As the world dives further into the age of information, technology advances with more ways to deliver and manipulate data. Companies manage their data through various business systems and programs, and the advent of cloud servers over the internet has expanded the ways people can control their data. The evolution of information technology and data management efficiently streamlines how businesses use their data and has ultimately erased the unnecessary time employees spend manipulating, reconciling, and clarifying data.
These days, companies manage their data through computer-installed programs that handle accounting, client management, banking details, human resources, and other related business systems. As many crucial areas of business management exist, data controllers might require different business information systems to handle finance, production, human resources, and marketing. Each aspect of these management systems may need its own armoury of data systems, leading to piles of data that managers need to translate to fit the data systems of other management areas. While the evolution of information technology and data systems efficiently streamline the use of data, the problem lies in the delivery of information between two or more data systems. Specifically, the problem is data integration or the lack thereof.
The MS Word Theory - Presence and Absence of Data Integration
Integrated is the optimal state in which data travels, and the best way to see data integration is in its absence. Let's look at evidence of data integration in the computer programs we use daily - Microsoft software. Say, for instance, our data is a 5,000-word thesis complete with statistics, graphs, and pictures - all arranged in APA format. If I were to hit CTRL + A, CTRL + C, then open an empty .docx file and hit CTRL + V, MS Word would copy my data into the blank page. Everything would be the same, down to the position of pictures, the number of words, and the format. I could then work on the new MS file as if it were the original version. We can safely say that transferring data between one MS Word file to another is efficient and easy - the default of data integration.
However, if we transfer the same case study to, for instance, a .txt file, the situation is different. Text files such as Notepad do not support pictures and will have difficulties receiving data from MS Word. The data we copied from .docx will not appear the same way in .txt files. The new .txt file may tell the same information in text, but the pictures and formats would be missing. We would have to reconcile the data between the .txt and .docx files to understand the information given to us. As we're looking at a 5,000-word essay, this data could require days to reconcile - this is a clear example of the absence of data integration.
The Hands-on Issue of Lacking Data Integration
Data management seems akin to having multiple Word and Excel files open at the same time while contacting insurance brokers and reading through bank files in a separate browser tab. This lack of optimal data integration is a problem that many businesses face. The only difference is that companies deal with more than just case studies. They deal with financial information such as sales, cash inflow and outflow, insurance policies, client database, business partners, dealers, production management - an entire world of data to manage. Software such as SAGE handles financial information such as accounting, and it works with WINBEAT for matters related to insurance, such as the management of insurance policies and the commission of insurance brokers. Meanwhile, data managers would need to read through bank information such as receipts and checks and reconcile them with their bankers' data.
Integration of data efficiently expedites these tasks and, to a significant degree, cuts down possibilities of human errors.
Achieving Integration
Integration is a business strategy that expedites data flow, reducing time spent manually inputting numbers and words on an excel file. Data managers can cut down the time they spend on the keyboard by hiring data encoders. However, this adds to the number of employees, increases the company's salary expenses, and exposes crucial business data to these encoders. Another advanced method of achieving data integration is setting up a program that receives information from one data software and translates it into a readable format for another. The program would have to be complex enough to manipulate information between multiple data systems and still be comprehensible to the end-users such as managers, employees, clients, and business partners. Without a skilled programmer who could achieve such a feat, businesses would again have to incur further expenses in employing a team to develop a data system integration software for the company. A personalized data system unique to the company begs a few questions - how effective is it? If it fails, how trustworthy is the support system? Is it secure and safe from prying eyes?
Pegboard answers these recurring questions regarding data system integration with its SILicone software.
Integration in Harmony
The Pegboard SILicone software is a data integration software that harmoniously connects CRM, accounting, and document management systems through a single point, allowing for comprehensive and extensive endpoint reporting. SILicone effectively gives businesses and data managers the ability to track the performance of their data integration. By harmoniously integrating all business systems, the SILicone software augments the productivity of its users. As SIL integrates a business's data systems through a single point, data managers and end-users can efficiently control and track their data without needing a developer or programmer. Furthermore, SIL guides its users with a live-reporting dashboard that updates every time a new variable arrives. Business owners, employees, clients and partners can track their data as SIL updates them.
5 Expectations From SIL
- Less dead time spent on manually inputting data
- Real-time tracking of data.
- Database updates as soon as they come in.
- More time spent on other business-related tasks.
- Satisfied business partners and brokers.
Sorting the Spaghetti
Businesses tend to use vast arrays of business systems to manage their day-to-day activities, all to supervise the inflow and outflow of funds, time management, scheduling, dealership database, customer files and marketing information - to name a few. The employment of multiple data management systems tends to create a jumble of tasks as data controllers update them.
In a practical sense, let's look at the steps in paying an insurance broker's commission with a promissory note. The following can happen - the company's financial decision-makers would, first, need to approve of incurring the liability. Upon approval of the promise to pay, the brokers must be alerted that their commission of X amount shall come on a future date - the notification would come in an email or text that company employees would need to compose, review, and edit. The company's accountants would add entries to their list of payables and liabilities. Data managers would need to update their brokers' information with a reminder for the management to pay a specified amount of money on a particular date. This reminder would also need to be present on the company's schedule or calendar. Upon the arrival of the payment date, the company could either decide to pay by bank or cash and incur more accounting and data management tasks.
Paying for a broker's commission feels like a jumble of manual tasks for data managers. Information seems to travel through a web of data systems back and forth, taking longer than necessary to allow real-time reporting. This unmapped web of data is what Pegboard calls "the Spaghetti Junction."
Pegboard describes the Spaghetti Junction as a "tangled web of unmapped integrations that do not scale to business growth." It's akin to sorting computer wires during an important business meeting - there are better things to do. If only we could automatically sort our data as they come. Furthermore, if only there were an automated data integration program that could report our data in real-time. If only we could pay our brokers with one click of the mouse, then everything else automatically updates for us. Pegboard SILicone does that - it sorts the Spaghetti, so you don't have to. Furthermore, SIL logs all its integration in a dashboard that updates in real-time.
When Geniuses See a Problem
SILicone arose from Pegboard's own data integration problem. At the beginning of Pegboard, data and information ran everywhere from one business system to another. There was great difficulty simply pulling out data whenever needed - akin to opening a file cabinet and rummaging through folders A to Z. There was also the need to contact clients and their dealers. Transactions required manual updates, all of this contributed to much unproductive time. The focus splits between productive business tasks and the manual labour of managing data. Such was the issue in the early days of Pegboard. The company's geniuses knew that they needed a reliable data integration method. They knew that they needed a data integration system - one that was not only effective but also easy to use. Not only should the program benefit Pegboard but its stakeholders as well - clients, employees, and brokers were part of the family. Their brilliance gave rise to the Pegboard SILicone, which provided everything they needed for themselves and their stakeholders.
Who Uses SIL?
The target audience of SILicone is every business that handles data, whether they're big or small. Companies need data integration methods that are secure, efficient, and easy to track.
SIL's recurring clients are companies, both large and small, that use core business systems such as SAGE, WINBEAT, XERO, Salesforce, and Google Docs - to mention a few. These companies also have dealerships throughout Australia, and they deal with numerous insurance brokers, accounting entities, and other third parties. SILicone system integration improves data management in companies of any size or industry.