Accessing Your Data

To help you jump start the new year, we’re posting thirty-one technology and business treats, one for each day of January.

Do you remember the days of book reports in school? You had to choose a book, read it, and then write a report on it? (Do they still do that?) The date the book report was due was assigned. You’d work backwards from the due date to figure out what book you were going to read and how many pages you needed to read each day to finish the book in time to write the book report.

The same principal works in just about everything related to technology. Your experience and success in accessing your data when you get it all set up correctly in the first place. That means working backwards, keeping these questions in mind:

What are you trying to accomplish?

What data is needed to accomplish this task?

Who will be accessing this data?

When does the data need to be available to access?

Where will they be accessing it?

How (what devices and/or apps) will they be using to access this data?

How these questions are answered will help inform the best solution for making the data accessible!

As with most answers, the best information is given when the right questions are asked. That means more specific questions will help insure that all of the information is given upfront. Remember those 1s and 0s from yesterday’s post? It’s not enough that data is assigned a 1 or 0. Each 1 and 0 is assigned behaviors and conditions so the data does exactly what you want the data to do!

Here’s a classic example we see: a client tells us he wants his team to be able to access and share certain files. A solution is selected and works great for everyone. The client gets a new boss who wants all of those files password protected because he’s now included files that are confidential. The solution does not allow for password protection, so a new solution has to be established.

Small businesses and organizations are resourceful because they are watching expenses. As a result, we see several technologies selected to handle specific solutions. Sometimes they work well together, many time they don’t. Sometimes it’s worth a consultation with an expert. An expert is going to ask, not only these questions listed above, but also more questions that you probably haven’t even considered, anticipating the need for your technology solution to be able to evolve with you.