Why is Important to Decide and Establish a Source of Truth for Your Data

Why is important to decide and establish a source of truth for your data.

Ask Girikon a Salesforce Consulting Partner on how we can help  

As a business owner and having taken lead roles in larger organisations I have found there is a clear need to establish a source of truth when it comes to an organisation’s software solution. The article I have written focusses on data, business intelligence and analytics however I have also found after running or overseeing teams including marketing, sales operations, delivery, projects or finance each function of an organisation needs data to understand how their business or business unit is performing, in which area they can be more efficient or productive and how their people are performing.

Now as a Managing Director for Girikon ANZ it is increasingly important that I communicate this to anyone I speak to be its customers, prospects and/or contacts. Girikon is Salesforce Consulting Company and a relatively new entrant in the Australian market. From my experience working closely with the Girikon team our Salesforce Consultants understand the importance of establishing a source of truth for an organisation’s data after many projects working on major system integration programs which incorporate multiple platforms and relying on business intelligence and analytics tools to present the data.

Personally, after a couple of decades in business and speaking to many owners, managers, employees, I now know that most businesses face the same challenge. The challenge is extenuated for growing businesses and who purchase new systems and implement processes to underpin and provide control over the business.

Business owners and managers constantly seek to answer the following questions:  

• Which system(s) is best for my business?
• Which system should hold my key data?
• How clean is my data and can I trust what I am seeing?
• What is an acceptable error?
• What are the stakeholder’s expectations for the availability and presentation of data?
• Do I have a well-documented data management strategy?

I speak to many in varied industries and see lots of organisations grappling with a clear data management strategy. I have seen group executives come together weekly and struggle to interpret data and make key decisions on that data. The foundation of their discussion is wide and varied, performance and financial data including KPIs, forecasts presented at executive or at board level often provide a confused picture on priority, challenges and opportunities present at the organisation. Many would leave meetings and often disagree on next steps due to missing or error riddled data and still wondering whose figures were correct.

Every organisation has a similar data challenge and is often overcome by manual intervention, additional off system processes, exception reports etc. Some often resort to using multiple spreadsheets stored on their desktop. I am a culprit when it come to excel and handle sometime upwards of ten spreadsheets with multiple tabs to run a business.

In 2018, I spent 18 months leading a strategic program for a leading global software provider. Due to my 7 years with the business I understood the challenges faced by this business and lead the Program in collaboration with the Group’s Portfolio Management Team. My objective was simple:

• Establish the source of truth. The organisation operating a multitude of systems however at the core was a CRM system (Salesforce), PSA system (Kimble), multiple Project Management (Jira) and Finance systems.
• Establish a reporting regime to include a business analytic tool to sit on top to interpret the data for key stakeholders noting that each of the systems had its own reporting tool.
• Design and implement business processes to underpin the data flow of the key systems. Due to the global nature of the business every department had different processes some documented, and some handed down by word of mouth.

After a couple of months of workshops and planning, the one question still asked by the team was; 

Which system would be the source of data that everyone could rely on?

My answer is that if you are relying on data from any of the systems to make important business decision then that data is important. The success of this program stemmed from the hard work undertaken by all teams to ensure that data required to make decisions was clean, reliable and my team supported them in this quest by providing an overarching solution which included enhanced interoperability between the desperate systems, standardised business processes to underpin the data flow to the systems and a business analytics tool to present the right data for the whole organisation and most importantly for the different levels of the organisation.

As Managing Director at Girikon Australia/New Zealand we provide Salesforce Consulting Services which aligns with the experience I have gained over the last few decades.

• Girikon’s knowledge of leading technology is our strength. We are Salesforce Consulting Partner, Oracle Gold Partner, Microsoft and Abode Partner with many certifications.
• Girikon recommend ways to use technology and provide services such as Salesforce Integration using MuleSoft to ensure that there are limited to no manual interventions or off system processes ensuring interoperability between separate systems.
• Girikon understand the important of developing business process documentation through the analysis phase of the project to ensure data is collected appropriately and these underpin the organisation’s system implementation.

All your data is the key for sound business decisions. Contact me on 1300 332 888 or sales@girikon.com and speak to one of our Salesforce Consultants about your next Salesforce Implementation, Salesforce Support or Consulting Project. 

About Author

Yiannis Loupis

Yiannis Loupis, Managing Director (ANZ) Girikon Pty Ltd has many years of experience in business management and delivering complex Programs in multiple industries including Information Technology and Education. Yiannis leads Business Strategy for Girikon Pty Ltd in the Australian and New Zealand markets focussing primarily on Marketing including whole of enterprise SEO, content and brand presence. Yiannis bring his exceptional skills and experience in operations and personnel management, commercial acumen, strategic development & execution, business modelling, stakeholder and vendor management which are only a handful of skills in his kitbag.