As summer drifts into autumn and the leaves turn from green to reds and gold, many of us are thinking of hot chocolates and comfy jumpers. For those with an expanding business however, minds are already looking towards the new year and what it means for their organisation. Accessing new clients, building resilient marketing schemes and ensuring GDPR is followed are all core parts of expanding existing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). My role in supporting my clients to scale their businesses comes in the form of Database Management. So with hot chocolates in hand, let’s talk about what makes good Database Management for business development and growth.

The first thing you are going to need when looking at Database Management for business growth is robustness. As a database developer I’m looking to work on custom database development not just for the here and now but for the future as well. By ensuring that existing databases have data integrity and data security to ensure that data managed by your business is safe and secure. By building databases to withstand customer growth your development team can be sure that your database will be easy to access and manage without unnecessary downtime or loss of important data.

Another core aspect about my database development services is working with GDPR legislation. I have written about this before in another blog but it does warrant repeating. When building a brand, there are many public facing tools to use such as newsletter, comment forms, interactive posts. All of these require you to process and store personal data. This is where ensuring robust Database Management is critical. I work to make sure that databases handle data appropriately, through the use of cloud databases and services such MicroSoft SQL technologies. These back-end databases allow for easy data retrieval, processing, organising and analysing, all of which is vital for a growing organisation.

The last aspect is scalability, ensuring that the database is designed to grow with the business. By ensuring the design and the development of the database creates an accessible database, you can analyse and build business growth models from client information. Ensuring scalability also means working to minimise downtime and make sure backup and recovery is possible, so you can have peace of mind that your data is safe and working for you.

If you are looking to develop your business and existing databases to grow your business reach, I offer cost effective, competitive rates for bespoke, custom services to suit your business requirements.

As a database developer, clients often ask me why database management is important to their business. Whether you’re growing and scaling a business or keeping up-to-date with current business demands, database development is vital. There are a number of reasons for this – notably security and the way data is used to support businesses.

The first of these, security, is a core issue for anyone handling data of any kind and especially if you’re handling customer data. Perhaps the most obvious issue that good database management tackles is GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation to give it the full title. GDPR is the regulation that oversees the way data is handled and protected within the UK and the EU. It is critical that data is managed and processed in line with GDPR regulations – with large fines a possible outcome for organisations that mishandle data. Data management and good database development takes a lot of the stress out of ensuring GDPR regulations are followed. Database design that is secure and promotes data security allows development teams and business managers to have both accessible data and support the “need to know” ethos of GDPR. When clients use my bespoke database management services everything I do is built around the idea of promoting secure, GDPR compliant data management.

Knowing your data is secure is one thing, but customers also need to know their data is easy to remove. Anyone who has ever fought with a customer service line to be taken off a mailing list will know the frustration of poor data management. This is where high quality custom database management systems come into play. This means being not only able to quickly and effectively retrieve and remove data but also be confident that all the necessary data is removed – that there are no ghosts in the machine. The ability to confidently remove data when needed is beneficial for two reasons, one it promotes confidence amongst customers and two it makes sure that you follow GDPR’s right to be forgotten.

In making sure that your business is working in line with data security and GDPR regulations, you also support its day to day running. Good database management stops ghost data, multiple copies of data (taking up valuable space on systems) and makes analysing data an easy task. When I work with databases I look at the need for my clients’ team members to share data quickly between colleagues. With this in mind I make sure that data retrieval is not only quick and efficient but simple to back up and recover. Smooth and easy to use database management enables businesses to make up-to-the-minute decisions, make detailed business plans and forecast future growth.

For businesses looking for accessible data that meets GDPR legislation, good database management, designed with your business in mind, is not just a nice thing to have, it is absolutely crucial.

If you are looking to start your business’ journey in database management or growing and developing your business and existing databases, I offer cost effective, competitive rates for bespoke, custom services to suit your business requirements.