Royalx
Did you know 67 percent of small businesses spend $10,000 per year on data analytics?
If you’re interested in analyzing the data in your company, you will first need to integrate it. If you don’t do this, it will be hard to identify meaningful connections between different data sets.
Read on, and you’ll find some tips that’ll teach you about integrating data. If you act on these tips, it won’t be long before you’re able to generate better insights from your data.
Let’s begin!
Where Is Your Data Coming From?
To begin with, you first need to figure out where all your data is coming from.
One way you can approach this task is by listing out all the software solutions in your business that generate data.
Now, when you’re doing this, you might be tempted to focus only on the tools that everyone uses in your company. After all, these tools may produce the most data, and so you might think that they will provide the best insights.
However, focusing only on popular tools is a mistake, as important data can also be found in solutions that are used by a small number of people.
A good example of this might include risk management software, of which might be used exclusively by the health and safety department.
Start Merging Data Sets
You will need to consolidate your data once you have exported it.
The most basic approach here is to just merge your data using a spreadsheet. This can be a good option, but if you have lots of data, you might end up with a huge spreadsheet, and this can make things tricky.
That’s because large spreadsheets can be difficult to sort through, and it can also be hard to spot mistakes/duplicates in such a big document.
Following this, you might want to invest in specialist database software such as Microsoft Access.
Once you’ve done this, you will then have an integrated data set.
Integrate Often
You should try to integrate your data on a regular basis. If you do this, you will get better results when analyzing your data, as you will be analyzing recent data sets.
Every time you want to integrate data, you will need to go through the steps mentioned above. That said, in some cases, your chosen database solution might automatically start syncing data if you connect it to your data sources.
This can save a lot of time, so you might want to look for this feature before you settle on a particular database product.
If your chosen product doesn’t sync data automatically, Zapier might be able to help you create a makeshift syncing solution.
Do You Understand the Basics of Integrating Data?
This post has explored some of the basics in regards to integrating data.
The larger or more complex your company is, the more difficult it will be for you to integrate data. Thus, data integration can sometimes feel like an insurmountable task when you’re just getting started.
However, you must overcome this initial sense of dread. If you don’t, your company might suffer, especially if competitors have already figured out how to integrate their data.
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