Data is central to your business. So how can you ensure that your small or medium sized business is maintaining its data in an accurate and consistent manner? Doing so is called data integrity. Data integrity, a central part of information security, involves storing and managing data in a precise and dependable way. Maintaining data integrity is common practice in large and enterprise organizations. But what can your small or medium sized business do to ensure data integrity despite limited access to time and resources?
1.) Establish data entry protocols
Maintaining data integrity begins at data entry. Creating data entry protocols aligned with business processes can serve as the first line of protection from unclean, inaccurate data. But protocols are just the beginning. Ensuring the on boarding and continuous development of staff will need to be a constant priority. In addition, protocols will require updates when systems or demands from systems change.
2.) Set rules for data validation
Errors are bound to occur and compile despite the most robust of data entry protocols. However, even the most minor errors can threaten data integrity. In response, database administrators should use validation rules to control data entered into company databases. For example, administrators can restrict permissions of certain individuals from altering entered data. This provides an added layer of quality assurance and security when maintaining data integrity.
3.) Automate data cleaning
Maintaining clean data is essential to ensure data integrity. As mentioned, processes to keep data clean may involve establishing rules for data input and scheduling data health checkups. However, these measures are not impervious to generating unclean data. One option is to select and set up a tool that automates data cleaning processes. Doing so reduces time and energy spent by team members ensuring data integrity.
In short, the data integrity of your small or medium-sized business would substantially increase following a systematic approach to data entry, validation, and cleaning. Fortunately, there are a number of platforms available that can help automate some or all of these processes for your business for a reasonable fee.
This article is about maintaining data integrity. True Interaction built SYNAPTIK, our Business Process Automation Platform, specifically to make manage core business processes like data cleaning to enhance the data integrity of digital systems. For more information or a demo, please visit us at https://synaptik.co/ or email us at hello@www.true.design
