Insights & Impact

Many business owners and executives fear being wrong when about to make an important decision. It’s so paralyzing a concern for some people that the decision never gets made.

Data is a critical element of just about any type of business today, yet so many businesses treat data management as a secondary concern. It may be possible to manage and run a business without good data management, however, we find that managing a business is a lot easier if data is properly collected, stored and used.

No doubt, information overload has become a big problem. No company is immune to it. And no company can avoid a future of exponential increases in the amount of data created and collected. Therefore, it's no longer a matter of if, but when, a serious plan to manage it all should be developed.

As an advisor to manufacturers, it is frustrating to see so many companies still getting caught in “traps” that certain ERP vendors set. Here is what we believe the traps are and how to avoid them.

A company’s ERP system typically represents years of development and investment. Its original focus was efficiently processing orders and data entry, which many of the older packages still do adequately. Where they aren’t strong is in important areas like data extraction, data analysis, generating reports, and user interfaces that match with a company’s unique processes. The end result? Lots of frustration and people coming up with workarounds like Excel Hell in order to get their jobs done.

Why can’t companies do better managing their data? One reason is “data” is deflected by many executives to the IT department to manage along with cyber-security. Executives should first focus on job descriptions and role definitions, since this is where the problem starts.