Everything You Need to Know About Data Management

For team leaders and decision makers, a sharp instinct and observation skills are great assets. However, adding data to the equation makes all the difference. Most companies recognize that data has an enormous importance for their business, but a large percentage admits having problems managing data.

There are dozens of concepts and variables around data management, which can get confusing. That's why, before exploring some of those key definitions, let’s bust some myths around data management:

• “A data management plan or a strategy is only for big companies.” — Wrong! The sooner you become aware of the importance of having organized, manageable, and integrated data, the better. Startups and small teams can increase their productivity and ROI by managing their data properly.
• “Managing data is having a CSV file in order.” — Definitely not. Though everyone loves a tidy CSV file, the manual work involved often results in mistakes, outdated data, and security risks.
• “You need a big IT team to tackle data management.” — Not necessarily. There are a lot of easy-to-use SaaS, iPaaS, and cloud-based services that allow you to collect, store, maintain, and integrate your data.

Now that you know that everyone can benefit from data management, let's talk about what it is, why it's so important (and sometimes so difficult) to get right, best practices, and top vendors for different business sizes.

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