Could your business benefit from a single source of truth?

A dream many organisations share is one of automation and efficiency. Many organisations desire a tool that can sync data and the entry of data with a goal to provide a single source of truth. This tool would support all business systems and ensure data integrity and consistency on all levels.

Such a dream is, in a sense, impossible. A particular vision or definition of complete coverage and comprehensiveness will always change over time, as must the business. Needs and priories change as development progresses, adding on more features and expanding functionality. With those changes, new systems are included while support for services and systems depreciates until they are no longer utilised. There are options though, and while your data management may not be a dream, it definitely doesn’t have to be a nightmare.

Our own ‘Infusionsoft Syncer’ is an excellent example of this. Our syncer was originally designed to transport client data from our CRM, Keap (Previously Infusionsoft), to our local Document Management System. The syncer now encompasses other systems, types of data, and manages connections to external application programming interfaces of Cloud Applications. To support improved functionality we have also made modifications, extensions, and expansions. The result has been the development of a ‘factory’ process. Meaning the syncer spawns several other processes, each of which send their relevant data to a specific endpoint (an application).

Does that sounds far too expensive & complex?

Thankfully, to manage cost and complexity, we have a solution! Custom development projects here at Altitude all follow the Agile Software Development methodology. This involves a small upfront cost allowing us to develop and deploy the initial Minimum Viable Product (core functions included, but ‘no frills’ if you will). Resulting in a quick production, and faster rewards. After a return is made on the initial investment, more funding can be dispersed. Fleshing out and enhancing tools for greater process automation and efficiencies.

The result after all these years is a tool that covers over 95% of the systems Altitude uses. A tool that is still being improved to this day. A graphical web interface has also been created for the tool. This enables end users to modify data from the single source of truth (Keap). Additionally, we can check and sanitise data based on set formatting standards. Pushing it back to Keap where it can propagate out to wherever it needs to go.

Regularl management of small, tedious tasks can now be calculated to consumable, sizeable and costly chunks of people’s time. Not to mention the inherent risk of unintentional human error when performing laborious data entry.

Some online tools such as Zapier provide a straightforward pick-and-choose style connector for moving data between selected cloud applications. Unfortunately, if there are more complex business processes or data manipulation requirements, off the shelf solutions such as these continually fall short.

Discover how much data entry and data manipulation work can be automated within your business. Investigate data flow in your organisation and understand how to remedy those sticky bottlenecks. Get in touch with the Altitude Innovations Team today.