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The importance of a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) in Business Intelligence

Everyone on board with one source of truth.
Marijn Buizer

Marijn Buizer

Managing Partner Nucleus BI

Opzetten Business Intelligence platform

Companies that work with Business Intelligence often rely on data to make important decisions, such as identifying new opportunities and challenges, improving business processes, and optimizing customer satisfaction.

Therefore, it is crucial that this data is accurate, consistent, and reliable. That’s why you build a Data Warehouse with structured, cleansed, and securely stored data, aiming for a Single Source of Truth (SSOT).

An SSOT ensures that all your data ultimately becomes one source of information used throughout the entire company. This can include financial data, customer data, and all other data used in your business. By using one source, everyone looks at the same data, reducing the chance of ambiguity.

Working from an SSOT offers various benefits for companies using data to drive their operations.

Better decision-making:

Using a Data Warehouse that serves as an SSOT can contribute to better decision-making because it ensures accurate and consistent data. Managers can rely on the data presented in reports and analyses, knowing that it originates from one source of truth. This reduces the risk of making decisions based on incorrect or incomplete data.

Time-saving:

Relying on a single truth saves you time because you no longer need to search for and combine the right data from various sources. With all the data aligned, you can easily visualize it in a dashboard like PowerBI or Tableau, enabling quick and easy analysis and reporting.

Improved data quality:

An SSOT reduces errors in the data. When you obtain your management information from multiple data sources, there is a greater chance of discrepancies between these sources. This can lead to decision-making based on incorrect data.

By connecting all the data from your various sources with a data warehouse like AWS or Azure, it becomes much less complex and time-consuming to verify and ensure the integrity of this data.

Enhanced collaboration between teams:

Relying on one truth can also contribute to better collaboration among teams using the same data. By aligning everyone with the same source, it increases consensus in decision-making, reduces silos between departments, and minimizes compartmentalized thinking.

Improving business processes:

In improving your business processes, relying on an SSOT is not a luxury. By linking the data to your data warehouse, you can streamline and refine business processes within your company, resulting in more efficient operations. It also helps you identify new opportunities to further optimize business processes.

Points to consider:

What is important when setting up a data warehouse with the goal of an SSOT is to ensure beforehand that your data sources are properly “fed.” For example, if your CRM system is not adequately populated, the value of this source will be significantly lower compared to when all fields are fully filled. Therefore, it is crucial to determine with your team leaders or managers which information is minimally required to create a comprehensive picture.

It is important to streamline this process. By incorporating data quality checks, you can track the process and identify any areas that may require adjustments.

Engaging and convincing different teams can be a challenge when implementing these practices. Ensure that people feel relieved rather than burdened by the process. By automating processes, you reduce the risk of errors, alleviate the workload on your employees, and gain their support more easily. Therefore, it is wise to start this process as early as possible, enabling a smooth transition to implementation.

NucleusBI assists companies in streamlining and automating these processes to establish a data warehouse with the goal of an SSOT. We incorporate data quality checks and monitor data quality.

If you want to know how we can help your company, book a call with one of our BI experts.

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