A hybrid approach to creating a Common Data Area (CDE)

27 Jun A hybrid approach to creating a Common Data Area (CDE)

It recently struck me that I have now been creating Common Data Environments (CDEs) for over 20 years! Although I must say it has got a whole lot easier over the last few years with the many improvements in technology and the introduction of cloud solutions.

For me a CDE is a central database of documents* and email correspondence that is created as near ‘real time’ as possible. It can be provided to the business user when they need it to do their job, regardless of whether they are in sales, project management, customer service, finance, HR or any other operational business area. 

Of course there are many challenges in creating and maintaining a CDE. It’s imperative to get the technology architecture right and it’s key to elect the right system solutions. You need to ensure the documents and emails can be used by your operation systems ie Salesforce, SharePoint, Open Text, M-files, SAP, and your operational systems/customer support systems. At the same time, the central database of documents, emails and the loosely coupled integration needs to be maintained

Recently, one area I have been finding our customers having to deal with (more and more) is how to maintain a CDE while respecting data residency requirements, i.e. the need to create a hybrid CDE (partly on premise and partly in the cloud). Knowing where your data is, is important. This is particularly critical if the local data laws/data regulation say the data must be retained locally. Many of the large vendors are now making this increasingly more difficult because they want to move everything to cloud to improve the value/share price of their organisations.

At Knowledgemill we have been working with many organisations to create a CDE. If you would like support in creating your hybrid CDE click on the link www.knowledgemill.com to find out more.  I would be pleased to demonstrate/discuss how Knowledgemill can help your business, explain the system in more detail and show how Knowledgemill could help your organisation to create and maintain a CDE in combinations with your existing systems. 

Kevin been successfully delivering technology solutions to companies for over 30 years both on the buying and selling side of a number of blue chip organisations, e.g. with Deloitte or as a CIO/COO.