Powerful data access keeps employees on the same page

Employee access to data could prove hugely valuable.

Developing and delivering tools that empower employees is an important part of business leadership today. There are some critical details that must be taken into account, however. For instance, these professionals won't be using the applications in a vacuum. They will be cooperating with one another, which the software can accommodate.

Data access and sharing

Having high data visibility is a potentially powerful differentiator, no matter the field in question. This factor is even better when employees gain self-service access to information, as they will know best which resources they require to perform their daily tasks. Enabling them to act on this and build reports without asking the IT department saves time for everyone involved and delivers a powerful new set of insights. The next step is to ensure that content can pass easily between workers to keep the process fluid and prevent further slowdowns.

Including report-sharing features within the same tool sets that collate and present the data turns collaboration into a one-step process. Employees don't have to worry about how they are going to unite a vast number of information sources from various silos, then pass the results on to their colleagues. Those are merely steps in the process, and completely natural. Passing many highly-targeted reports between workers can keep a business agile, helping employees work with every available scrap of data instead of relying on intuition.

The best data integration tools will be able to export reports in common formats, for viewing in programs such as Microsoft Excel. If there is no difficulty in opening these documents, it could prove significantly easier to incorporate them into the decision-making process at every level, from leadership down to professionals in highly specialized roles. No matter the size of the resources being compiled, these best-in-class IT platforms can accommodate the operation through the use of cloud resources.

A unifying option

Organizations looking for a way to unite their various applications, granting them these data integration features and potentially improving development, may be in the market for new Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) products. Installing one of these platforms can be carried out on a flexible basis, with leaders using the features that appeal to them specifically for a subscription fee categorized as an operating expense. This is a marked difference from rebuilding the infrastructure through a purchase of new server hardware, which is a huge one-time capital expenditure. The best programs extend their flexibility to the means of deployment, with both on-premise and public cloud options available.