July 26, 2021

Best Practices for Adding New Data Sources to Your Customer App

Person looking at data representation

Building features for your new, or existing customer-facing application provides valuable new data sources to your current data warehouse, enriching your customer personas and allowing your organization to deliver enhanced personalization and improved customer experience.  To ensure you get the most from your new data sources, here are some best practices to keep in mind during the planning and building stages. 

Get Executive Team Support

Involve executives early in the process. Ideally, these executive team members will be part of the project from the start. At least one executive should be an active sponsor to help steer the project and move it forward with the necessary funding. Ideally, this person will have a need for the data. This way, you’ll be able to ensure that the data helps to support and drive business goals. 

In addition to this executive support, you’ll need support from their advisory team. These are the people executives regularly turn to when they need answers or information. Having input from the people closely connected to the day-to-day operations will help you create a more useful product. 

Think Business

The focus of a new data source should be how it will help answer business questions and how it will help achieve business objectives. The data will potentially be used by multiple departments, from sales and marketing to business development. Consider all possible users when determining business goals that your data will assist with. 

Focus

The temptation with Big Data is to grab every available data point, but that can lead to problems. While it can be helpful to think outside the box, focus your goals on relevant data collection. Select data sources based on their value to your business objectives; this will help keep the project organized and on track. 

Use Clean Data

Defining what constitutes clean and quality data is an important step. Be sure to set a baseline expectation for data quality. Then, get sign-off on that baseline. Build a strong foundation for the project, with stakeholders having a clear understanding of the project’s starting point – its data and the quality of that data. 

When to Buy vs. Build

Building an in-house solution isn’t always the best choice. When adding new data sources through API integrations to either a new, or existing application, it can be best to look to industry-tested solutions 

  1. Faster Time to Market
    Gain instant access to reliable and scalable technologies.
  2. Cost-Effective Deployments
    Remove the need to buy, configure and maintain complex hardware and software applications.
  3. Future Proof Technology
    Stay ahead of the competition with continued function and feature enhancements.
  4. Security & Compliance
    Ensure 100% HIPPA and GDPR compliance with global regulatory environment experience.
Sprout Open Health API™ is built to enhance new and existing applications with advanced features designed to deliver personalized customer experiences while safely and securely capturing health and lifestyle data to deliver real business outcomes.  To learn more, book a discovery call today.

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