Data Centric: What it is and how to be a data-centric organization

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Data is one of the most important assets in today's organizations. Guiding decisions and planning strategies —such as marketing strategies— taking into account a Data Centric culture allows you to move forward in markets, optimize internal processes, and take financial results to the next level.

If you have entered our post with the intention of learning more about the botim database topic, you chose well, because you came to the right place!

In the following paragraphs, in addition to finding relevant information about the benefits of Data Centric in business strategies, you will access a robust guide to become a benchmark in terms of business in this culture.

Keep reading!

What is a Data Centric Organization?
Principles of a Data Centric architecture
What are the most notable benefits?
Essential tips to become a Data Centric company
What is a Data Centric Organization?
Data is a powerful ally for the growth and success of a business. In fact, being guided by a set of reliable, quantifiable elements that generate robust information favors strategic, administrative and operational practices.

Likewise, the Data Centric dynamic strengthens the brand's position in its sector by planning and executing sales strategies in line with the characteristics, needs and preferences of the target audience. This has a direct impact on the consumer journey and, consequently, on the shopping experience .

But, ultimately, what does it mean to be a Data Centric company?

To facilitate your understanding, it is important to clarify that promoting a Data Driven culture depends on the implementation of a Data Centric architecture , that is, focused on data.

In short, to be data-driven, we need to position data at the core of corporate activities, structuring an integrated governance process and treating data as a permanent and shared asset.

From this perspective, data-centric architecture is a business approach that places data as a central component of its infrastructure.

In turn, technology is an element that is arranged around this data and is used to meet the demands of information in terms of flow, analysis and use in favor of true, effective insights that are in line with business needs.

Principles of a Data Centric architecture
Given the importance of having a document that guides businesses regarding the use of data as strategic assets, many business leaders and technology professionals signed a manifesto aimed at clearing up a series of doubts and clarifying the data landscape in the current corporate scenario, known as the Data Centric Manifesto .

Reading it carefully, we can find the principles of a Data Centric architecture developed in a time of frank confusion given the enormous flow of information in large companies.

According to the companies and experts who signed the manifesto, this confusion is due to the fact that most organizations prioritize applications instead of data.

Below we outline the principles present in the Data Centric Manifesto:

Data as an essential asset of any company;
Data is self-descriptive, so it does not need applications to interpret it;
Data is expressed in open format;
Responsibility for data security depends on the data layer;
Applications access the data and express results in the data layer.
Knowing these principles, it is clear that the implementation of this type of architecture depends largely on a profound change of mentality in organizations.

In this way, with the appropriate structuring of this type of architecture and the start of a Data Driven culture, we can integrate internal and external data in order to refine and optimize decision-making, in the same way as internal processes.

What are the most notable benefits?
Recognizing data as a powerful business asset is an essential step to generate increasingly attractive results, strengthen the position and optimize the profitability of companies.

Thus, we can say that adopting a Data Centric dynamic ensures the achievement of numerous benefits such as :

Increasingly integrated data
When we consider only a data-driven model, data can originate from different sources and be presented in different formats.

However, by implementing a data-centric approach, data is presented in a standard format and catalogued in a database. This enables applications to be built around data, thus promoting increasingly consistent, reliable and accurate analysis.

Increasing information security
With an application-centric approach, when migrating data from obsolete technologies to new tools, data can be left unprotected, thus increasing its vulnerability.

Conversely, with a Data Centric approach, companies prevent access by malicious third parties and the occurrence of theft, kidnapping and violations by using solid access policies.

In fact, structuring a strong and efficient data architecture makes it possible to identify sensitive data and apply measures in line with the need for protection.

Boost cyber resilience
Concept-wise, we define cyber resilience as the ability of a business to restructure after facing a security incident, such as those mentioned in the previous benefit.

With a data-centric model, organizations can optimize their ability to reorganize.

This is because valuable, reliable and secure data allows companies to respond quickly to unexpected situations that are potentially detrimental to the integrity of business information.

Much more precise decision making
The importance of having reliable data to support decisions and strengthen corporate strategies is unavoidable.

In addition to increasing process speed, the Data Centric approach enables more accurate analysis, estimations, projections and evaluations . Therefore, we say that data-centric architecture enables better insights.

Reducing business costs
Basing decisions on solid data promotes cost savings by avoiding:

repetition of tasks;
excessive use of financial resources, raw materials and inputs;
renewal of unprofitable and excessively costly contracts;
more efficient collections management;
elimination of obsolete tasks, processes and procedures.
Therefore, awareness that data is a robust business asset allows corporate capital to be used more efficiently, thereby maximizing its use.

If you want to deepen your knowledge about data, we recommend that you read the following content:

Discover 5 data analysis techniques to increase the accuracy of your results reports
Check out our complete data privacy guide for brands and ensure your users' trust
Data-driven culture: understand how Marvel and Netflix produce data-driven content
Essential tips to become a Data Centric company
Before we dive into the tips on how to become a Data Centric company, it is worth noting that centralizing data at the core of strategies depends on 4 fundamental pillars:

data security by preventing or, failing that, minimizing improper access to the SaaS system or platform ;
unification by adopting a continuous data architecture that can process the vast amount of data in circulation;
agility by providing instant access to data through the use of applications;
accessibility, enabling users to use data, making their decisions more efficient and improving processes, logically, keeping in mind the different levels of access.
When companies create robust security, unification, agility and accessibility measures, they can initiate an orderly plan of actions that trigger data centralization.

Okay! Now that we've clarified this point, we can focus on 3 extremely useful and effective tips to promote Data Centric architecture in your company:

1. Introduction into the higher spheres
First, strategic decision-makers must be aware of the need to focus data at the core of the business and use technology as a tool to promote better understanding and to obtain valuable information, insights and results.

That is, before promoting the approach at the tactical/technical and operational level, companies need to encourage data collection , as well as its processing and analysis in the strategic environment.

Likewise, the IT sector must align itself with the perceptions of executives by actively contributing to the definition of a Data Centric architecture .

2. Build an IT team willing to teach
It is important to keep in mind that the IT department is the protagonist of the digital transformation in favor of the Data Centric dynamic .

The team must therefore encourage the adoption of procedures, policies, standards and objectives that make the implementation of a data-centric architecture feasible. In this regard, IT professionals need to prioritize the training of employees in order to accept and consider the new approach.

3. Organize the data
The organization of data depends on the company's ability to map it and understand the environment in which it is presented, as well as its ability to organize it by establishing a level of hierarchy and to plan its infrastructure according to the needs and projections of each organization.

That's all for now!

As you can see, promoting Data Centric architecture benefits companies from different perspectives and environments, mainly in terms of cost savings, maximizing the use of resources and generating income.