Importance Of Data Architecture In The Age of Digital Transformation

6 min read
Jan 18, 2023 4:30:00 PM

Understanding and swiftly adjusting to the shifting behaviors and expectations of digital users are prerequisites for a successful digital engagement. They need data, analytics, and applications to adapt to real-time digital processing for their digital experiences, which calls for a next-generation enterprise digital data architecture 

The gap between businesses that successfully use data and those that don't, according to our experience and deliverables in digital transformation services in Singapore, corresponds to a 1% margin boost for leaders. 

A business need is the capacity to quickly use cutting-edge technology to supply goods and services in previously impossible ways. On the other hand, any company that does not leverage integrated digital transformation solutions and new technology runs the danger of being irrelevant to modern consumers. 

Some of the most rapidly expanding global businesses are ‘born digital’, which implies that the power of digital is ingrained into the very fabric of their business strategies. Consumer expectations have been molded in several different ways by these and other cutting-edge businesses.  

It seems that customers have come to assume that by just clicking a few buttons, a cab will be at their location in a matter of minutes. Or that the entertainment service they select would suggest programs that they are most likely to appreciate. Or that the movie or other stuff they're seeking will be delivered instantaneously through social media networks. 

What technological elements support digital transformation, and what should you think about if you want to advance your company? The trendy, cutting-edge ones attract the greatest interest, and although you should invest in those that will offer you an advantage, it's equally critical to think about the data architecture required to support them. The crucial but sometimes disregarded component of digital transformation solutions is what can be referred to as data architecture. 

Data: Core of the Digital Transformation  

Let's take a look at how modern digital consumers purchase to better grasp the requirement for data sharing and analytics at high speed and scale. 

Imagine Sarah, an individual using a search engine or social media platform. She comes across an advertisement for something that’s on her mind. The advertisement directs her to an e-commerce website, where she may view the item that drew her attention while the site suggests further items that she might enjoy. She may verify the date of delivery to her address once she has chosen her selections and made her purchase. 

The website is completing her purchase by optimizing delivery routes and warehouses while she awaits her package. Her order is fulfilled, and the e-commerce website reviews her preferences to offer her more products, services, or discounts in the future. 

This type of purchase is made possible by the data that is practically examined in real-time. 

  • The data and search are optimized by many top digital transformation companies like TransformHub. Data architecture includes this as a key component. 
  • Real-time analytics and predictive modeling are used to provide suggestions. They retrieve information from several systems, including the user profile, purchase history, and the search terms being used in the current session. 
  • Customer’s delivery address and the locations of the warehouses are analyzed to determine the optimum delivery route and schedule, which optimizes order fulfillment. 

Digital transformation solutions have been realized by retailers that effectively meet consumer expectations and innovate consistently in marketing, design, distribution, support, and other areas. 

This transformation is based on scalable, linked, and smart models. Some established companies have effectively adapted by implementing an omnichannel strategy and combining physical and digital procedures.  

This physical and digital integration now encompasses marketing and supply chain management procedures in addition to sales channels. A smart strategy used by many companies offering digital transformation services in Singapore 

Digital Architecture Framework & Its Significance 

There are two key elements that digital architecture must consider. 

1. Digital engagement 

The first is that platforms are used in digital interaction. For iOS and Android, mobile apps are created. Alexa, Cortana, Google Assistant, and Siri are used in the development of digital assistants. Standards, SDKs, and development guidelines specific to these platforms must be followed.  

To improve the client experience, they also provide tools that may be used, such as maps, auto-dialing phone numbers, language vocabularies, and others. To keep digital engagement apps up to date, these platforms also have continual requirements and adjustments. 

2. Users 

The second is that consumers and other digitally active users expect all channels, regardless of the channel they use, to have the same knowledge about them and to work consistently. This affects a data architecture in the following ways: 

  • To ensure that information about a consumer is accessible to all the digital platforms, the data must be separated from each one of them. 
  • To have a comprehensive history of a customer's interactions available whenever required, data will need to be collected from a digital platform. 
  • Real-time interactions will be driven by digital events started by customers. 
  • Instead of the transaction or report data requirements of an application or data mart, interactions are little, bite-sized chunks of data. 
  • New digital interactions will be formed as platforms develop; therefore, a digital data architecture must be flexible and quick to adapt as well. 

Guidelines For Implementing Digital Data Architecture 

An event-responsive, digital data architecture grows through a continuous series of initiatives, unlike a data warehouse or data mart. For a few reasons, this may be done without requiring a data architecture to begin work. 

  • The accepted practice for digital and cloud-based computing has developed as containers and APIs utilizing Docker and Kubernetes. 
  • The consumer of event-responsive data is liberated from exploring data structures, thanks to APIs for data interactions, which decouple data structures from data consumption. 
  • For event-responsive data, using data objects rather than data tables offers flexibility, meaning that adding new data items and data pieces does not affect previously developed API services. 

The instructions for putting into practice a digital architecture and event-responsive data, project by project, are as follows: 

1. Ensure that jobs are finished swiftly: 

Digital platforms and consumers' preferences and habits change often, making digital interaction unstable. In response, projects adopt new digital interactions and must be finished rapidly. 

2. Create an efficient user interface: 

To engage people, digital platforms must have a well-designed user experience. The data that each event requires is also identified by the user experience. 

3. Define the APIs and their data content: 

When an event interacts with the event-responsive data repository via an API, it produces or consumes data. Designing data objects and their data content is based on this. 

4. Control the APIs' data content: 

Data objects, connections between them, and data pieces that are new to the event-responsive data repository can go through governance before they are physically in place or utilized since the APIs are a result of the user experience design.  

5. Fill up the data repository for events: 

Only add data objects and data components to the event-responsive data repository that support defined APIs and have been completely approved by this before-the-fact governance procedure, such as customer data for a new digital engagement platform. 

6. Deliver data components to processing systems: 

Existing processing systems must be informed when new data objects or modified data are added by digital events to the event-responsive data repository: 

  • Both batch processing systems and near real-time systems may be supported by providing these as a data stream utilizing the pub-sub pattern. 
  • To ensure a consistent view of corporate data from origination to delivery, the new or modified data objects should comprise the stream's content. 

Repeat this procedure for each project that follows. Because the only requirements are the ability to build APIs, regulate data content, and fill the event-responsive data repository with whatever data is necessary for a project to operate, projects may also be run concurrently. 

Creating The Right Data Architecture 

Organizations may innovate with business models and shorten time-to-market because of the power, speed, and flexibility that a cloud environment offers. Without cloud technology, digital transformation is almost unimaginable. It is no longer just up to the IT department to decide how to implement these; CXOs are now debating this as a strategic business mandate. 

High-speed data analytics and the capacity to handle bigger amounts of data are made possible by cloud engineering services and data analytics consulting services that provides computing power in the cloud. Utilizing cloud services helps you save costs and increase company agility by enabling you to scale up or down your infrastructure and processing capacity as needed. M 

Minimizing capital cost, application deployment, processing power, and storage capacity become on-demand and essentially pay-as-you-use resources. The ability to deploy system resources as needed and distribute data among many processes is made possible by the cloud environment. 

Some of your databases and apps may already be in the cloud, while others may need to be transferred as part of your digital transformation plan. Data synchronization must be planned and maintained if you're employing both on-premises and cloud infrastructure. 

Your data architecture could be built on a public, private, or hybrid cloud. Private clouds are more affordable for larger firms, whereas public clouds often perform better for smaller companies. 

Nowadays, many businesses use a hybrid cloud strategy that combines their private cloud with many public cloud service providers. AWS, Google, Azure, and other service providers might be utilized for particular services. 

Let’s Connect 

You can confidently embrace the best digital transformation solutions and continually develop your business models with the correct data architecture in place. 

To create a tailored digital transformation roadmap and data architecture based on your current assets and future ambitions, get in touch with the experts at TransformHub.