7 Ways Data Mapping Can Benefit Your Business (And How To Do It Right)

Businesses use various tools to ensure up-to-date and accurate records. One of the tools that some businesses utilise is data mapping. It’s critical to the success of numerous data processes. One mistake in data mapping may ripple throughout your business, resulting in inaccurate analysis and replicated errors.

Generally, data mapping is a process wherein data is visually organised to show relationships between varied forms of data. It also helps businesses by providing them with procedure links that show how particular tasks are to be used.

Data mapping also helps people see what makes various pieces of data helpful and useful. Once data is organised properly, it’ll be much easier for businesses to succeed and thrive. For more information about data mapping, you can read resources similar to https://www.truenorthitg.com/what-is-data-mapping-in-healthcare/.

If you’re unsure about data mapping, here are some of the ways it can benefit your business:

(1) Allow Your Business To Avoid Litigation

Another way data mapping can benefit your business is that it helps you avoid litigation. Due to the increasing and varying regulations or policies in data privacy, data mapping can make a difference in being compliant.

For example, data mapping enables you to establish the flow of information and data throughout your business. The right data mapping tool such as dbt or a dbt alternative can also help maintain and preserve data on your clients. Your business can avoid sanctions for losing sensitive customer information.

(2) Optimise Complex Formats

Data mapping makes data transformation much easier, ensuring several data formats' consistent and accurate transformation. It also saves time and reduces human errors while helping you make purposeful decisions and allowing smoother business operations.

(3) Improve Your Company’s Productivity

Data mapping collects your company data and keeps it more organised. For this reason, it enables you to find quick solutions to particular problems by easily tracking relevant data throughout your ETL pipeline. Being more efficient results in better decision-making and enhances your company’s overall productivity.

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(4) Boost Transparency For Analysts

When working on data, you’ll need various professionals. Besides, your employees may change at some point. Therefore, when your data map is efficient, it’s much easier for new data analysis experts to pick up the roles and understand your data.

Data mapping also helps the database’s quality, helping your analysts make accurate decisions. Since mapped data shows real-time destination information and sources, it provides structure to your data usage in your organisation. Understanding data flow is critical in any business, and data mapping allows you to do that easily.

(5) Enable Consistent Data Access

Data mapping stores all your company data in one place. Thus, everybody in your business has access to it anytime. It boosts the efficiency of your employees while ensuring smooth business operations.

(6) Ensure Effective Customer Information Management

Since data mapping organises your company data in a single entity, you can quickly access customers’ data. With this, it’s much easier for you to understand your customer’s preferences and behaviours and operate a customer-centric business.

(7) Fewer Challenges To Change Data Models

Data mapping isn’t an easy process because changes in reporting requirements and systems may require maintenance and updates in data mapping. Since there is cloud-based data mapping, stakeholders don’t need to fret about data being erased.

Additionally, utilising an NDS map can significantly enhance data mapping efficiency by providing a visual representation of data flows and transformations, making it easier to identify potential issues and ensure data accuracy and consistency across systems.

They can always access data and reuse them to make updates to save effort and time. Moreover, they can experience peace of mind knowing that data is consistent and secure throughout the network.

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How To Do Proper Data Mapping

When it comes to data mapping, it’s vital to do it right to avoid inaccuracy. To do it properly, here are the steps you should consider:

• Define Your Data

One of the first steps in data mapping is defining your data. It means selecting the data you want to move, which may include any graphs, tables, charts, and groups. This step may also include determining how you prefer to format the data after moving it and determining the data integration’s frequency if it’s the mapping method you use.

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• Map Your Data

Now that you’re done defining your data, it’s time to map it. Mapping your data from its source to your target destination includes matching source data categories and some features to the new data sets. For instance, if you have alphabetical graphs representing populations by the state in your source data, you can quickly map it to similar graphs in the destination data.

Making this map may also help you move your data to the right location and lessen the number of challenges you may encounter in the new location. It may also help you understand the transformations you wish to make to your data.

• Transform Your Data

It’s an optional step that you may take when you want to alter how you present or store your data at its destination location. For instance, you can change charts into graphs using your data set. You can also eliminate duplicate data or those with blank values. 

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Moreover, you can change how you present particular information, such as using abbreviations or taking names instead. This may also help ensure your data fits your preferred new formatting and that your newly-designed systems can handle possible data changes.

• Test Your Data

When you already have a data map and have created changes in your data, your next step is to test your design. You can create a set of test data that resembles the data you want to move. Depending on the results, change your system to address possible challenges until you encounter no issues.

• Move Your Data

Once you are done testing your data and ensuring everything is flawless, the next step is to move your data. When moving your data, have a backup file and execute the system you made to move your data from its source to the destination. Then, compare the source and destination data to prevent flaws. If there are flaws, address them immediately.

Don’t forget to create a record of your data map and remember the process you use for moving data. This way, you won’t encounter issues for every integration you do, especially when aligning your data around revenue operations. 

• Maintain And Update

Your data map is a living entity, requiring changes and updates for ongoing data integration. As your data sources change or new ones are added, you must update your data map to maintain accuracy.

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Conclusion

Taking advantage of data can help you run your business efficiently and earn better income in the long run. So, if you haven’t considered data mapping before, now is the best time. With data mapping, your business can uncover various helpful insights and guide it into the future.

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