Centralizing Your Data for Reliable Insights
Picture this – It’s a Monday morning and you are rushing to pull reports from various operational source systems. You have clients breathing down your neck with urgent questions. Emails are beginning to trickle in about the latest fire that happened over the weekend.
You find yourself thinking,:
“Why am I wasting precious time away from doing things I love, just to sit at a desk and pull reports?”
Sound familiar?
You’re not alone.
We've all been there
Almost every seasoned profession in the supply chain industry has been in this position before.
Our jobs are driven by constantly changing data points.
However, this reliance on scattered data leads to several critical issues:
- Difficulty in piecing together the full picture
- Scaling problems
- Enormous time investment
- Increased likelihood of errors
- Extensive training requirements
These issues feed into one another, creating a vicious cycle that can literally cause your company to go bankrupt.
A Timeless Solution
Believe it or not, this is exactly what happened when computers and applications first emerged in the 70s and 80s. Back then, physical files were causing similar issues.
To solve this problem, the Data Warehouse was created.
The Data Warehouse
A data warehouse provides a platform where all your data can be stored. For example, you may have sales data in Hubspot, a customer CRM, and your ERP.
A data warehouse allows you to pull all that data into a single application, eliminating the need to navigate various systems when you have a sales-related question.
Integration
While centralization is a good start, it doesn’t solve the core problem of data silos. Integration in the data warehouse means combining data about the same entities (orders, shipments, customers) into one standardized format and location.
So, in your data warehouse, you may have separate storage locations for customers from your CRM and ERP, but integration would combine those customers into one standardized format in a single, centralized location. Once your data is integrated, you eliminate the issues associated with data silos, making data analysis easier for you and your team.
The Future
As ecommerce continues to grow, the importance of efficient data management will only increase. By centralizing and integrating your data now, you’ll be well-positioned to make data-driven decisions, scale your business, and stay ahead of the competition.
Conclusion
Centralizing your data in a data warehouse is a proven solution to the common problems faced by ecommerce fulfillment businesses. By breaking down data silos and creating a single source of truth, you’ll save time, reduce errors, and gain reliable insights to drive your business forward. Don’t let scattered data hold you back—start centralizing your data today.