The dawn of the data age has meant that more and more businesses are placing a high premium on structured information. Being able to access the data they need as quickly as possible can help companies to take the next efficiency leap, leaving their competitors with higher overheads and charging higher fees. In this guide, there are five things that any business can do to structure their internal information, ensuring that they always have powerful data at their fingertips to get the job done.
Intranet
One of the traditional solutions to unstructured information within an organization has been to set up a server, which essentially shares a number of files across centrally located computers. This works fairly well within a traditional office space but far less well when you have staff working remotely or in a hybrid fashion. Here, you need a cloud-based intranet: the modern solution to allow your workers to access your information anywhere and from any time.
It’s worth reading a guide on how to implement an intranet system in your business before getting started, as even the most impressive systems can take weeks to properly onboard with. It will involve the moving of plenty of data and the training of your staff, but a company intranet is a secure and simple solution when you need to share information quickly across your business.
The Cloud
There are other cloud-based solutions that you can use to share certain information with specific groups within your firm. One of the best platforms for this is, of course, the cloud. It’s here that you can store files for people to collaborate on at once, where you can create folders of materials that can be easily hunted down and viewed, and where you can also liaise with external agencies where required.
The cloud is not just one entity, though. Google and Microsoft operate cloud-based infrastructure, as do Amazon and Apple. Many cloud-based services use the software from these big tech services to build new services of their own, which can plug into your own cloud and the data contained there. As such, searching for cloud-based solutions can always turn up interesting new opportunities for your business to share data proactively and in a more structured manner.
Training
When you’re trying to structure data within your business, you’ll always need to consider the human element. For most of your staff, the digital world isn’t a playground of data and files but a practical place where they store their work in the best way they see. To encourage them to hit certain targets and adhere to certain standards, you’ll need to train them and give them all the information they need to structure their data independently.
This training should be causal and informative. Don’t shoehorn your ideas upon your workers in such a way that it drags down their productivity, and don’t expect them to adapt their working habits overnight. Try to show them how the company will benefit from better-structured data, often with the help of a new program, and they’ll come on side with your ideas naturally.
So Long, Spreadsheets
If you say the words “structured information” to anyone who has been using a computer since the turn of the millennium, they’re going to think of one thing: the spreadsheet. It’s come to symbolize so much of what is done in business, but the truth is that these documents are often full of errors, laborious to put together, and rarely referenced.
A better way to go about building structured data is to hand over the data entry process to machine learning, AI, and other automated processes. This means engaging with a smart system that can accurately make wonderful datasets out of your raw data. These solutions exist on the market; you just have to find them.
Agencies
Finally, don’t be afraid to turn over your data to an external agency that focuses on creating structured data for firms. These agencies are often tasked with making sense of historic data or putting a new software system in place in businesses to better organize and analyze data.
If you choose to go down this path, be sure of what you want to achieve before you go out to procure new technology or outsource this process for your firm. Agencies can be expensive, which is why, if you have your own IT team, it might be best to keep it in-house.
These five tips are all essential reading for those firms looking to structure their data better.
