Is your business struggling to manage the flood of data available in today’s competitive world? Or, worse, are your legacy applications restricting access to your data? This is a most difficult predicament for most businesses. Data silos, information duplication, and inaccuracies only complicate the matter further. However, a data centric approach can help. By adopting this mindset, your organization can gain agility, establish a Single Source of Truth (SSOT), streamline automation processes, and reignite innovation. In this article, I’ll look at the six benefits of a data-centric approach, how it differs from data-driven and application-centric approaches. Indeed, it’s time to re-think your business’ data strategy!

“Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.”

Tim Berners-Lee

1. Understanding Data Centric Business Technology And Processes.

To understand data-centric business technologies and processes, we first need to review the relationship between data and software. Moreover, we need to ask the question, is this software-data combination the best way to leverage data?

a. Examples of Business Software and Its Relationship With Data.

In today’s business world, being technologically savvy and data-driven is a must for most business managers. For example, most supply chain managers are no strangers to data-rich software such as:

• Enterprise Software. Here, software like ERP, TMS, and WMS both import and generate data. In most cases, the data is a by-product of the software processes.
• Office Productivity Software. For example, MS Excel. This software both uses data and creates data via data entry. In most cases, the data is isolated and manipulated for a single outcome.
• Business Intelligence (BI) Dashboards. In this case, business professionals will use these analytics tools to summarize data in order to assist with decision-making. Also, many times the source data comes from other systems and is duplicated in a separate database for BI reporting purposes.

b. A Data-Driven Approach Does Not Necessarily Deliver Business Value.

However, using software like ERPs, MS Excel, and BI may be data-driven, but that does not necessarily mean you are able to use your data effectively to drive business value. Indeed, a data-driven approach many times overwhelms a business with data rather than helps achieve corporate goals. Moreover, today many businesses primarily generate data as a by-product of their enterprise systems or other software processes. Consequently, this data ends up not generating much real value, or worse, it becomes a liability resulting in data overload.

In contrast, being data-centric is a different mindset. It is about treating your data as a permanent asset rather than a by-product. In fact, this data-centric mindset is something that businesses can start now to begin to transform their automation. As a result, businesses can focus on data first that drives value, and not just on software applications.

c. What Does It Mean to be Data Centric?

So, to better understand this new concept, let’s start with a definition of data-centric:

“Data centric refers to an architecture where data is the primary and permanent asset, and applications come and go.  In the data centric architecture, the data model precedes the implementation of any given application and will be around and valid long after it is gone.”

TDAN, The Data-Centric Revolution: Data-Centric vs. Data-Driven

Being A Data Centric Business: It’s Going Beyond The Frenzy Of More Big Apps And High Tech

I like this definition because it defines data as a key permanent asset for businesses. Specifically, this definition tells us that technology, software applications, and automation will come and go, but our data will never grow obsolete. Indeed, data is a permanent business asset that businesses do not need to constrain within any particular technology or software application. For a more detail look at the challenges of dealing with data overload, the pitfalls of being software centric, and the concept of running a data centric business, see my article, Being A Data Centric Business: It’s Going Beyond The Frenzy Of More Big Data And High Tech.

“We are surrounded by data, but starved for insights.”

Jay Baer

2. The Six Benefits Of A Data-Centric Business.

Now, it is hard to change to a data-centric mindset overnight, especially for an organization that previously had an application-centric approach to leveraging information technology. At the same time, if an organization does transition to a data-centric approach for doing business, they can immediately start to reap the benefits. These data-centric benefits include:

Data-Centric Benefits: Businesses Becoming More Innovative By Not Being Mired In Application Centricity

• Superior Business Agility: Not chained to data silos or legacy applications
• High Confidence In Data: There Is a single source of truth (SSOT) vs multiple versions or copies
• Improved Decision-Making: Having high-quality data that is complete, accurate, timely
• Simplified Software: Lower costs, increase reuse of code
• Faster Adoption of New Technologies: Such as AI, IoT, and other data-centric information technologies
• Streamlined Data Security, Integration, And Analytics

Indeed, a shift to a data-centric way of thinking will differentiate those businesses that will thrive and those that will be left behind. In my article, Data-Centric Benefits: Businesses Becoming More Innovative By Not Being Mired In Application Centricity, I’ll look at six advantages of businesses adopting a data-centric mindset. This is a business way of thinking that maximizes data insights and enables rapid tech adoption for a competitive advantage.

“Data really powers everything that we do.”

Jeff Weiner

3. What Data Centric Is Not.

You Need To Think Data Centric To Be A Successful Business: Stop Being Data Driven, Application Centric

To put it simply, data-centric is not application-centric. Neither is it data-driven. To sum it up.

• Data-Driven Approach. This mindset creates data overload and data silos.
• Application-Centric. Here, data is treated as an output at best, and worst as a by-product.
• Data-Centric. This mindset treats data as a business asset, not a by-product.
• Bottom Line: You can’t be both application centric and data centric.

For more details on the difference between “data-centric”, “data driven” and  “application centric”, see my article, You Need To Think Data Centric To Be A Successful Business: Stop Being Data Driven, Application Centric.

More References.

Also, for more details and perspectives on businesses taking a data centric approach, see Kevin Doubleday blog posting Introduction to Data-Centricity. Lastly, to get started on your data transformation journey, see my article, A Data-Centric Business Strategy Checklist: The Way To Energize A Digital Enterprise To Be More Agile, Bold, And Simplified.

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Lastly, if you are in the supply chain industry and need help to implement a data-centric strategy, please contact me to discuss next steps. I have implemented 100s of tech pilot projects and innovative solutions across the supply chain as well as all transportation modes. I specialize in proof-of-concepts (POC) for emerging technologies and data-centric software development methods. To reach me, click here to access my contact form or you can find me on LinkedIn.

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