Trust in data is a frequently cited issue at the executive level. According to a 2021 study by HFS Research, 89% of business executives cited “a high level of data quality” as key to business success. However, 75% of business executives do not have a high level of trust in their data, and 70% do not consider their data architecture to be “world class.”
In what follows are three ways data centralization will help establish trust in data at your firm.
Improved Data Quality
A root cause of mistrusting data is poor data quality. Shoddy data is often the result of having multiple users interact with a variety of different data sources, which inevitably leads to inaccuracies and redundancies. Before you can work towards improving data quality, you must centralize your data. Creating a centralized single data source across your organization will help mitigate the negative impacts of poor data quality. Data centralization makes it easier to transform and maintain clean data, ultimately providing you with accurate and verified information.
Company-wide Accessibility
Establishing trust in data becomes an enormous challenge if teams and personnel operate with inaccessible and dissimilar data. Building trust in data requires that the same data be accessible to everyone within an institution; this data centralization will create a single source of truth. A centralized solution will bring transparency to your processes. Advisors, accounting, and management can view sales production in real-time at any time. This visibility eliminates surprises and allows for making proactive adjustments to help reach sales goals.
Data-Driven Decision Making
When data is decentralized and scattered across islands of information, data becomes an obstacle rather than an asset. The effort required to aggregate your data manually can impact your ability to make timely business decisions. By the time you’ve culled the requisite data points, the original questions or needs may no longer be relevant. When data that’s generated from multiple sources is centralized, organizations will be well-placed to make business decisions faster and with confidence.
Leveraging the benefits of aggregated and centralized data — improved data quality, accessibility across your organization, and timely data-driven decision making — you can build trust in your data and utilize it to its full potential.
