Intro
Did you know that 402.74 million terabytes of data are created each day? Considering that one terabyte of data is approximately 250 movies, that means we collectively create more than 1.6 million movies a day or ten full Netflix libraries!
We create and collect this data to be able to make better decisions and that’s what a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) is all about. So let’s look into why you should have it in your company. But first, let’s define what SSOT actually is.
What is a Single Source of Truth
A Single Source of Truth is a central repository of information that a company has, where employees and managers can go to get full, complete, accurate, and up-to-date information about anything related to their work.
As an example, when you go to Google to find a restaurant’s location, it immediately displays availability, phone number, website, open hours, etc. You didn’t have to go to 10 different places to get this information— it was all in the same place.
That’s the function of a Single Source of Truth.
You shouldn’t think about a Single Source of Truth as a tactical tool, but as a strategic outlook/mindset of your company. You can use tools such as an intranet to create a Single Source of Truth in your company.
With it, you can have all the necessary data for your employees in managers in a single place, easily accessible. So if your customer-facing team is looking for specific resources to onboard a new client, they don’t have to go around in 15 different systems and collect this information— it’s readily available in your intranet that acts as the SSOT.
Why should you have a Single Source of Truth in your company
There are three reasons why you should have a Single Source of Truth in your company. They are:
- Accurate data. All of the data in a single repository is readily available, easily accessible by your employees, updated for accuracy, and it’s not duplicated across various systems. Everyone in the organization has access to the same data which makes data retrieval easier.
- Enhanced productivity. Imagine you’re looking for a dataset on a specific person and you need multiple variables such as their past work experience, certifications and skills. If you had all this data spread around in different systems, it would take you ages to find it. With a Single Source of Truth, you can get this data fast and improve your productivity.
- Better decision-making. It’s not just about having more data; it’s about using that data to get valuable insights that will lead you to better decisions. You can store data on multiple systems; you don’t need an SSOT for that. BUT (and it’s a big BUT) if you want to retrieve that data to figure out what the data is telling you (gain insight), you need to have that process be as effortless as possible. And with an SSOT, the process is as easy as possible.
Common obstacles
There are three common obstacles that teams face when they try to implement a Single Source of Truth in their company. They are:
- Change management. People are resistant to change and implementing a new system won’t sit right with many people. That’s why you need to approach this as a change management project and communicate the importance of why you need the change (and what happens when they don’t change).
- Data silos. If you’re shifting to an SSOT, you probably have data spread around different systems and want to dissolve data silos in your company. That’s not an overnight task, but a process that slowly but surely transitions into a much more effective system.
- Expert help. It’s not easy making the shift all by yourself so you should explore different options (and experts) that can help guide you through this process.
Conclusion
A Single Source of Truth or an SSOT is a valuable asset for any company to have. It doesn’t just help you make better decisions, dissolve data silos, and enhance productivity in the company. It can also add to your cyber security initiatives – check out our webinar on using an SSOT to mitigate the risks of Phishing.
