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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