Data Management

Aside from developing a culture that appreciates data, how an organization manages its data is a differentiating factor between those who are actually able to use data to inform decision making and those who are not. Thoughtful data management is not only important from a security perspective but from an efficiency and accessibility standpoint, too. Our team works with organizations to streamline their data management practices to achieve both.

In our experience, data management can become a barrier when use isn’t part of the development process.

This often comes as a result of those responsible for finding meaning in the data not being part of the design process — regardless of whether data is being managed in a simple database (e.g., Excel, R, etc.), something more complex, like SQL or Access, or across several databases, computer desktops, and cabinets…

Our team specializes in being an add-on to database development projects, establishing a logic flow to ensure data use isn’t hindered by the constraints of technology. One example has been for a large collective impact partnership, where our team worked with their internal data scientist to establish reporting requirements across nearly a dozen partners (with plans to add more). With data informing their partnership’s activities, it wasn’t efficient to manage data in spreadsheets and Survey Monkey reports. Instead, they needed something timely that was intuitive for where their partnership was at but allowed for growth as the partnership evolved.

After defining the requirements, identifying pain points, and mapping out future requirements (don’t build for now, build for the future!), our team collaborates with highly-skilled developers to bring that vision to life. Throughout the process, our partner-client benefited from our team’s ability to toggle between techno-speak and — resulting in a product that improved their efficiency but more importantly, the quality and accessibility of their data.

Although data management is the less desirable component of data, it can be the most costly if done incorrectly or absent mindedly. It also has the potential to perpetuate the inaccessibility of data — where those who need to use it (or could make sense of it) can’t access or understand it because of how it is formatted or where it is housed. So, whether you’re managing data in spreadsheets or are looking for something more advanced, our team can assist in developing something that will grow with your organization — keeping use front-of-mind. Interested in learning more? Let’s chat.

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