What is Data Inventory (Data Mapping)?

In the modern world, where everything is ruled by technology and data, it is very important to keep an eye out for effective information governance. Now, with the shift to work becoming more remote because of the lockdown being imposed all over the world, managing information and data has become more important than ever before. Hence, any weaknesses in information governance have become easily highlighted now and therefore now there is a need to go for indispensable tools and cloud-based solutions like data mapping in order to secure sensitive information. You can check out this website for detailed information on data mapping and data security.

What is a Data Inventory?

Since the need to map data has become more important than ever, the need to understand the different tools that help extract, store, and map data is extremely crucial. Data Inventory is also known as a data map. This is the tool that provides thorough and instant insight into all the data that a company comprises. Other than this, it also relates the insight to the source of data, what information is ultimately collected, and how it is collected. Data inventory is necessary primary because it is very important for all the employees within the company to know what type of data is being collected since this leads to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Additionally, have the right knowledge of the data enables the company to know the customer base better than before and also helps optimize operational performance as well.

What are the original sources of data?

Once you delve into the data inventory is when you get to know how detailed all the data sources are. All unique sources are not only detailed but also very important and versatile. The information is collected from unique sources like accounting, point of sales software, customer relationship software, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions, different protected websites, and also social media applications. It is very obvious that regardless of the source of information, all information collected is extremely vast, versatile, and sensitive. Every department is collecting information from original sources in real-time. Hence, it must be known that data mapping and the use of data inventory is extremely important. Apart from this, the data needs to be stored somewhere and must be kept track of, which tells how crucial it is to do data mapping effectively.

Challenges faced in creating a Data Inventory?

The ultimate goal of creating a data inventory is that it should be simple and less complex. It is becoming very difficult to make a very simple data inventory for the internal and external use of the company. The primary challenge faced by companies in this scenario is regarding the compliance issues faced with becoming fully or moderately compliant with the GDPR. This is one aspect that is very important since it adds to the security measures of the internal and external data inventory.