Much is said today about BIG DATA and the resulting opportunities. New opportunities are arising for SMEs to analyse their market more precisely and position their offering better. The speed at which data can be processed is constantly increasing. Thanks to technologies such as SAPHANA can achieve real quantum leaps here. Of course, this also applies to SAP Business One. However, there is one prerequisite: the quality of the data!
However, a lot does not always help a lot. If the quality of the data is not correspondingly good, meaningful results cannot be expected.
What determines the quality of the data
Generally speaking: Data quality is when the suitability of several data sets is compared in order to determine similarities and/or deviations. Quality aspects include whether the data sets are accurate, complete, up-to-date and relevant.
It is also important that the data is accessible in the same way and remains consistent.
In practice, this means that you cannot avoid analysing your own database for weak points with regard to the use of data. Data quality to be checked, cleaned and/or completed. This involves eliminating duplicates, standardising formats and updating rules.
The introduction of business software such as SAP Business One. The structure of the data maintained in a predecessor system is highly unlikely to correspond to that of the successor system. This means that the data must first be transferred to the new structure, usually outside the system, and its quality checked at the same time. This is a process that is underestimated in many ERP projects. At the same time, you should think carefully about what you want to learn from the new data in the future. There is by no means only one way to Rome here.
Constant maintenance for the quality of the data
Once the data is in the new system, this is often the point from which things can only go downhill. The reasons for this can be a lack of user training. However, it is often not clear who is responsible for the quality of the data. The latter often leads to uncontrolled growth through more or less arbitrary changes or extensions. Here too, a lot does not help a lot. Creating a new field, among other things, is no longer a major effort in applications such as SAP Business One. However, you should think carefully about whether this is really necessary.
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