6 Signs You Need a Data Catalog for Your Business

6 Signs You Need a Data Catalog for Your Business

Most companies nowadays have access to terabytes of information. Depending on your industry, you may be working with even more! What happens when you need to access a specific data point, and you can’t seem to find it? Unfortunately, the most likely outcome is that you miss out on the opportunity to leverage that data to further your company’s success.

That is unless you utilize a data catalog. Read on to discover six signs you need a data catalog for your business.

What Is a Data Catalog?

The simplest way to think of a data catalog is as a library catalog. When you have a specific book that you want to find in the library, you can check the catalog and search for the book’s title, author, genre, or Dewey decimal code to find it. Your company’s data can work in much the same way—instead of searching based on title or author, you might find data based on fields like customer name or location.

So, how does this work? To understand a data catalog, you need to understand metadata. In short, metadata is data about your data. To continue with the library analogy, a book’s actual content would be considered “data,” while information like the title, author, genre, and number of pages are examples of “metadata.”

A great data catalog makes it easy for you to access data, no matter where it comes from. Through the use of metadata, finding what you’re looking for is a simple and painless matter—just like finding out whether the novel you’re looking for is checked out or not.

1. You Have Data Silos

The first sign that you need a data catalog for your business is apparent if you have data silos. Many businesses don’t know exactly what this term means, and therefore don’t understand whether they have a data silo, so we’ll break it down.

A data silo is a repository of data that is isolated from the rest of your organization. Usually, this subset of your data is controlled by a particular department or unit—it’s called a data silo because a grain silo protects grain from the outside world. While this process can indeed provide a small form of protection, it causes more problems than it solves.

Why do data silos exist if they cause problems? When a company is large enough, different units and departments are often forced to operate independently, with slightly varied goals for the organization as a whole. This is especially true when you don’t have a master data management system in place—a way to unify all your data.

Data silos tend to be incompatible with other sources of data, and they also make it difficult for other units or departments to access the data. While sequestering data may make it a little safer from online threats, it also makes it tougher to access internally.

A data catalog (especially when paired with master data management for security) allows you to govern your data more effectively while promoting collaboration and maintaining integrity.

2. It’s Difficult To Find Data Quickly

Perhaps the biggest sign that you need a data catalog is in the length of time it takes you to access your company’s data. When you instruct your analysts to perform a task like generating a report, how quickly does that come back to you? With a data catalog, your employees can find the data they need with a few short keystrokes and have a report in your inbox within a few hours.

Without this tool in your belt, you may receive your reports too late to act on them. So much of the business world requires quick pivots and agility that slow systems can directly affect your bottom line.

3. You Want To Make Better Use of Machine Learning Tools

If you have machine learning and artificial intelligence at your disposal, you’re shooting yourself in the foot by not also making use of a data catalog. That’s because machine learning tools can use your data catalog to provide you with data inventory in a timelier manner. Just as a data catalog helps your employees easily access data, artificial intelligence will benefit in the same way.

4. You’re Looking for More Out of Your Data

Data analytics is a key part of any company’s path to success. However, even the best analysts in the world won’t be able to effectively use your data if they can’t find the information they’re looking for. Data cataloging helps your analysts achieve their full potential, and thereby helps your company reach its newest peak.

5. You Have Unoptimized Departments

When you keep your data in silos, it serves only to help one department at a time. This can lead to certain departments performing well while others fall by the wayside and suffer. Data cataloging, integration, and master data management bring all sorts of datasets under one large roof and allow every employee equal access to data.

Now, every department can make decisions based on data rather than needing to act on intuition alone. While intuition is a crucial aspect of the success of any company, data-driven intuition helps to eliminate risk and helps employees hone their intuitiveness.

6. You Want To Improve Data Governance

While collaboration between your employees is good, it should also be controlled. This is why data silos form in the first place—to keep proprietary data in the right hands. A data catalog creates traceable data lineage, which helps you track the changes and usage of a given piece of data. This way, if someone uses or edits data they aren’t supposed to, the catalog will record that so you can address the issue.

Using Snowflake for Integration

A data catalog comprises data from all types of sources, and Snowflake integration brings that data together while avoiding the common pitfalls of disparate data. Snowflake enhances analytics and also makes use of a caching paradigm to deliver quick results. On top of all that, Snowflake helps you take down silos and provide better access to data across your entire organization.

Now that you have a better understanding of the six signs you need a data catalog for your business, contact Chain-Sys Corporation with any additional questions about data cataloging. Our team is standing by to help!

Advantages of Utilizing Oracle Data Migration

Advantages of Utilizing Oracle Data Migration

Bringing your business into the cloud is the same as bringing your business into the future. When working as heavily with data as companies do these days, there’s no reason to leave everything in physical data centers—all that does is unnecessarily inflate costs. Read on to learn the advantages of utilizing Oracle data migration.

Future-Proof

When your company can’t tackle a new project because your hardware is holding you back, that’s a very frustrating feeling. Fortunately, you won’t have to worry about that with the Oracle Cloud. This is a system that shifts and grows with you and stay up to date no matter what.

Agility

Agility is a buzzword we’ve all heard before, but it’s a critical one for the business world. Can your company quickly respond to trends and changing conditions? If yes, you’re likely to find success in this fast-paced world. If no, you may have to move some things around to stay relevant. When you bring your data into the Oracle cloud, it’s easy to perform quick analytics tasks and pounce on new opportunities.

Performance

When applications run through physical servers and CPUs, you’re constrained to the hardware you have. Those constraints are gone with the cloud, which affords you much more flexibility and reliability. You don’t need to worry about systems crashing or taking forever to compute—and when you can access higher performance at lower costs, why not do it?

Security

When you migrate your data to the cloud using Oracle data solutions, you’re taking a concrete step to put up walls around your proprietary information. Oracle has cutting-edge data encryption, which means that you and your users can feel safe putting data into your system. Oracle’s system also allows you greater control over security than other programs, which helps to maintain visibility company-wide.

Now that you understand these advantages of utilizing Oracle data migration, bring your business into the Oracle Cloud and get ready for all the benefits that come with it! One simple change can transform your company’s future—make that change today.

Benefits of Salesforce Integration with Business Apps

Benefits of Salesforce Integration with Business Apps

The Salesforce ecosystem is one way to instantly transform your business. Once you have team members trained on the ins and outs of Salesforce’s various systems, your company will be more flexible and efficient than ever before.

One of the key pieces of Salesforce is integration. But before we can dive into the benefits of Salesforce integration with business apps, we must first discuss APIs and provide an explanation of Salesforce integration.

What Is Salesforce Integration?

Whenever you bring two or more systems together in the Salesforce ecosystem, you are performing an integration task. The main goal of integration is to streamline different processes by combining them and removing all the unnecessary parts.

Regarding your business, consider applications and systems that require one another to complete a task. For instance, you may have one system that holds your data and another that needs the data to perform analyses and provide results. Wouldn’t it be simpler if you didn’t have to access two separate systems to get the required result? That’s where integration comes in.

Application Programming Interfaces

An application programming interface, or API, is the method through which two applications communicate. You utilize APIs every day without ever realizing it—that’s because the APIs are so well-integrated into your devices. Whenever you fire up an app on your phone that accesses the internet and presents information from a server, APIs facilitate this effortless transfer of data.

Thus, it is through APIs that Salesforce integration is possible.

Salesforce Integration Architectures

Salesforce integration is a well-trodden path, meaning you’ll have several options available when the time comes to integrate. It’s essential to understand the integration architectures at your disposal before undertaking an integration task since each comes with its own benefits and drawbacks.

Hub-and-Spoke Integration

To visualize hub-and-spoke integration, think of a wagon wheel. In the center of the wheel, you have the hub—an area where all the spokes collect. In this case, the hub acts as a centralized system that is the means of communication between all the connected systems.

Those connected systems are like the spokes of a wheel—they all connect through the hub, but they don’t directly touch each other. While this means you only need to build a single connection from each system to the hub, there’s something to be said for direct connections between systems.

Point-to-Point Integration

Point-to-point integration removes the hub from the equation—all that matters are the various systems and their interconnectivity. This certainly creates a tricky task for your business’s integration builders and maintenance workers. When you add a new point to the integration, time must be spent connecting that point to all the applicable systems.

In a real-world scenario, this could look like shipping, tracking, and billing systems. Billing needs to connect to shipping, which then needs to connect to tracking. However, if there’s a need for billing and tracking to connect, your team will need to build another integration. The work can pile up quickly, and this system is not ideal for interchangeability.

Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) Integration

Enterprise service bus, or ESB, integration takes the hub-and-spoke model to the next level. The center point of an ESB system can facilitate processes between systems like routing, orchestration, transformation, and security. All your systems connect to the bus with easy-to-disconnect plugs, allowing for scalable integration over time. With ESB integration:

  • Routing can easily transport messages from one system to another;
  • Orchestration allows you to put transactions in a specific order;
  • Transformation lets you translate messages into other system languages prior to routing; and
  • Security can perform authorization and authentication checks before messages enter your systems.

Increased Productivity

Now, consider the benefits of Salesforce integration, starting with increased productivity. This goes back to streamlining your systems. Why make your employees access multiple systems separately when putting those systems together saves time and energy?

While toggling between two systems doesn’t take all the time in the world, imagine how much time employees can save in a week—or a month!—by utilizing an integrated system.

Effective Decision Making

Accurate data and effective decision-making are directly connected. If it takes a long time to get data in front of you, or if the data you look at isn’t spot-on, you might find yourself making questionable decisions. Integration makes it easier for you to review accurate data and make informed decisions.

Automated Workflow

Repetitive tasks are things of the past when you use Salesforce integration. With click workflow automation, Salesforce can bring business apps and systems together to accomplish busy work that employees don’t want or need to do. Automating workflows makes processes happen more quickly while also bolstering the morale of your team members. After all, no one wants to do menial labor for hours on end.

Deepened Customer Connections

Customers expect more now than ever before; they want businesses to cater to them personally, and integration makes this possible. The key to strong customer connections is understanding who your buyers and users are. A system that can easily look over data from several sources gives you a complete picture of your customer base. From this point, you can quickly determine the various pain points and needs of all your customers.

When you make deeper connections, you increase your business’s customer retention. You may find it easy to bring customers in, but keeping them is the trick. Integration helps you tailor your systems to your customers so they’ll want to stick with you for the long haul.

Better Online Sales

Ease of use is a big factor for customers. Salesforce integration is all about making things easier, and that extends to your business’s online sales platforms. Customers are more inclined to purchase when you make buying easy.

All these benefits come part and parcel with Salesforce data integration. Salesforce is a system designed to be exceptionally useful no matter what you’re using it for, so you can customize it to your every need.

Now that you know these benefits of Salesforce integration with business apps, make Salesforce a powerful tool in your kit. With so many unique systems that work together to produce effective results, Salesforce is an instrument you can’t afford to miss.

3 Benefits of Migrating Your Data to SAP

3 Benefits of Migrating Your Data to SAP

Switching your business to SAP HANA is an ever-growing advantage in today’s digital ecosystem. While SAP HANA is a database by classification, it’s much more than simply a place to store your data. It’s better to think of it as a data platform—a system through which you can store and process data to use it to its full potential. Read on to discover three benefits of migrating your data to SAP.

Real-Time Analytics

How long do your reports take to process? If your current reports require hours to show up on your desk, SAP HANA will completely change the game. Even basic SAP HANA setups can process data around ten times faster than non-SAP setups. Just think of how much less time you’ll need to spend waiting around!

When data comes in quickly, it allows you to make business decisions in a flash. This can make a huge difference in your company’s success.

Ability To Tackle Big Data

Data is getting bigger, and it shows no signs of stopping. Big data is “big” because of the three v’s: volume, velocity, and variety. If your system can’t handle all these factors, you won’t be able to enjoy the benefits of working with big data. The more data you have access to, the more insights you can gain.

Exceptional Scalability

No business has reached soaring heights by staying static—you need to have a system that grows with you to facilitate consistent progress. As you gain more data, the last thing you need is to have your system tell you that “it’s too much!” SAP HANA’s largest certified configuration has a whopping 168TB of RAM. Need we say more?

When you need SAP data migration tools, come to ChainSys. We can supply you with everything you need.

Now that you understand these three benefits of migrating your data to SAP, you can begin your company’s transition into the cloud. Be a driving force of change in your industry and show others how things can change for the better.

How an SAP System Can Benefit Your Business

How an SAP System Can Benefit Your Business

Systems Applications and Products (SAP) systems are perhaps the best-known software in the business world, and for good reason. SAP products prioritize usability and overarching solutions, making them ideal for anyone looking for a high-level overhaul of their management systems. Companies in the process of rapid growth stand to gain a lot from SAP systems—read on to learn how an SAP system can benefit your business.

What Is Systems Applications and Products?

SAP is software that focuses on robust business management with a primary concentration on data utilization. SAP software is a type of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, which you can think of as a kind of hub for all your business processes. Everything from analytics to human resources to finance can run from an SAP system, promoting communication and collaboration throughout departments.

Business Growth

When a business grows, data becomes more difficult to manage. This makes perfect sense—your current systems are designed to hold a certain amount of data, and you’ll reach that threshold if you continue to excel.

SAP systems are designed to calculate datasets of vastly varying sizes, meaning your system will scale with your business as it grows.

Increased Efficiency

Repetition is the death of expansion. When you have employees struggling through busy work that a computer can handle, you miss out on opportunities for high productivity. An SAP system takes this load off employees’ shoulders and frees them up to put their minds where they are needed.

More Transparency

A single database is ideal for efficiency, but also for transparency. Data accuracy allows you to provide faster results, as well as results that have gone through a thorough evaluation. Data is easily corruptible, but an SAP system lets you monitor your information every step of the way.

Now that you understand how an SAP system can benefit your business, don’t hesitate to learn more about SAP data migration. Migration projects can feel like a large undertaking, but with a competent team guiding you through it, you’ll have your data where it needs to be in a flash.

3 Benefits of Data Integration for Your Business

3 Benefits of Data Integration for Your Business

Data integration is an ever-growing market, but it seems like the number of companies that aren’t familiar with data integration is growing, too. Allow us to explain what data integration is and why it’s good for your company—keep reading to discover three benefits of data integration for your business.

What Is Data Integration?

First, you should understand the basics of data integration. At its simplest, data integration is a process that takes data from various sources and combines everything into one unified set. This has applications both analytically and operationally, which allows you to be more effective in several avenues.

The tricky thing about data is that it’s an ever-evolving form of information. Without a way to bring disparate pieces under one roof, the data your company sifts through would be chaotic.

Better Efficiency

A key benefit to data integration is efficiency. Automation makes everything go more smoothly, and integration is the first step to automating your existing processes. If you can free up your employees’ time to focus on more complicated tasks, they will get more important work done more quickly. Customers will thank you, and your employees will appreciate the fact that you have them doing rewarding work as opposed to busy work.

Cost Reduction

Efficiency and cost reduction often go hand in hand, and that’s no different with data integration. Because manual tasks are reduced company-wide, you can save money and prevent human error by allowing a computer to take over some of the more menial jobs in data.

Higher Quality Data

As if that wasn’t enough, data integration also increases the quality of your data. As long as your integration software is smart enough, all incoming data is validated and updates to your records happen in a flash. Before you know it, you’ll enjoy more accurate data without the time and effort normally required to receive it.

With these three benefits of data integration for your business, you can get the most out of your analytics team and use your data effectively.