As far as the name is concerned, Dark Data is not even minutely alarming if timely managed.

Originally, illustrated by Gartner as “information assets organizations collect, process and store during regular business activities, but generally fail to use for other purposes.”

Extensively, organizations collect enormous amounts of unstructured data that includes all data types such as raw survey data, previous employee profiles, customer information, and so on that need analysis for competitive intelligence or aid in business decision-making. Although, most of this data never gets entirely utilized.

Unstructured data includes raw text, messages, emails (internal communication), videos (surveillance footage), audio (call center recordings), image files, data from the Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and geographic (geolocation) data. Dark data can also include structured data, assuming the data is not analyzed.

Companies have a vital amount of Dark Data piled up in their repositories. Through data audit execution, they can realize that above 50% of all stored data is dark. The four tips beneath will help you take advantage of your data and protect yourself from revenue loss. In our journey through Dark Data management, these are the four main avenues to consider:

Mining

Your unstructured data is inaccessible now, but with a few tweaks to your data structure, discover a plethora of new possibilities for your business.

Pick a pain point you want to learn more about within your business and then assess that data. Further, identify the data sources that provide the best information for finding a solution to your pain point.

Audit all your data sources (traditional and non-traditional), data analytics tools and techniques (free or paid), and use your new information to navigate the pain point you identified and resolve it.

Be scrupulous in your data interpretations since you can’t make inefficient data worthwhile just because you extract it out. Don’t let the magnitude of data keep you from starting to use it for your enterprise. The organization that unhitches the secrets behind their Dark Data gains a strategic advantage over others.

Management

The amount of data you collect as a business is enough to ensure your data is compliant with all the pertinent laws and regulations.

By 2021 Gartner decodes, “more than 80% of organizations will fail to develop a consolidated data security policy across silos, leading to potential non-compliance, security breaches, and financial liabilities.”

So how are you going to orchestrate your Dark Data without spending exorbitant amounts on fines?

Build Dark Data management into your records management infrastructure by training your team and hiring the apt people. Conventional management of your Dark Data means advancing a team equipped with the knowledge of Dark Data first, then providing them with the tools to segregate your data into prospering channels.

As the potential for administrative blunder rises with the amount of data collected, consider hiring or training one of your current staff to execute the role of a Record Manager or a Chief Compliance Officer while following the central and state laws that regulate stored data. Next, grant them the best data management software to keep track of all of your information that makes it possible to efficiently implement risk management protocols despite the constant incoming stream of data.

Security

Classified data needs thorough monitoring due to the immense cybersecurity threat that Dark Data presents. The focus must be to secure the data from any data thief. Just consider the amount of valuable information your company stores about customers or business transactions that plunge into the Dark Data void; it isn’t tricky for unauthorized individuals (hackers) to know that it exists without any guard.

As stated by IBM, “greater than 80% of data is dark data and thus never applied.”

Gain a data governance solution that structures your data and provides a data security solution to identify potential targets. A perfect blend of both can enable businesses to avoid non-compliance forfeits and protect the company’s data.

Communication

Once you have identified your Dark Data, you have to present that data to relevant stakeholders in a coherent and actionable way — make the data easy to apply. Start using your Dark Data to influence your business decisions. However, firstly consider the departments and how will new information will make sense.

Marketing team — Take anyone from your Chief Marketing Officer to the social media team who works on marketing strategy as part of the team. Broad insights from your Dark Data can help them better target their campaigns.

Finance team — Your finance team can advise you just how much you stand to lose if you get hacked, further assist you to formulate an alternate plan as part of data valuation to add your data to your balance sheet. That causes you to figure out how much it will cost for data storage and determine the budget for any new procedures you generate from Dark Data mining.

Information security team — To maintain your enterprise’s data security, you need to equip your IT team to know just how much data is on your hold to churn out the best possibilities.

Make sure that your Dark Data is accessible throughout your organization by using a data visualization tool to interpret what this data is trying to communicate.

Systech is driving business transformation via the application of data, analytics, AI to provide the ultimate cloud environment. The data-driven decisions empower businesses to enhance performance, generate phenomenal outcomes, and improve customer experience.

If you are searching for ways to gain a more competitive advantage and equip your business via Dark Data Management, the team at Systech can offer the best, customized solutions to enterprises of all scales and industries. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help your business reach the next level.

Stay tuned to explore more industry insights in our upcoming blogs.

If you have any suggestions for an upcoming article, or would like to volunteer for an interview, please reach out to Kirtika Banerjee at kirtikab@systechusa.com.