Democratize Information Access with a data integation

Consider Democratizing Information Access with a Data Integration


Having the right technology in place that puts actionable information - “meaningful data,” in the hands of your analysts, decision makers and executives at the right time is more than just a talking point. There are many advantages of providing not just power users but business users with a data-driven enterprise strategy. Fostering a culture of information sharing and empowering your end users with the tools that make it possible are a prerequisite to compete in today’s “real-time” economy.

A data integration is one such mechanism to democratize information access. Typically, this is a process that heavily involves your IT department . Done ineffectively, this process can invariably leads to delays in insight that can be costly to the business. Done effectively however, they can prove to be an invaluable starting point for a data driven, customer-centric strategy.

In 2015, integration capabilities are not just limited to expansive, robust IT departments with dedicated application developers. If we were to look at the Gartner Magic Quandrant for Integration Platforms and Solutions, we would see big names, complex, robust and extensive solutons that are not only highly extensible but also require a high level of expertise and garnered towards the Fortune 1000 and mature, enterprise organizations. What about SMB or SME organizations? That is, "small-to midsize business or enterprises."

To digress - for the purposes of its research, Gartner defines SMBs by the number of employees and annual revenue they have. The attribute used most often is number of employees; small businesses are usually defined as organizations with fewer than 100 employees; midsize enterprises are those organizations with 100 to 999 employees. The second most popular attribute used to define the SMB market is annual revenue: small business is usually defined as organizations with less than $50 million in annual revenue; midsize enterprise is defined as organizations that make more than $50 million, but less than $1 billion in annual revenue. More effectively:

This size organization only has a part-time individual managing its data and/or IT infrastructure. This individual does everything (manage backups, databases, the network, new technology purchases, support contracts, etc.) as a part of his/her overall job responsibilities. He or she spends at most 20 hours a week on these tasks, is more likely to spend 20 hours or less per month performing them and the organization may even outsource this task to a third party contractor.

OR 

An organization that has one or more full time employees dedicated to managing its data and IT infrastructure. However these individuals are still IT generalists and will manage two or more IT-related tasks (backups, databases, network, servers, support, etc.,) would generally not be considered an expert in any one and may have a title like IT manager, system administrator or network administrator.

Indeed, solutions from the likes of Informatica, IBM, SAS, Information Builders, Oracle or SAP may in fact be “too much” for your integration needs. Perhaps you simply want to share back office data with your front office employees – invoice and order data and then pass on customer service and product data to your back office. The scenario described above is is a typical ERP-CRM integration scenario – one that truly opens up an organization to shared insights and actionable responses. 

Do not be guilelessly advised into purchasing or investing in a solution that does not effectively fit your business, your processes and your people. There are a number of solutions that can effectively meet your needs and provide your organization with a lower TCO (Total Cost of ownership ) while maintaining an amicable ROI (Return on Investment).

Today’s world is a customer-centric, customer driven world. A popular, often quoted statistic suggests that your customers are typically 70% along in the sales process BEFORE they even reach out to you. Customers are engaging sales people later and later in their buying process. There are tremendous resources on the web that provide much information to the customer, enabling them to self educate, get opinions of others, and to narrow their alternatives to a short list. The web, social business, active communities of users can offer tremendous convenience and value to customers. It also displaces much of the traditional role of the business in teaching their customers about products and solutions and customer service.

As a competitive 21st century organization, you want your information to paint a 360 degree view of your customer so that you understand their wants, their needs, their history with you, your history with them and the history of their partners and associates as well. A data integration is a crucial part of this strategy - insights that are as straightforward to achieve as an ERP to CRM integration. 

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