Question

what is meant by the term data consolidation

Answer 1

In general words, Data Consolidations can be defined as a process of collecting the data from different sources, integrating it and then placing the resultant data into single destination data storage.

Definition: A process where the data from vast number of sources is collected together, processed and stored in a combined data file, where the data file can be excel file, database tables, document file, pdf and many more.

Example: In an organisation which is working on creating a project which will fulfil the different customer requirements, the data may be placed in different type of sources like internet, customer’s data base, requirement document, customer request tickets etc. As the data is placed in different formats and places, whenever an organization wants to conclude a result on certain requirement, it becomes difficult to process all data and generate single result. In this case process of Data Consolidation is used. The data from different sources is gathered in a single type of data source and process in such a way that the organisation team can view the collaborative result of the requirements in single file.

Steps to consolidate the data

Below are the steps followed to consolidate the data:

1. List the Sources of Data:

In this step, the different sources of the data are identified by the organisation’s concerned team. The data sources can be customer’s website, marketing news, documents shared by customers, Minutes of Meetings (MOMs), formal requirement documents, database shared by customer etc.

2. Retrieve the data from all sources:

The data from different sources identified in step 1 is retrieved and placed together in single unit.

3. Remove duplicity/redundancy:

The collected data is analysed to check whether there is any redundancy in the data where redundancy of data refers to the repetation of the same data in different sources. The duplicate data is removed from the collected data.

4. Remove errors:

The data is updated with removal of any error in it. E.g. if the data collected refers to the database queries, the incorrect queries are removed and updated as per the requirement.

5. Select the destination Data storage:

The destination data storage is identified to store the collected data till step 4 as per the data type of the data. Destination data storage can be a word document, pdf file, powerpoint presentation, database (SQL, Mysql or any available database) etc.

6. Store the manipulated data:

The consolidated data obtained till step 4 is moved to the database identified in step 5.