Data Conversion
Our modern world is now based on an information economy. Data has become the most critical asset of every modern organization. Data-driven strategies are now a competitive imperative to succeed in every industry. Businesses have multiple business objectives such as:
- Revenue growth
- Profitability
- Customer satisfaction
Organizations are increasingly relying on data to make decisions. Data-driven decision-making needs to be at the heart of your digital transformation initiatives.
Make Your Data a Priority.
Your Organization’s Resources
Your organization probably already has most of the data and expertise you need to begin an analysis you need to perform. Your Human Resources office probably already tracks data regarding your employees. You are probably already reporting data regarding incidents to your state oversight agency. You have people in your organization who have experience with Excel.
Data is important to you. You keep track of it, and you create important reports based on your data.
Example of Sources Materials
- Photos
- Audio Recordings
There are various formats such as MP3 or WAV, for example.
- Hard-Copy Written-Printed Documents
- Digital Text Documents
Note that these can be in various formats such as MS Word, Pages, and PDF.
Traditional Data Conversion processes are manually intensive, extremely costly, time-consuming, require rigid governance, and there may be data accuracy issues.
Data Conversion – A Simple Process?
Data Conversion is simple in concept but can be challenging to implement. While the concept itself may seem simple, data conversion is a critical step in data integration. This step enables the data to be read, altered, and executed (used) in an application or database other than that in which it was created.
Data conversion aims to prevent data loss or corruption by maintaining the integrity of the data and any associated embedded or organizational structures. This can be done easily if the destination format supports the same features and data structures as the source data. If the new destination does not support the format of the legacy source, then this introduces challenges. An organization must correctly and comprehensively convert the original format and structure to be read, modified, found (accessed) by the final data management system.
It is worth discussing what data conversion is not, as there is often some confusion.
Data conversion is often confused with processes known as:
- Data migration
- Data transformation
- Data cleansing
Data Conversion Clarification
Data Migration
Data conversion translates individual computer objects and data types from one format to another, data migration transfers entire databases or programs from one location to another. Data migration often entails data conversion, data transformation, and data cleansing.
Data Transformation
Data conversion translates one format to another. An example would be converting an RTF file to a Word file. Data transformation changes the data presentation. A typical data transformation process is to condense the data. Note: the format itself does not change.
Data Cleansing
Data cleansing finds and corrects inaccurate, repeated, and incomplete data. This procedure often occurs after a data conversion, data transformation, or data migration process.
Data and Decision Making
For data to enable effective decision-making and deliver remarkable customer experiences, organizations need data they can trust. This is also a significant challenge for organizations.
Being able to trust your data is about remaining on the right side of regulation and customer confidence, and it’s about having the right people using the right data to make the right decisions. And this, too is a major challenge for organizations. According to the Harvard Business Review, 47% of data records are created with critical errors that impact work on average.
Your Data & Your Legacy System
Your organization has been collecting data for years. You have a legacy data storage system that may not be up to date when it comes to ease of input, security, and access. For your organization data will allow you to set goals for performance and celebrate your successes when you achieve your goals or provide important insights into where you need to improve if you miss your objectives.
If you need to move forward with a new data management system, then you may be faced with the need to convert your data from one form to another. This means that you will need to use a data conversion process.
Data Conversion
Data conversion is the transformation of data from one format to another. It implies extracting data from the source (the legacy system). Then, transforming the data into a new format. Finally, the transformed data must be loaded into the new data management system.
This process will have a set of requirements. These requirements are essential and must be defined and adhered to.
The critical point is that the original data source may be very different.
Our World Is Full of Data
Our world is only becoming more complex, and this includes data management.
We need to manage a growing volume of data assets: the traditional data sources that we use and the new ones that the digital era is creating, such as social media and even digital sensor data.
What if we could make all this data trustworthy, organize it at scale, and deliver it to everybody who needs it? What if we could give people the right tools to manage themselves and work as a team to cleanse, extract hidden value, and then assemble and deliver data everyone can trust? The ability to do this is the essence of data governance.
A company that helps with your data conversion and data governance needs is Vastec. Here is a direct link to the Vastec Website.
Let’s Start a Conversation
Visit VASTEC.com to learn more about the Data Conversion process and how VASTEC can help.