A critical and accelerating – but easily-addressable – problem
Former Gartner Research VP (and Director of World Wide Technologies for American Express) Jim Sinur recently wrote an op-ed piece with direct application to the member industry.
Titled “Reduce Data Sprawl Because Your (Business) Life Depends On It”, he made the case that “big data” has become “monster data” and is an accelerating problem.
He defines Data Sprawl as the ever-increasing amount of new data that organizations of all kinds find spread across a variety of systems and storage locations. This is the situation at most mid- to large-sized associations, and the complexity added by the existence of member data in a variety of formats and in a variety of locations makes it much more difficult to analyze all this data to “pick up on strategic trends, adjust tactical policies/rules, and look for operational tweaks for performance improvement”.
What, then, does Sinur recommend?
His primary recommendation is “Shifting to the Cloud”, and the 3 primary benefits of doing so are precisely what the Nucleus team has verified (and delivered) in helping association clients:
1) Bringing data together into a data lake helps associations gain a much better understanding of their data – and where there are gaps and/or data quality issues
2) Organization-wide use of a single data repository means that both systems and people know where to put data and where to go to access data
3) A cloud-based data repository dramatically reduces data silos and can also be helpful in reducing both redundant and irrelevant data
In his concluding observations about data sprawl, Sinur writes that “organizations need to take steps now as it’s only going to get worse”. It’s not just about using all the data you have available to make better decisions through analytics – he also states that new digital technologies are data-hungry, so getting your data ready for consumption by new technologies is an “essential business competency.”
The Nucleus system was conceived and built to precisely address exactly these issues for member-based organizations. Its developers have a deeply advanced understanding of the architecture and capabilities of modern AMS/CRM systems and designed Nucleus to perfectly complement them – today and in the future. Nucleus brings all your organization’s data together into a state-of-the-art data lake and then provisions role-based dashboards to individuals and teams throughout your association – analytics for everyone. Addressing the challenges of data sprawl and enjoying the benefits of org-wide analytics is straightforward and easy with the right tool – arrange a conversation with a Nucleus subject matter expert to see for yourself!
