Many companies know the importance of data in business but don’t know how to manage their data correctly. You can’t just throw data into folders and databases and call it a day. You need a system in place to keep things secure and accurate.
Unfortunately, not every business gets this right. Reports show that 88% of organizations aren’t governing their data correctly.
You can’t afford to take things easy when business data is so vital to your company’s success. Avoid the common data management mistakes below to manage your data correctly.
No Backups
The chances are good that you use data in every part of your business. From your marketing efforts to product research, you need access to information to make great decisions.
Unfortunately, things can go wrong that cause you to lose data. Without a backup solution in place, your business will get shut down. Create a backup system to back up and restore your data when it goes missing.
Zero Access Controls
Do you have your data in public view for everyone in your organization to access? If so, you’re opening yourself up to a lot of problems. Even if you can trust your employees, you never know what issues an employee will face that will cause issues with your data.
Only give people who need access to data the ability to see the information. You can use access control systems that govern who has access to files and databases. Doing this will limit any damages caused by a compromised employee.
No Data Verification
Collecting a lot of data isn’t enough to make great decisions. If you pull your information from bad data sources, you’ll be making decisions on incorrect information.
You need to vet all information you bring into your organization. Put a system in place to verify your data sources and that your data is current and correct.
Ignoring Regulations
You can’t do whatever you want with data these days. With so many high-profile data breaches, consumers are demanding better from the companies that store their data. Because of that, governments have taken action.
There are now regulations that govern how you handle data that depend on your industry. Make sure you understand those rules and follow them to avoid getting in trouble with the government.
Not Destroying Data
You’ll get rid of old hard drives as time goes on. You’ll need to do this as drives go bad, and you need to upgrade storage. However, simply deleting something on the drive doesn’t mean it’s gone.
You need to invest in data erasure like the service offered by Certus Software solutions. These programs will completely remove data from a drive to ensure nobody can recover your files.
Don’t Make Common Business Data Management Mistakes
It’s easy enough to collect a lot of data as a small business owner. It’s another thing to store it correctly and put systems in place to keep it secure and useful for business.
Because of that, many companies make several business data mistakes. Avoid the mistakes above to make sure you practice data best practices.
Check out the blog to find more tips that will help you with business ownership.
