There is no doubt that data is modern gold, but without its efficient and thoughtful processing, it loses all its value.
Only a fraction of today’s companies use the full potential of their data, even if they have all the necessary tools at their disposal. In most cases, it is the integration’s fault – or rather its lack.
As a foundation of successful data analytics, it opens the door to better-informed decisions and reduces business risk. What kind of challenges can you encounter when integrating your data sources, and how to prepare for them?
Data security
The frequency of cyberattacks has increased significantly all over the world in recent years. Cybercriminals may want to simply disrupt their target’s functioning, but in most cases, it’s the data that they aim at – either for extracting valuable information for their own purposes or blackmailing the company.
The integrations might be vulnerable to this kind of threat, potentially containing security loopholes that could expose you to data leaks. Especially if you use SaaS or off-the-shelf tools as data sources, you don’t have as much impact on their code and the preventive measures.
What can you do? A solid infrastructure, well-thought-out data integration architecture, and access control is the first step. Choose solutions that enable you to dissect the access setting in a way that reflects your company’s structure. Strengthening your data processing with encryption could be a good step, too.
Also, arm yourself with advanced security testing tools that identify security loopholes on the go, find dependencies in open-source libraries, and recognize potential threats in code and containers. For even better security, you could also jump into the blockchain, where your data is stored in encrypted, immutable blocks. Such a move would not only strengthen your protection but also increase the transparency of the processes. For customers, that’s a big plus, not only in finance!
The information silos
To be capable of extracting valuable insights, you need to be able to connect the dots. Often, companies have access to data from different sources, but since they are stored in separate systems, they end up missing important details.
Here’s an example – companies that carry out marketing campaigns, from PPC to social media, often use analytics to follow their progress, but the marketing data itself does not provide them with insights into customers’ rentability. As a result, they could be spending money on campaigns that technically generate desired results but in fact, attract the wrong target and affect their retention negatively. In order to increase the rentability of their campaigns, they should integrate marketing and sales data, calculating the Lifelong Customer Value and Cost of Acquisition for relevant insights.
What can you do to overcome this challenge? Pick the tools that are flexible in terms of integration to custom systems or engage an intermediary that connects these data sources smoothly and automates the processing of data from different sources. A data integration consultant will help you pick the right solutions and show you how to draw insights from distributed data.
Compliance
Depending on a part of the world, the companies that process data are subjected to different data protection regulations, but in some regions, the approach is strict. Take the EU GDPR, which puts demanding data processing standards on data administrators, enforcing a complex permissions system. With many data sources integrated, controlling this aspect of data processing becomes challenging.
What can you do? Compliance monitoring tools may be a must if you want to avoid worries and potentially costly fines.
Another data integration aspect worth mentioning in terms of compliance is the new NIS-2 directive, which enforces higher security standards on companies from various sectors, with a particular focus on finance and medicine.
What can you do? To check the compliance of your integrations and data workflow with these regulations, you can carry out an NIS-2-oriented audit with a specialized company. Your data integration service provider likely can help you with that.
