Why Your Business Needs a Source of Truth

Data is awesome. It is the backbone of so much of what we do… especially in business. It allows us to have robust online databases to store customer information and functional workflow automation so monotonous parts of our jobs can be done for us.

Errors in data, however, can quite figuratively be our Achilles’ Heel. Particularly when you have no idea where the error is! Unreliable data can even lead to issues such as increased costs, reduced productivity, brand damage, or stress-induced insomnia fueled by excessive coffee consumption. Okay maybe that last one was an exaggeration, but these are many of the reasons having a source of truth is so important.

In this post, we’re going to look at what a source of truth is, how it can help businesses maintain clean and manageable data, and how a no-code application such as Knack can help.

What is a Source of Truth?

A source of truth also known as a “Single Source of Truth” (SSoT), in its simplest terms, refers to the practice of structuring business data so that it lives in one location, ensuring everyone uses the same data across the organization. Time and time again, as businesses grow, they tend to start new and separate tools and workflows, each with their own separate sets of data. The resulting disparate and siloed data means you better remember to update each of the databases if you plan on doing just about anything!

Piece of cake, right? Maybe to begin with, but as you grow and your workflows grow, you are going to get yourself into a pickle anytime you need to make an update or discover an error.

What are the Benefits of Having a Source of Truth?

Creating a single source of truth and basing all of your data throughout the organization from that point can have a huge impact on your business. Specific and immediately noticeable benefits of putting an SSoT in place include:

• You will no longer need to share spreadsheets across teams or users…ever.
• Communication will improve throughout your organization, between teams and employees.
• Data will be more visible, making it more discoverable and your employees more accountable.
• Workflow automation will be a breeze.
• Duplicate entries will become a thing of the past.
• Determining which data is correct when there are discrepancies will no longer be necessary.
• Avoid rework…and reworking your rework.
• Processes will be more efficient, whether they are manual or automated.
• No need to go back and forth between systems to add data to several different tools.
• You will have more control over process failures, both avoiding them and fixing them when they do happen.
• You will be able to increase on-time delivery, inevitably leading to happier customers and more repeat business.
• You’ll also be able to reduce potential human error because no matter how good your employees are, humans make errors.

This is likely only the tip of the iceberg when you realize how much these benefits will impact every other part of your business, from happier employees and customers to more profitability and business process management like you wouldn’t believe.

Many businesses know what a pain it is to have their data in different places, but it may not always be so clear to them that there are easy, cost-effective, and sustainable means to undo the damage that was done.

Implementing and maintaining a source of truth can make all of your data dreams come true.

How Can Knack Be A Source of Truth?

But, how can you make all of this happen when you don’t have coders on staff or the time or money to get them??

That’s where Knack comes in.

Knack will allow you to build apps for your business, quickly and easily, so you can house and disseminate all of your data from a single source…all with no code.

Knack’s skills and abilities as a source of truth are tough to parallel. With the ability to set permissions, share, analyze, and remain reliable and secure, you will be able to manage your data on a new level.

Specific skills Knack offers as a source of truth, include:

Workflow: Building workflow from your source of truth turns your static data into dynamic processes, designed to have a sizable impact on your business.

Permissions and access levels: A single app can be used across multiple teams or departments to share data or workflow. You can set the permissions to define who can access your data and what they can see. Plus, the data will be accessible from any device, anywhere.

Connecting Related Data: Different types of data can be mapped to work together as it does in the real world.

Dashboards: You can build high-level overview reports to share with your stakeholders or teams.

Notifications: Apps can support email notifications so you are always aware when records are updated. You can also add notification messages to pages to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Integrations: Knack can integrate with other third-party services so you can integrate your app into your existing tools while making Knack your source of truth. Use Zapier, Integromat, or Knack’s own powerful API to connect your services, and feel free to customize it with JavaScript and CSS.

So, you can see that Knack is tough to parallel. All of your source of truth data is located in one place within an app that is created by you. It is exactly what you need to manage data and drive your business decisions with an easy no-code application.

What Does This Mean for You?

If you have ever struggled with organizing, connecting, finding, sharing, or constantly correcting your data, a source of truth may be exactly what you need. Plus, you can manage your data at scale. You grow, it grows with you.

Imagine you have Marketing, Sales, Onboarding, and Customer Support departments in your organization. Now imagine you have a customer that Marketing added to their database then passed on to Sales. After closing the deal, they pass it on to Onboarding who then sends it to Customer Support. Now imagine that each one of those hand-offs included one tiny, little error. Just one each. By the time it gets to Customer Support, your customer’s name, occupation, and contact information could all be wrong!

Now picture this same scenario that ends with the Customer Support Team tapping into the same data that Marketing entered months ago and includes all of the information from each of the other departments. Customer Support is now going to be able to focus on a continued successful relationship with the customer instead of trying to track down their information to get in touch with them (just think of all that glorious time saved!).

Finally, imagine making all of this happen with the aid of Knack to build the perfect app to transform your data into a powerful online database. All with no coding.

That’s the dream…

Originally published at https://www.knack.com.