Data Management Benefits Your Small Business Needs

With our growing dependence on Information Technology, data is also becoming more and more valuable. As a modern-day entrepreneur, you have to learn how to utilize data to your best interests, and how to safeguard it against possible risks. Maximizing and protecting your business information are only some of the benefits of data management.

What is data management?

Data management is a business process that encompasses several operations. It is concerned with gathering, storing, organizing and maintaining information that is relevant to an organization. Data management is vital in setting up efficient IT systems for your business applications. Through data management, you gain easy access to effective data that would influence your business decisions, strategy and planning.

Some of the functions  involved in data management are:

• Data entry
• Data mining
• Data conversion
• Data cleansing
• Data processing
• Data verification
• Data visualization

Why is data management important?

In every business that deals with digital information, data management is crucial in minimizing business risks and maximizing business growth. The data you gathered influences your business, and the moves you will make. As such, poorly managed data would lead to poor business decisions, and can even result in costly losses.

Data management also matters in regulatory compliance requirements. Around the world, lawmakers and governing bodies are implementing laws that aim to regulate cyber information. Among these are data protection and privacy laws that apply to businesses. With data management, you can ensure compliance with existing laws, and make further adjustments in case of law amendments.

The benefits of data management

Aside from its function and vital role in organizational growth, data management also offers the following benefits:

Minimizes business errors

Some data may be necessary or relevant to your business, but are actually not worth using and are potentially harmful. This kind of data is often referred to as “bad data”. Also called “dirty data”, bad data is information that is inaccurate, misleading, or erroneous. It can also be data that resulted from a lack of general formatting or duplication. Using bad data often causes serious damage to the business.

Effective data management prevents bad data from entering your system. If bad data still gets through, your data management system also reduces and may even eradicate the damage to your business.

Improves work efficiency

Data management goes a long way in improving your organizational workflow. If your data is managed, updated, and organized, it becomes more accessible to the entire organization. Well-managed data also frees up your staff’s valuable time and resources, allowing them to focus more on your core activities.

Easier skill sharing

Sharing skills also requires sharing information. With data management, sharing beneficial skills to your staff becomes easier. Sharing skills to external stakeholders will also be more effective. All of these greatly contribute to developing a highly competent and healthy organization.

Enforces brand quality

Data management also plays a huge role in improving and maintaining the quality of your brand. Through effective data management, you can guarantee that the data you provide to external audiences is consistent and reliable. In turn, your audience will be able to trust your brand more, ultimately improving your image.

Easier data backup

Mismanaged data is easily lost. Data management can help you assemble a centralized source, where you can create a backup or even several backups. Having a backup for your business data is of utmost importance in disaster management and business continuity.

Better customer experience

Data management helps in customer relations management. In particular, it plays a big role in handling customer concerns and queries. Here, your customers’ data is highly organized and accessible. So, you can effectively keep track of each customer journey.

Data management also keeps customer information up-to-date. This will then help in improving customer engagement, and creating a personalized customer experience.

How can you implement effective data management in a small business?

Creating an efficient data management process in a small organization may seem like a daunting task. However, it is not as difficult as one might think.

One way of doing this is by handling data management in-house. For this, you can assign your staff to cover the various data management functions. However, this could make their workload significantly heavier. Assigning data management tasks to your current employees may also reduce their time and focus to do more important tasks.

You can also hire new employees for data management jobs. Keep in mind, though, that the recruitment, onboarding and training costs may be too expensive for a small business. This would also require you to provide mandatory premiums, workspace, and equipment to new employees.

Outsourcing data management services is a cost-effective option. Here, your in-house staff can keep focusing on vital business operations. Outsourcing also expands your workforce without all the expenses related to hiring new employees. You can outsource data management by hiring freelancers, or by partnering with a data management service provider.

Is it a good idea to outsource data management?

Outsourcing your data management to a third-party service provider is ideal for small businesses. Through a data management service provider, you will have data management experts to handle every step of the data management process. They know and utilize the best practices when it comes to data management.

Outsourcing, in general, also supports the success of small businesses. Outsourcing companies efficiently handle the non-core operations of your business. So, you can focus on organizational expansion and improving your products and services. 

Outsourcing can help you avoid business risks, as well. If a disaster strikes your area, for one, your outsourcing partner can still carry on with the job. This is especially strategic during challenging economic times, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, it is understandable if you are concerned about the safety of your data. Therefore, you have to make sure that your service provider is safe and reliable. Check is they comply with international industry standards on data privacy. For one, you may want to see if a service provider is ISO certified.

Reliable data management service provider

Magellan Solutions is a BPO company with over 15 years of industry experience. We offer data management services, including data entry, data mining, data cleansing, data processing, and data verification.

When you partner with us, you will get the services of highly skilled and well-equipped data management experts. We make sure that our staff is up-to-date with the latest trends and innovations. Our company complies with ISO and HIPAA standards, so your sensitive business data is safe with us. 

At Magellan Solutions, we want to be part of the growth of small businesses. So, we offer our services at flexible and competitive prices. All, without sacrificing the quality of our data management service.

Would you like to learn more about our business? Contact us today!