integrate information systems, but don’t ignore your gut.
quick tech talk
with steve yoss
cpe today
how do you ensure data integrity when you’re working with multiple disparate systems that you want to ultimately pull together and have talked to each other?
you’ll always want to make sure that you have a system of record: one system inside your organization that’s kind of the master control over everything else inside your company. it could be quickbooks, your erp platform, a custom database, or something else. but ideally, all other systems inside your company take their cues from that one master system.
and if you have things like a customer id, you need to make sure that it’s standardized, unique, and uniform across all the different systems that you’re using. now, you might also need to use different transformation techniques. one such technique is a data warehouse. some businesses have 6, 10, or even more systems inside their company. they’ll use a data warehouse to extract, transform, and load their data into one central place. then, they’ll perform a variety of cleanup operations to ensure that the information they’re reporting is clean, accurate, and reflective of the condition of their business.
the bottom line is to care about the project and the information and always trust your gut. your gut will tell you whether or not what you’re looking at is correct. if it seems off, dig a little deeper and come to the correct solution.