Glossary of information management: 20 terms you need to know

Managing information effectively is essential to ensure that the company can get the insights it needs to make the best decisions for the business. In an age where huge volumes of data are being generated every day, companies seek to find the best ways to deal with information on a daily basis. In today’s article, we leave you 20 terms on information management you need to know!

Descriptive analysis

This type of Data Analytics answers the question “what is happening now?”. Through the response, companies can analyze data on customer losses, sales for a particular product, and the outcome of launched campaigns. Descriptive analysis allows immediate decisions to be made with a high level of security, since the analysis is based on concrete and current data. The information coming from this type of analysis is usually displayed in graphs and tables, which allows the manager to have an overview of the processes monitored.

Predictive Analysis

Predictive analytics is an advanced form of Data Analytics that aims to answer the question “what will happen?”. It is a type of analysis that makes predictions through probabilities. This analysis is possible thanks to techniques like regression and progression analysis, pattern matching and various types of statistics. This type of Data Analytics is widely used in stock market and investment companies.

Diagnostic analysis

Diagnostic analysis will explain why something happened. This type of analysis will relate all available data and information to find patterns of behavior that may explain the results. It is an important analysis to find problems and above all to avoid repeating them in the future.

Prescriptive analysis

The prescriptive analysis is the analysis of premonition. It answers the question “what could happen if we take this action?”. This type of analysis is very important especially in the sales area. For example, “if we think about giving a 15% discount next month on the company’s lesser-selling product, the likelihood of increased sales is 40%”. The prescriptive analysis raises hypotheses about possible results of actions taken by the company. It is an essential analysis for managers, as it helps them to evaluate the best way to choose a certain strategy to solve a problem.

Backup

The backup allows you to back up data and files. If there is a computer problem and important files are lost, the only alternative is to redo the work that has been done previously. This leads to a large productivity drop. Having an up-to-date backup of the data will allow the company’s revenue to not be affected because even in the event of a computer disaster the employees will have access to the documents they need to work.

BAM

BAM stands for Business Activity Monitoring and is a tool that defines the process and technologies to be able to put information about the company’s KPIs in real time on a dashboard. What BAM does is only show in one place all the information coming from the most varied sources of data of the company, eliminating the need to consult several databases and related to know what is happening in the company at that time.

Data base

Set of related files, tables, relationships, which stores data and makes associations between them. Databases are currently the most important assets of a company.

BI

BI (business intelligence) is a technique that helps managers plan the company’s strategy by collecting and analyzing a large volume of data to understand the company’s performance and then to decide more consciously about the future.

Big data

Big Data is the term that describes the immeasurable volume of data (structured or otherwise) that has a daily business impact. More important than the amount of data, that’s what businesses can.

Data scientist

This will be one of the most sought-after professions in the future. A data scientist is an analytical professional who has the technical capabilities to solve complex problems and has come up to deal with the huge amount of unstructured data that companies have to deal with on a daily basis. This professional creates algorithms to extract insights from the data generated by the diverse sources of information and presents them in a practical and simple format to analyze by the decision makers, who will then be able to define strategies and decide the best way for the company.

Cloud

Cloud Computing is a model that allows full network access to a set of shared computing resources (networks, datacenters, storage, services, applications, among others) that can be quickly made available with minimal effort and without interaction with the supplier.

CRM

CRM is the acronym for Customer Relationship Management, that is, Customer Relationship Management and is used by thousands of companies to manage their relationship with current and potential customers. This software aims to protect the business information of a company. At the same time, a CRM helps identify the best actions and the best time to contact the customer, in order to boost the sale. Likewise, it allows you to evaluate objectives and evaluate the sales team.

Personal data

According to the GDPR, personal data means any information relating to an individual person identified or identifiable through them (identifiable ‘by reference to an identification number or to one or more specific elements of his / her physical, physiological, psychic, economic, cultural or social ‘).

Dashboard

A dashboard visually displays the most important information about the business. In case of using a tool like Multipeers, the information is updated permanently and automatically, so that you have at your disposal the most current information on everything that happens in the company.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the ability machines have to think like humans. It defines your ability to learn, reason and decide autonomously and intelligently. Contrary to popular belief, this is not a recent concept. It first emerged in 1956 by John McCarthy, a university professor who used the term to describe a distant world in which machines would be able to solve all problems that until then were solved exclusively by humans.

KPI

KPI stands for key performance indicator, that is, key performance indicator. In the business world, KPIs are quantifiable measures that serve to understand whether the company’s objectives are being met or whether the strategy needs to be modified to achieve them.

Data masking

Data masking aims at creating a structurally identical but not equal version of data. This technique creates a database with fictitious but realistic information that can be used for testing and training purposes. Data masking solutions offer a variety of sophisticated scrambling techniques to protect sensitive data, irreversibly replacing them with data that is not real, while maintaining the referential integrity of the database.

PDCA

PDCA is the go to plan, do, check and act. It is a management technique linked to the improvement of a company’s processes. Its purpose is to solve problems, pointing out the causes for potential deviations and productive failures. This process makes the organization of the company more efficient in the long run and it is essential that it be applied from the moment of creation of a business, so that the improvement can be continuous.

Security policy

The security policy is a document developed by the company that records the principles of security that the company adopts and that must be followed by the employees. The security policy should be applied to all information systems, both desktop and mobile. For policy to be respected, it is essential that top managers participate in the implementation.

VPN

A VPN network is a virtual private network that transmits encrypted data as it navigates from one point to another in the Web world. Connecting through VPN enables the user to browse websites securely and privately. VPN connections are increasingly used as they allow remote access to local files and is a safe way to browse through public Wi-Fi networks.

BI and BAM: understand the difference between these two concepts

BI and BAM are terms that are very present in most companies. They are not necessarily independent terms, but neither the two tools are required to operate simultaneously in the same company: each is independent. There are still many doubts about the difference between these two terms and in today’s article we will talk about the main differences between BI and BAM.

What is a BAM system?

BAM stands for Business Activity Monitoring and is a tool that defines the process and technologies to be able to put information about the company’s KPIs in real time on a dashboard. What BAM does is only show in one place all the information coming from the most varied sources of data of the company, eliminating the need to consult several databases to know what is happening in the company at that time.

What is Business Intelligence?

BI is a technique that helps managers plan the company’s strategy by collecting and analyzing a large volume of data to understand the company’s performance and from there to decide more consciously about the future.

Relationship and differences between BI and BAM

Business monitoring tools facilitate the process of extracting information and making conscious and thoughtful operational decisions. Both tools use information to improve performance. The data analysis that the BAM tools provide is very efficient because it presents the information in a simple and concise way, allowing the manager to quickly be informed about the actual and current state of the business.

Unlike Business Intelligence, BAM systems don’t talk about past or future: they focus only on the present. The BAM system will integrate all the company information in one place so that the data can be consulted anytime, anywhere. BI will add an analytical culture across all sectors of the business so that everyone is aware of the state of the business. Real-time updated and analyzed information will provide improvements across all sectors of the organization.

 

These two concepts work very well if applied together in the company, so that you can understand all the information of your business in a simple way. The life of your company happens now and you must know at every moment what is going on with the business. Likewise, you must equip yourself with the right tools so that you can make the most appropriate decisions for the future!

The importance of technological convergence for companies

In an increasingly digital world, technological advances have a direct impact on the way companies do business, and companies need to act to keep up with the latest information technology. Technological convergence is increasingly important to unify processes, tools, methods and diverse sectors. In today’s article, we talk about the importance of technological convergence for companies!

What is technological convergence?

Technological convergence is an increasing trend in the economic environment. This concept represents the union of the different services that share the same structure among themselves. The goal is to meet customer needs and anticipate trends. A good example that everyone uses is the smartphone. In one device you can use camera, electronic calendar, alarm clock, television, GPS, internet, among many other things. In the business world, this convergence translates into technological tools that give the possibility to gather on a platform with all the communication services, such as telephones, emails, support, production processes and logistics, among others. This means that companies can use a tool to simplify the use of IT solutions, offer employees more flexibility and reduce the cost of operations and automate tasks. Both internal and external teams can work from anywhere because of the mobility that cloud systems provide. Technology convergence proves to be an important ally to achieve business objectives.

Main innovations that integrate technological convergence

  • Big Data: in this field, business monitoring software such as Multipeers play a very important role, since in a single dashboard manager can access all company information from the most diverse data sources.

  • Artificial Intelligence: artificial intelligence helps companies prevent fraud, analyze customer behavior, and is very important to analyze and monitor the requirements of the target audience.

  • Business Intelligence: Business intelligence is a very powerful tool and is increasingly used by all business segments as it provides integration and reading of various data sources. Business intelligence also helps identify trends and market variations, which is essential to maintaining competitiveness.

  • Internet of Things: this concept interconnects equipment, business and people, allowing the crossing of the data in a matter of seconds. All sectors can take advantage and technological convergence to the business from the internet of things.

  • Image recognition: Identifying citizens through facial recognition is not new, but this recognition is nowadays held in many physical stores. Thus, it is possible to check what articles the person liked the most, to know if they tried clothes, to know their behavior in the store, among other things.

  • Voice services: a number of Google services, for example, can be activated through voice commands, doing surveys, and helping the consumer decide. It is a growing technology and professionals in this area work daily to improve its operation.

Advantages of technological convergence for companies

The main advantages of using this trend for companies are: greater capacity for innovation, greater control over all company processes, increased productivity, increased security and better treatment and storage of data.

Top 5 trends in data visualization

Data is increasingly important to companies and knowing how to interpret them correctly and quickly is a constant challenge. The current business world is very fast, so it is no longer possible for companies to survive only at the expense of lengthy reports. Business Intelligence, artificial intelligence and the need for real-time information are changing the way we view data. In today’s article, we present the key trends in data visualization!

Location-based data analysis and visualization

Mobile applications and social networks are increasingly using geo-referencing. In this way, it is possible to know where a customer is located and to send personalized and useful information at the moment, in order to stimulate a purchase. This trend will be well present in the future, where applications will begin to integrate more analysis based on geotags.

Data visualization for all

The tendency is for all employees in a company to have access to data that is important for the performance of their obligations. If the data were previously only available to top managers and decision makers, in the future it is expected that there will be a democratization of data access so that all employees are better informed and better able to perform their tasks.

Interactive Dashboards

The large volume and complexity of data requires new ways of analyzing information. Interactive dashboards are going to be a big trend next year. Softwares such as Multipeers allow the creation of an interactive dashboard with information from several data sources, which makes the analysis faster and, consequently, the decision making is faster and efficient.

Presence on multiple platforms

Companies should be present on various platforms (social media, blog, website) and thus collect data from various sources. This information can be used to better understand customers and their needs and desires. In this way, business portfolio can be adapted to the real needs of consumers, which will make them more loyal to the brand.

Data Scientists

This will be one of the most important professions in the future. A data scientist is an analytical professional who has the technical capabilities to solve complex problems and has come up to deal with the huge amount of unstructured data that companies have to deal with on a daily basis. This professional creates algorithms to extract insights from the data generated by the diverse sources of information and presents them in a practical and simple format to analyze by the decision makers, who will be able to define strategies and decide the best way for the company.