Single source your data!
By Matthew Arnold
Data is everywhere. Data is personal contact information. Data is information about the webinar you are attending. Data is the agenda for your next conference. Every document, every email, every Tweet, blog post or web page is data. Since we are surrounded by mountains of data, one of the most important things you can do is to single source your data!
Single sourcing your data will save time and save money. By single sourcing manual data entry can be done just once, saving personnel time. You can also save time because you always know where your data is.
Multiple purpose your data, enter once use everywhere!
Data in an online database can be used to drive content to web pages. The same data can also be used in a private website back end to send out reminder email blasts, do informational downloads, and have internal data sharing. Data from this database can be downloaded and poured into printed pieces with technologies like XML.
Take your data out of this single source and you find that one piece of data can cause time loss, money loss and even confusion. If your data is information about where a meeting takes place, store it centrally. Access it from your web site. Download it into your print materials. If someone takes that data out of context we have data splintering. If the data is then changed, which one is correct? Where is the meeting being held? How many phone calls/emails will it take to make sure everyone knows where the meeting is?
Single sourcing can help save time, save money and save your sanity!
