The business world is ever-evolving, as business owners are always looking for a way to gain a competitive advantage. The business world has come leaps and bounds since the First Industrial Revolution. Now we’re in the age of Industry 4.0, and it seems like new technology hits the market every day. Big data is the advancement that might have made the largest impact on the business world over the past couple of decades, and all indications are that it’s only going to get bigger. Furthermore, companies all over the United States are undergoing digital transformation, increasing the need for robust data management systems.
One of the challenges of big data is that it can be hard to get the actionable insights your company needs when you’re getting massive amounts of data from disparate sources. Disparate data creates many obstacles for business users, as they have to contend with data silos to get access to their business data when they need it. The good news is the right data integration tools can increase the efficiency of a variety of analytics processes. Continue reading to learn more about data integration and how it can take your small business to the next level.
What is data integration?
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You’ve probably at least heard of big data, but you might be wondering what data integration is all about. In short, data integration collects and consolidates data from disparate sources, enabling you to see all your company’s data in a single view. Traditional data integration processes are expensive and time-consuming, and they put a lot of stress on IT teams that spend months scrambling to make sure they get everything right. However, data integration tools are much more advanced today, with some even capable of data integration automation.
Data integration tools enable the automation of integration processes.
As we mentioned in the previous section, the most powerful data integration platforms enable the automation of data integration, which saves a lot of time and money. Companies with a robust data integration strategy have a decided competitive advantage, as they’ll be able to get data insights faster and for less money than their business rivals. Automation uses artificial intelligence to format data from disparate sources to fit your company’s business rules and deliver insights in near real time.
Data integration helps ensure data quality
Learning about big data analytics could help you go far in your business career. You might not need to learn the intricacies of data integration to earn a bachelor’s or associate degree in business management in an online degree program, but you might want to understand how it affects data quality. Business users can’t make good business decisions with bad data. Data integration tools ensure data quality by following strict business rules to ensure data conforms to the format your data scientists implement.
You can create a logical data warehouse with the right data integration platform
The point of business intelligence is getting data insights before your competitors and acting on them to gain a competitive advantage. Data integration tools enable you to create a logical data warehouse for storing all your raw data and analytics, making it easy to find the right data.
As you can see, the right data integration platform can make a world of difference for your small business. Data integration enables you to view all of your company’s raw data and get it ready for different analytics processes. Data integration tools provide a strong foundation for companies looking to evolve and step into the era of Industry 4.0. One of its greatest advantages is that it enables the automation of continuous data integration processes, freeing your IT department to focus on more vital tasks. It also enhances data quality and allows data scientists to create a logical data warehouse to provide quick and secure access to analytics. Digital transformation is the wave of the future—data integration is the way.
