The importance of data cannot be emphasized enough whether it is dealing with enterprises or
consumers.

Over the years, we have all been subjected to different kinds of product recommendations on eCommerce websites and advertisements on social media platforms. All this has been possible only through the digital footprint that we left behind during our digital interactions such as shopping, searches, posts, comments, likes, etc., across various platforms and channels.

There are several organizations, big and small that form an ecosystem to help gather and mine these digital footprints. Many of them have successfully leveraged this social data and created a trillion-dollar business out of it.

How can the rest of the enterprises leverage data and create a meaningful business out of it? Almost 78% of organizations surveyed point to being aware of the importance of data, but only 22% of those seem to have built a process for utilizing such data meaningfully, to either create a business out of it or to create some improvements in their business. (Source: The State of Open Source Trends 2022 Report)

How has data shifted from pipelines to an irrigation management system?

We are all too familiar with the phrase “Data is the new oil”, to the point of causing boredom. In the past, many organizations have successfully created data pipelines, to transport data from the edge for very specific purposes. Many such pipelines are built to serve specific purposes or lines of business and are mostly unattended after that.

This proliferation of pipelines leads to silos. It is also important to understand if data is allowed to flow through the pipeline and not acted upon in a timely manner, it could get lost and/or become irrelevant over time.

Data pipeline: A close examination

So, what can the mid to late entrants learn about successful data leverage from the early adopters and data monetizing trillionaires? What are those organizations doing differently, that the rest of the organizations could replicate for success?

It is important to realize that businesses that have successfully leveraged customer and social data have grown beyond creating data pipelines, that typically help bring data into the organization. They have created a system whereby the data that they bring into the organization through various channels, are funneled into different lines of businesses that have the required empowerment and autonomy to slice and dice the data and evaluate the impact of it on their existing business processes, with a view to make the necessary refinements.

This helps them add more value to their respective organizations and contribute to the overall business. This is what we call a data irrigation system. Thus, successful organizations have transcended from just being able to build data pipelines to creating a data irrigation system that permits data sharing, thus empowering and benefiting a larger community of users, increasing collaboration and innovation within the organization.

Moving from ‘Pipeline’ to ‘Irrigation’ system

A data irrigation system is not just about technology. It is more about creating a vibrant organization that permits an open, collaborative, and innovative culture.

A Data ‘Irrigation’ System

Let us take the example of a Bank. What is most important for a bank, is if we consider cash as the inventory at a bank – use the cash that it accumulates from the customers in a very effective manner. Unless the bank optimizes the cash in its supply chain, unless the Sales team can redistribute the cash by way of creative products, by working in tandem with marketing to understand the social media signals, market trends, and macro-economic conditions, it would be difficult to achieve a good balance of inventory.

Even, nimbler competition such as Fintech companies with the advantage of data analytics could hope to encroach into the bank’s business. A very recent example of a successful Fintech product could be the BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) scheme launched by several NBFCs. Agility to create, launch and popularise such products will determine the customer acquisition rate and the net expansion rate for the banks. This requires the presence of an organizational culture that encourages the leverage of data and collaboration amongst various stakeholders such as marketing, sales, customer service, and the treasury.

What does the Data ‘Irrigation’ system architecture look like?

Given below is a reference architecture for a data irrigation system that allows you to take information from different input sources and act upon it on a timely basis, by applying aggregators, cleaners, and curators, thus empowering your different lines of businesses to hold data where it makes sense and cross-pollinates with different stakeholders within the organization to derive newer meanings that impact the business.

This also allows the creation of useful real-time dashboards using several different technologies without loss of functionality or familiarity, so the C-Suite can continue to make business-critical decisions while discovering newer ways to impact the business and transform the organization into a much nimbler one. Surveys on digital transformation point out that 95% of transformation is all about culture, and only 5% is about technology, so it doesn’t matter what technology one uses if the data irrigation approach is adopted.

Data ‘Irrigation’ System: A Reference Architecture

How can Ashnik help you?

We at Ashnik can help you by offering consulting services, technical services, migration services, managed services, and training programs in several open-source technologies and share with you our experience of helping several enterprises across SEA and India. We can help you put together database platforms, and high-speed data pipelines and rearchitect your applications using DevOps automation, Kubernetes, and microservices architecture, and facilitate multi-cloud or hybrid adoption.

It is very important for the data irrigation system to be secure, resilient, scalable, and flexible, while still supporting collaboration. Ashnik works with several enterprise open-source technology partners that provide an automation portfolio and the security portfolio that is required for creating a resilient data irrigation system.

Ashnik provides you with the ability to irrigate your business, with meaningful data, in real-time. We are also ready to help you make timely actions through our services, support, and solutions.

Get in touch today for a free consultation with our team of experts!

If you found this article interesting, you might want to check out how the Ashnik team helped with simplifying data migration and automation for a multi-national mobile advertising company.