Even small businesses are awash in data: good data, useful data, but there’s so much of it. Our Tulsa Database Design services unlock the wealth of insight in all that data so it becomes and assets instead of a liability. Call Vaillus IT at 918-734-7215 and lets get started.
Let the Experts Help
We’ve been designing intuitive databases for decades. We know how to identify the relationships and useful information buried in all the places you store data. We build a database that will store it all and give you the tools you need to visualize it any way that you like. Your whole team benefits by gaining valuable insight into business operations. Don’t let all that data go to waste when you could put it to effective use.
Already Have Databases?
That’s not uncommon. Applications you buy from vendors have their own database design. Getting at it is another issue. Planning to combine it with data from another package to get a broader perspective? Good luck with that, unless you call the experts at Vaillus IT. We are masters at database design and integration. Pulling all that data together provides you with deep insight, seeing relationships that are otherwise hidden. How about combining your General Ledger with your production data and HR system? Yeah, we do that.
Flying Blind Without It
Most owners and decision makers have no idea what data they have, let alone decide where to put it. There is data scattered all over the company. It is stashed away in boxes, filing cabinets, email systems, spreadsheets, and peoples’ heads. Flying blind and taking guesses is the only option when a business doesn’t have access to this valuable trove of insight.
What About the Team?
They aren’t any better off. Sure, they know about their own data and perhaps some of what their close associates have. Most people only operate on what gets thrown over the wall and know very little about how it came to be. The negative effects on team members of not having central stores of data are:
- Duplicate work because they don’t know the information already exists elsewhere, or didn’t get it in the format they need.
- Spending valuable time having to ask for information from the “data gatekeepers” who personally manage it.
- No one has the full picture. Its up to the manager to collect all this information and piece it together.
- Morale takes a hit due to uncertainty and not being able to add the value they know they would be capable if they had access.
- Loss of innovation when no one can combine the data in creative ways that provide insight.
- Having people temporarily or permanently unavailable grinds other operations to a halt as your best people become tied up trying to compensate.
Longer Term Problems
There is a longer-term problem as well. When information isn’t managed in a consistent, reliable way, it can be accidentally destroyed, mismanaged, exposed to security risks, or lost. By the time you realize there is a problem, its too late.
What’s the Difference between Data, Information and Knowledge?
Here are a few useful definitions:
- Data is facts such as numbers and descriptions that is tucked away in some known or unknown place. It isn’t doing any good until someone discovers it and turns it into information.
- Information is the data that is readily available to you when you need to take hold of it. It exists in a known place and format.
- Knowledge is information that has been distilled into its useful essence to be easily consumption or committed to memory.
- Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge to in a constructive way to solve problems and leverage opportunities.
You Need Insight to Scale
Scaling your business instead of just growing it requires proactive effort. It requires responding quickly to challenges. Business have to know where they are in order to make rapid course corrections to keep progress on track. Clearly it is dependent on having useful and timely knowledge about the state of operations and financials. It requires access to information, which is dependent on collecting data from your operations in readily accessible repositories. Good database design is essential to good business outcomes.
When data is well organized and processes are well designed, team members can make most of their own decisions. The core team members don’t get tied up with routine questions. Their focus stays on growth and execution where it should be.
Structured Versus Unstructured
Data come in two formats: structured and unstructured. Structured data fits a predefined pattern, such as rows and columns in a spreadsheet or related tables in a database. Unstructured data is free form text like narratives, descriptions, contract language, etc.
They aren’t mutually exclusive. Free form documents can always be indexed with structured data such as date, author, contract number, customer, vendor, employee, etc. It can also be mined for key words and phrases that make it easy to locate later.
The Missing Dimension
No matter how meticulous your filing system, document storage will always suffer from being one-dimensional: they can only exist in one place, usually under layers and layers of folder structures, and you only have one facet to search on: the existing folder structure. Spreadsheets are to dimensional in that they store data in rows and columns, but they exist under the same bloated folder structure and don’t support hierarchical, parent-child relationships except for on a limited scale by using multi-line formulas to roll up information on some summary tab you must scroll around and find.
The purpose of database design and development is to create a place for all your important data that is easy to populate, locate, and report on. Data gets stored, then returned as information when it is need, analyzed and rolled up as reports and graphs that provide the knowledge you can apply to business decisions.
Yep, You Need Experts
Our experienced Tulsa database design team will analyze the information going into, and out of, the steps in your workflows and determine how best to store and leverage it for the people who need it. We look at your documents, spreadsheets, email folders and other stores of data to see where the valuable data is hiding and bring it to light.
Our database design experts create a structure that models your real-world operations. You will leverage it to make your business run efficiently and productively using an intuitive set of tools. We incorporate databases you already have, such as your accounting system and online portals that support data integration, to produce a complete picture of your business operations. The Tulsa database design experts at Vaillus IT will always ask the right questions to find out what your team members know intuitively. We capture it and make it available to the team members who benefit from this organizational knowledge.
Just Imagine
Imagine what it would be like to have the most important institutional knowledge right at your fingertips, a snapshot into your company’s operational and financial status that is practically up to the minute. How much easier would it be to make adjustments and important decisions? How much time and money would it save you and your team not having to chase this information down or compile it by hand? Without this level of access to what the data, information, and knowledge spread around your facilities, you are making guesses, not decisions.
Experienced Tulsa Database Design Team
Any experienced pilot will tell you to fly by instrumentation, not by looking out the window. Trust the gauges. But first you have to build them for your specific business, and that’s where the Tulsa database design experts at Vaillus IT comes in. Teamed with our full site of services, we unlock the insights hidden in your data so you make informed decisions, not guesses.