Time For Some Data Spring Cleaning

Everywhere we turn these days everyone seems to be talking about data: data growth, data privacy, data capital. In fact, there seems to be no shortage of mind-boggling facts about data – did you know, for example, that:

• Apparently 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years?
• Data is growing faster than ever before and by the year 2020, about 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second for every human being on the planet?

• Every second we create new data? For example, we perform 40,000 search queries every second (on Google alone), which makes it 3.5 searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year.

Ok, so there is nothing new in the fact that efficiently managing your data is key to the success of your company; it’s a part of achieving operational excellence. However, what does seem to have changed is the level of importance that people now put on effective data management. With today’s explosion in data growth and the accelerated pace of change in the business environment, effectively managing your data has become, for many companies, a priority.

Strike While the Iron is Hot

So what does all that mean for those of us managing our company’s ERP system? Well, I think the best way to look at it is as an opportunity. Too often, data purging and archiving is seen as “a nice to have” and is pushed down the to-do list, even though we know that for our teams and our end-users, optimizing ERP performance brings real benefits not just in terms of user experience, but also in terms of bottom-line business benefits.

So what are you waiting for? Now is the time to push your ERP data purging and archiving project up the to-do list.

Benefits of JD Edwards Data Purging & Archiving

• Easier Upgrades: Less data to convert means quicker and safer upgrades
• Happier End Users: Less data means better ERP performance, which means happier end-users
• Reduced Risk: Retaining data beyond legal requirements can actually lead to increased legal risk and increased costs. Broad legal requests for historical data can result in added effort and cost in providing data, and also in added legal cost for the review of unnecessary, old data. More data also means more chance of data breaches.
• Save money and make time for the important stuff. How long have you spent in the last year on database administration, maintenance, and basic data house-keeping? Our favorite argument for starting an ERP data archiving project is that it gives you back some time. Of course, there are cost-benefits to reducing your data load, but it is also worth thinking about the value of reducing the time you and your team spend on tasks that could be made simpler and quicker. 

If you could reduce the amount of time you spend on data housekeeping, even by just a little bit, imagine what you could do. Invest that extra time in online training, take the time to really think about the priorities for your career and how to really make a difference to your company, get involved in some company-wide cross functional project, the possibilities are endless.

Here’s the thing, purging and archiving your ERP data will give you more time. Less data means quicker backups and less data maintenance, it’s that simple.

Next Steps

With ARCTOOLS you can get started in a matter of days and you’ll quickly be able to measure the results of the project. We’ve helped hundreds of JD Edwards customers to optimize their data and not just for their ERP applications; we can also help you do some data spring cleaning on non-JDE applications.

Want to Learn More?

Please contact us, and you might also like to read our whitepaper which has lots of tips and tricks on how to build the business case and how to set yourself up for success in a data purging and archiving project.