do you have a system in place for analyzing data as it flows into your organization? 

Brush up on the following concepts before you start your data management journey:

• Data access refers to your ability to get to and retrieve information wherever it is stored. Certain technologies make this step easy and efficient, which means you spend more time using the data — not just trying to find it. 
• Data integration defines the steps for combining different types of data. Data integration tools enable you to design and automate the steps that do this work.
• Data quality is the practice of making sure data is accurate and usable for its intended purpose. This starts from the moment data is accessed and continues through the various integration points with other data. 
• Data streaming involves analyzing data and then applying logic to the data. It includes recognizing patterns in the data and filtering it for multiple uses as it flows into your organization.
• Data federation is really virtual data integration. It allows you to look at combined data from multiple sources without the need to move and store the combined view in a new location.
• Data governance is an ongoing set of rules and decisions for managing your organization’s data to ensure that your data strategy is aligned with your business strategy.
• Master data management (MDM) defines, unifies, and manages the data that is common and essential to all areas of an organization. Master data is typically managed from a single location or hub. 

The QuickData Platform with the ideal data journey in mind and is structured for fast and accurate results. It’s designed with IT and business collaboration in mind, and it’s ready to transform your analytics programs into big opportunities.