Why Data Centralization Is Key To Operational Success

In this episode of E2B: Energy to Business, host Daniel Litwin caught up with three prominent business intelligence experts at Opportune LLP—Byrony Coan, Principal; Kyle Blair, Director; and Kyle Luong, Manager—to discuss the challenges presented by data warehouses, including the need to sift through and collect data for analysis. Their discussion covered everything from understanding the challenge to insightful reflections on solutions to a growing problem for virtually any business.

With most companies having completed a digital transformation in recent years (or are at least in the process of one), the problem with managing the amount of data collected has become a serious issue. Simply having data isn’t enough. How data is consumed, utilized, managed, and stored, especially during times of a merger or acquisition (M&A) or during a software upgrade, is what will differentiate a company and allow them to stand out among peers.

The conversation opened with this broad stroke question: what challenges do businesses presently face in managing all the data that they have available to them?

Blair opined about how many energy companies are finding it difficult to not only ensure the accuracy of the inflow and outflow of vast data that comes their way daily but so that an accurate historical log of that data can be stored in one single location for all to access.

“You want to keep [the data] as pristine as possible,” Blair says. “It’s important to not only just have correct data but any historical data that you’ve done in the past or any processing you might have done that you may want to go back months or years to see what happened there.

Blair continues, “Specifically with the data warehouse, it’s important to have a history and understand what happened because you may be doing this job one day but four or five years down the road it might be someone completely different. Having that, not only the current data you’re using, but that data trail is pretty vital to make sure you can keep a chain of custody so future employees that need to see that down the road can see your thought process of what you were doing digitally.”

Coan goes on to explain why accessing historical data may be difficult for some organizations.

“I think particularly, in like digital transformation, what a lot of companies are doing is upgrading their systems or changing their platforms, right? So, you must make sure that you have access to the historical data that was processed in previous systems,” Coan says. “Not only so that you can accurately record but also so you can research what historically had been done with these assets.”

Luong noted the challenges of companies dealing with mergers and acquisitions, as well as updating systems to new platforms.

“As oil prices are climbing, hanging near $90 a barrel, there’s a lot of M&A going on and there are a lot of companies that have the funding to upgrade systems,” Luong adds. “One of the things companies have to deal with as they’re acquiring companies, merging with another company, or upgrading their systems is what to do with that legacy or historical data that isn’t necessarily native to the system that they’re using today.”

These insights are a fraction of what is shared in the first few minutes of Opportune’s latest podcast. Listen for more insights and solutions from three of today’s business intelligence experts.