Introduction
We are in a time when information is the core element of business success for companies in almost any industry. As technologies emerge and find large-scale adoption, there is an influx of massive amounts of data within enterprises. Two primary challenges need to be solved to obtain the necessary information. First is trustable information you can take action on without questioning. That’s a problem because almost half of the data records contain errors that could mess up processes. The second is the pace; the information must be provided as soon as possible, preferably in real-time.
The solution to these problems and challenges and the key to understanding the value of innovations in technology is data integration. It is the one way for businesses to get accurate and detailed information that leaders will take action. Data integration is a list of technical processes and a whole strategy that will make the required information accessible and understandable to anyone in every branch of a business.
What is Data Integration?
Data integration is pretty simple and is a process that aims to combine data from many sources into a unified view, making it available and actionable. You can measure the result of this process by getting information fast, accurate, and at scale, which will help you acquire your business goals and maximize your ability to use the newest technologies in your business.
There is no agreed-upon approach or method to data integration. Still, all solutions have certain parts in common: a network of data sources, a master server, and users who need to access data from this server. In most cases, information needs to be unified from various sources before using it for analysis. Without data unification, creating a report could involve using information from different accounts on multiple websites, extracting data from apps, copying, reformatting, sorting, cleaning, and processing. After all of those moves, then the analysis could start. That’s where data integration comes into play.
Reasons why you need an augmented data integration tool
Enhanced value
Data can be present in many different formats. It can be in the form of graphics, structure, as a web-based program, etc. It is simpler to identify any issues after going through data in its entirety and make changes where necessary. You can do this by using quantitative and qualitative analysis, and such research can work only once the data is complete.
Data integration tools save time and effort
An important reason why companies leverage augmented data integration tool is to cut downtime and effort to track and analyze that data. Such dependable automation produces a single unified data view, eliminating unnecessary physical entries or looking for important data.
Manual efforts are minimized, and the steps can be geared towards utilizing the time on effective measures such as retention and profitability. It also reduces expenses and saves company and resource time.
Easy accessibility of data
Real-time data becomes a necessity when looking for vital information or dealing with a customer. Data integration also fosters collaboration among your team and is much more likely to be complete as it has multiple chains of contributions. The presence of a unified data system implies that anyone in your organization can easily get that information for use. Also, it can be shared and used for present and future projects.
Error reduction
We know that in any physical process, some room for error cannot be eliminated. The mere volume of a company’s data means that the dataset may not be complete or accurate despite individual software in place for specific functions.
As departments across an organization are updating information to the same customer account, the data, if not unified, is not viewed in its entirety. Run the reports at frequent intervals to get some idea of the data to reduce any discrepancies. With integrated systems in place, information is run in real-time and with great accuracy. An integration plan also ensures data is consistent with no duplication.
Conclusion
Data integration tool benefits everything from real-time information delivery to data enrichment, customer data analytics, and business intelligence. So, we can say that the original use case of the data integration solution is managing customer and business data.
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