In recent years, conversations around data management have intensified, particularly the distinction between structured and unstructured data, itself a crucial element in housing providers’ strategic planning. Understanding these data types and their implications can significantly affect decision-making, operational efficiency and innovation in our sector.
Millions of information sources
While housing providers are actively addressing their data-quality problems, amalgamating their data sources and unifying their datasets for better decision-making, a critical gap still exists in grappling with the vast expanse of unstructured data, in the form of millions of information sources such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs and emails.
These untapped data sources prevent housing providers from fully harnessing the insights crucial for business intelligence (BI), artificial intelligence (AI) and automation; bridging this gap is therefore pivotal for housing providers to unlock the true potential of their data.
The growth of unstructured data
Recent estimates suggest that unstructured data will comprise 80 per cent of all data within the next few years. The proliferation of modern technologies such as autonomous vehicles, chatbots and VR applications is driving an annual increase of around 30 per cent in data volumes. This surge naturally presents storage and management challenges, prompting some organisations to overwrite or delete valuable unstructured data to avoid ‘data sprawl’.
However, unstructured data holds immense business value. As the complexity of business conditions increases, the ability to make faster, smarter and real-time decisions becomes essential. Unstructured data is at the heart of digital success, offering unprecedented opportunities for housing providers to enhance their operations and service delivery.
Fuelling innovation with unstructured data
The future of business innovation lies in leveraging unstructured data. Housing providers that can harness this type of data will navigate future challenges with greater agility and minimise wasted resources. The key to unlocking this potential is a modern data platform capable of consolidating and managing unstructured data with ease.
The importance of structured data
While the buzz around unstructured data grows, the value of structured data remains paramount. Structured data is highly organised and formatted, making it easily searchable and significantly improving productivity by reducing data chaos. It lays the foundation for advanced AI and BI functionalities, enabling housing providers to adopt transformational technologies seamlessly.
Implementing solutions for data structuring
Technologies such as TSG Mosaic EDRMS are revolutionising how housing providers manage data. SharePoint and other enterprise platforms have evolved to focus on compliance and governance and serve as a knowledge base; by using OneDrive, Teams and SharePoint effectively, housing providers can streamline their document management through metadata applications, either manually or automated with tools such as Mosaic.
Integration with line-of-business applications, such as housing management systems (HMS), customer relationship management (CRM) and portals, is critical. This integration supports compliance, governance, GDPR and subject access request (SAR) requirements.
Overcoming low-quality data
The main obstacle to leveraging these advances is data quality. Technologies such as Co-Pilot, which can aggregate tenant information from multiple systems into a cohesive overview, are only as effective as the data they process. Ensuring data quality is therefore vital for housing providers wanting to transform their operations and service delivery through AI and BI technologies.
You’re only as strong as your data management
For housing providers, the distinction between structured and unstructured data is more than a technicality; it’s a strategic imperative.
By understanding and effectively managing these data types, housing providers can unlock new levels of efficiency, decision-making, and innovation. The future of housing services is data-driven, and those prepared to navigate this landscape will lead the way in delivering enhanced services to their communities.
Kirsty Marsden is head of housing at TSG.
