The old saying of “Information Is Wealth, Knowledge Is Power” cannot hold more significance than in the world that we live in today.
Information (data) has always been there, will always be there and will continue to grow, by 2020 the digital data generated will be approx 44 Zettabyte (ZB) compared to 4.4 ZB in 2013.
This exponential growth has seen the emergence of the new thinking behind "Big Data" and its importance in the digital world. The Big Data analytics market is a $203 billion one, it’s no big surprise that jobs such as Data Scientists are beginning to become mainstream.
Where is all this information coming from? Well, it is from every transaction taking place, every word that is spoken, every letter written in the whole wide world.
Today's ERP systems have evolved into a very complex set of integrated systems that read data from various sources and perform analytics to provide management with what they need.
However, an ERP is only one cog in the working wheel of an entire ecosystem, it is a known fact that there are various other platforms that play a vital role in decision making within an organisation. This is where a proper EIM (Enterprise Information Management) strategy can help to manage the information streaming in from all sources into and out of an organisation.
From an ERP’s perspective, the following EIM guidelines will help turn big data into “Big Value”:
- Improve Data quality - work on KPI relevant data, everything else is noise.
- Improving reporting models - reporting across the board is a waste of resource, instead, report on what needs to be addressed.
- Improving "Information digestibility" - reports of the future are going to be concise and to the point. AI is going to condense information to arrive at simple “Do” or “Don’t Do” decision. Get ahead now and prepare for it.
- Improve information trust by harmonizing master data – If you have different versions of the truth, it’s all a lie. Centralize master data and improve data accuracy.
- Improve Business-ready information data sets - Go for solutions that give you up-to-date information that is updated at the frequency which you require for your business decision making, routine setups like scheduled programs, batch jobs etc are soon to be a thing of the past, don’t hold onto those.
- Reduce data liability – Too much of data that doesn’t serve any purpose could become a liability and weigh the business down. Practice information life-cycle management and archive the data where appropriate.
- Improve “Data on the Go” - “Best in Breed” implementation is the new thing. Cloud-based specialized BI tools that integrate seamlessly with critical business data are beginning to gain prominence, make the most out of them.
By following proper EIM guidelines you could turn information into your "Strategic Asset”.
In today's world reporting on structured data is a given, however, the ability to identify & decipher unstructured data could be the game changer because what we know is a drop in the ocean of what we don't know.
