Where is Your Specialized Data Stored?

​Data is dynamic. That is the first rule of data management. Information changes over time, the information organizations need to make decisions evolves, shifts and varies as well. Employees come and employees go. With new employees, and evolving work teams, new preferences for managing information emerge. 

The very fact that our organizations are constantly evolving dictates that information needed to assist transformation will follow suite. If we do not accommodate the growth and evolution of essential data, we could very well hamper the growth and evolution of our business or organization. It is because data is so dynamic that we must find flexible ways of managing information.
 
Information management usually breaks down into two broad categories.

1. Enterprise level data management – managing system wide information within a software solution designed to be used by the entire organization.
2. Specialized data management – managing information that doesn’t quite “fit” into your enterprise software solution.

 
Most of our workplaces have enterprise level data management solutions. These data management solutions process information used by almost everyone in the organization. Enterprise level solutions are also capable of managing information shared by many organizations.
 
In the last 20 some years, the industrialized world has become dependent upon enterprise level software systems. A typical example is CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software. Accounting systems are also software applications deployed at an enterprise level.
 
Because enterprise ranked systems administer so much information and because that information is so pivotal to the functioning of an organization, it gets a lot of attention from IT Departments. However – enterprise level data is not a comprehensive picture of data management. It is objectively impossible for any enterprise solution to accommodate every data processing need of every client. For software vendors this phenomenon really can boil down to money.
 
Just consider customization of SaaS (software as a service) solutions. As a data management consultant I’ve been in my share of meetings where such customizations are discussed. I have listened to SaaS vendors tell my clients that they can’t accommodate specific requests because, “you’re the only customer we have asking for that modification”. The vendor does not view the requested modification as worth their time. If 25% of their customers requested the same modification, it would have monetary value and they’d put the time in. I’m not blaming SaaS vendors. If I were in their shoes I’d be making decisions the same way. It’s the only logical way to run a SaaS business. But, this reality does leave a major information management gap for the average organization.
 
Specialized data management encompasses any information that doesn’t quite “fit” into an enterprise software solution. Specialized data can distinguish an organization from its competitors. Not only the information collected, but the data points themselves may be exclusive to an organization. These specialized data points are precisely why the information does not fit into enterprise software solutions.
 
Specialized data can also be quite sensitive. It may be HIPAA data, or proprietary information. It may be sensitive data about customers, clients, or even employees. The information may actually “fit” into the enterprise software solution, but organizations may choose to manage it locally as one more level of protecting the information.
 
Either way, the typical means of handling specialized information is to use spreadsheet applications. And for a good chunk of unique data management needs Excel works. If 2 or 3 people on a team are the only ones using the information and if the amount of data points needed to manage the information are not overwhelming, Excel can work. Spreadsheets can work if the data volume is low enough and if users don’t need to reproduce spreadsheets across multiple reporting periods. Reality isn’t always this clean though.
 
The reality is that spreadsheets are designed for data analysis, not data storage. This is an important distinction. Yes, spreadsheets can be used to store data. However spreadsheet tools are built first for analyzing information, not storing it. Storing information is a job best achieved using a database application.
 
As things stand now in the world of data management, there is an enormous gap between managing information at the enterprise stage and managing all the data which doesn’t fit into the enterprise solution. Excel only goes so far. Users know this, in their gut they know when they’re tapping out spreadsheet capabilities for storing (rather than analyzing) data. But, they don’t know where to go.
 
Users may find themselves reproducing spreadsheet applications from one reporting period to the next, making it cumbersome to analyze data across multiple reporting periods. Team members may be trying to maintain multiple spreadsheets with similar data. This can get burdensome if you have to edit or update information in all related spreadsheets. Difficulties with maintaining multiple spreadsheets, reproducing spreadsheets and staying on top of formulas, links, etc. can become so insurmountable that users no longer trust the data. If a team can’t trust the data, if they can’t be assured that the data is clean – there is a major impact on decision making processes. This is where data literally “falls through the cracks”, this is where the biggest gap in data management is.
 
There is a solution. Move the unwieldy information processing needs from Excel to a database solution. Microsoft didn’t stop at Excel. Within their line of data management products, Microsoft also produced MS Access.
 
Where the first purpose of Excel is to analyze data, the first purpose of Access is to store and process data. So, when data in Excel becomes unwieldy and awkward to manage, the next step up on the evolution ladder is Microsoft Access.
 
Microsoft Access surpasses Excel in managing data integrity, making it easier to process information from multiple reporting periods &/or similar data sets. With Access it’s possible to eliminate all the duplicate records users become accustomed to in Excel. With Access it’s easier to integrate the specialized data with information in the enterprise software solution. With Access it is easier to manage multi-user conditions. And because Access is designed as a database application, it works quite well with SQL Server. This makes it much easier to use Access where the data volume is too high for Excel.
 
“Dump it in Excel” does not have to be the only answer to a specialized information management need. There is another option within the Microsoft suite of products. For more information about using Microsoft Access as a specialized data management tool; check out the following articles.

1. What is the Difference between Excel and Access
2. ​MS Access - Best Economical Data Management Option
3. YES – Microsoft Access Can be Used Securely
4. ​Yes – Microsoft Access works in a Multi-User Environment
5. Do you have questions about your own data management project? Contact Michelle.