Data Management Series — 3. Data Integration

Companies have been advancing their digital transformation at an increasingly accelerated pace. According to data published in 2021 by FGV, a Brazilian higher education institute and think tank, Brazilian companies advanced their digital transformation process during the Covid-19 pandemic at a rate that would normally be expected over a period of about four years. Despite this, one of the major obstacles to digital transformation is the “inability to extract valuable insights from available data and/or an excess of information”, according to Digital Transformation Index (DT Index) research, developed by Dell in the year 2020.

Integrating data is one of the most important steps in the digital transformation process. The robustness of the tools and infrastructure currently available on the market facilitates the capture of data. However, the information obtained must sometimes be separated into silos. Data silos are a type of storage that makes the production and consumption of data available only to one department, which in turn causes the information to be isolated from other areas of the company. Some of the user’s personal information, e.g. their date of birth, could be used to enrich data in other sectors of the company, such as campaigns by the marketing department, but instead is restricted to the purchasing department.

Therefore, there are some disadvantages to adopting this type of data silo structure, especially in growing companies, as this data segregation makes it more difficult to generate deeper and more strategic insights than could be done by integrating them. Let’s look at some of these drawbacks:

• Failure to use resources: even if the company uses quality tools to obtain the data, the lack of organization, integration and analysis means that the data obtained does not generate the potential return that it could.
• Cost of data storage: when companies start working with Big Data, the cost of storing the data obtained starts to increase. Without good insights to develop strategic decisions, the data fails to deliver a proper return on investment.
• Lack of collaboration between departments: in the absence of integration between the company’s systems, information is not shared within organizations and often does not reach the sectors that would most benefit from accessing and consuming the data.

To counteract this data isolation, integration is a method that can be used for business tools and methodologies whose objective is to share data across the entire company, allowing its use by those who will benefit from it most.

Data integration has many advantages, including:

• Data integration provides a 360° view. With this a company’s data professionals can gain powerful insights and measure the performance of campaign content, digital ads on social media and more. Once a company’s data ecosystem is integrated, it is possible to leverage the relationships between the data to facilitate personalized multi-channel experiences for all types of customers.
• The 360º view of the consumer’s journey is an important component, as it translates into the ability to look at the customer’s preferences in a homogeneous and panoramic way. In other words, it means being able to see further ahead, with the objective of achieving the goals stipulated by the company’s strategic sector, and understanding its contribution as a whole. It’s easier to customize customer touchpoints, achieve marketing strategy and make the most of your valuable data, which leads to more effective marketing and business results.

When companies start to make decisions based on data and decide to invest in integration, their customers will benefit. A good example of a success case is that of Cielo, a leading company in the electronic payments segment in Latin America. One of its challenges was integrating the data from its entire consumer cycle (on and offline) in silos within the organization. With the support of DP6, Cielo achieved two major objectives: a 61% reduction in their cost per lead in just 4 months of media optimization, and the creation of a single base of comparable data with the definition of goals to be achieved in digital media.

While integration has great benefits for an organization, it is important to plan it carefully to avoid obstacles during its implementation. The most common barriers are:

• Moving large amounts of data: mobilizing a lot of data at once can make it difficult to capture the necessary information and compromise the accuracy of the data. It requires comprehensive strategies to ensure that the migration has as few errors as possible. It also needs to allow for the consolidation of data from various sources, correcting data duplication and configuring data validation checks.
• Complex extraction, transformation and loading processes: the methodology used to gather data from various sources and centralize it in a repository is extensive and its complexity is directly proportional to the quantity and accuracy of the business data.
• Choosing the right tools for integration: selecting the ideal tools for integration projects is one of the most vital steps in the process, as the solutions you choose must be able to perform refined integrations and meet the specific requirements of the project, such as identifying the obligatory elements that the platforms offer and providing the necessary resources for the appropriate requests.

As companies get more and more involved in the digital transformation process, it is important that data from different domains and contexts is integrated and made available for consumption by all, promoting collaboration between areas. So, do you already have your data integrated into your organization’s day-to-day routine? You should start migrating to GA4 now with DP6 to avoid losing your data history. From July 1, 2023, all Universal Analytics Standard properties will stop processing new hits. You can download our free ebook, The Road to GA4 here to see how we can help you in the process.

Profile of the author: Jean de Brito Vidal | A graduate of Systems Analysis and Development from Fatec, he is fascinated by programming and its potential to be an accessible and beneficial tool for society. He worked for 2 years developing websites and web applications before moving to DP6, where he has been working as a Data Engineer for almost 4 years.

Profile of the author: Cristiane Augusta Rego | She has been working for more than a year as a Data Engineer at DP6. She discovered a whole new world after migrating to the Data and Digital Marketing area and was captivated by Data Analysis and Business Analysis.