Sabrina Polin: What's the best data collection

method for your business? Data collection is the

process of gathering data for business decision

making, strategic planning, research and more. It

provides the information needed to answer

questions, analyze business performance, and

predict future trends. Data collection happens on

multiple levels. For instance, IT systems

continuously collect data on customers, employees

and sales. Data can also be manually collected

with surveys and by tracking social media. For

research and science and medicine, data collection

is often a more specialized process. Regardless of

the context data is often collected from multiple

sources and usually with a variety of techniques.

To read about an argument in favor of automated

data collection, click the link above or in the

description below. Customer data for example, can

be collected unknowingly, like from transaction

records, cookies, website visits, social media

tracking and keyword tracking, or knowingly, like

with customer forms, loyalty programs, surveys,

service agreements and competitions. Well designed

data collection processes typically follow these

steps, identify a business or research issue, and

set goals for the project. Gather data

requirements to answer the business or research

question. Identify the data sets that can provide

the necessary information. Set a plan for

collecting the data including collection methods,

and collect the available data and begin prepping

it for analysis. Recent privacy laws such as GDPR,

make data privacy and security bigger

considerations when collecting data, particularly

if it contains personal information about

customers. An organization's data governance

program should include policies to ensure that

data collection practices comply with laws such as

GDPR what are the biggest challenges in your

organization when collecting data? How did you

overcome them? Share your thoughts in the comments

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