What is Data Processing & How to make data driven decisions?

by Dhanashree 12 min read

Published: Jan 16, 2023 ● Updated: Mar 21, 2024

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Have you ever wondered how large corporations process and analyze data? If not, you've come to the right place.

Data processing is an essential tool used by enterprises to extract value from the data collected. It is used for decision-making and other vital processes for the business. It is a crucial aspect of modern business and research that allows for extracting valuable insights from the collected data. This data can be used to solve real-world problems.

What is Data Processing?

To begin with, let's define what we mean by "data processing."

Data processing transforms raw data into a usable form for analysis, interpretation, and manipulation. This can involve cleaning and organizing data, extracting relevant information, and converting the data into an easily analyzed format.

As an enterprise, you get data from all the channels that might not have the same format you need. Data processing ensures that all your raw data is in a similar format so that your analytics on top of the processed data is meaningful.

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How does Data Processing work?

Data processing involves a series of steps, including data collection, data cleaning, data transformation, and data analysis. Data collection is the first step in the processing pipeline. This phase collects data from various sources, such as sensors, databases, and web scraping tools. It's essential to ensure that the data collected is accurate, relevant, and comprehensive, as this will form the foundation for all subsequent analyses.

Once the data has been collected, it needs to be cleaned and pre-processed before it can be analyzed. This process, known as "data cleaning," involves removing errors and inconsistencies from the dataset and formatting and restructuring the data to make it more amenable to analysis.

After the data has been cleaned, it's time for data transformation. In this phase, the data is transformed into a more suitable form for the analytical task. This may involve aggregating the data, performing "feature engineering" (creating new features from existing data), or applying statistical techniques to extract valuable insights.

Finally, we come to the data analysis phase. This is where the real magic happens, as it's here that we use the processed data to answer important questions, test hypotheses, and make informed decisions. Numerous data analysis techniques and tools are available, ranging from simple statistical analysis to complex machine-learning algorithms.

Why should you use Data Processing?

Data processing can unlock the true potential of the raw data, enhance security, and provide a competitive edge while ensuring data-driven decision-making. Here are some of the reasons why enterprises should put more emphasis on high-quality data processing:

Extract valuable insights: Data processing allows organizations to extract useful insights and information from large and complex raw data.
Drive data-based decision-making: Data processing is an essential tool for business intelligence, enabling organizations to analyze their data and use the insights gained to inform their decision-making.
Improve efficiency: Data processing can streamline operations by identifying inefficiencies and optimizing processes.
Gain a competitive edge: By using data processing to extract valuable insights from their data, organizations can gain a competitive edge over their rivals by making better-informed decisions.

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How to do Data Processing? - Step by Step approach

At its core, the data processing refers to the manipulation and transformation of raw data into a more valuable and meaningful form for the end user.

There are many different approaches to data processing, and the specific steps involved can vary depending on the data's nature and the processing's goals. Here are the steps in the data processing process:

Acquiring data: This involves collecting or acquiring data from various sources, such as sensors, databases, scanned documents, or web scraping.
Validating data: This involves checking the data for accuracy and completeness and identifying and correcting any errors or missing values.
Cleaning data: This involves removing any irrelevant, redundant, or duplicate data and ensuring that the data is consistent and in a usable format.
Transforming data: This involves converting data from one format to another, such as converting data from a CSV file to a database table or from unstructured text to structured data.
Integrating data: This involves combining data from multiple sources into a cohesive dataset.
Analyzing data: This involves using tools and techniques, such as statistical analysis or machine learning, to extract insights and knowledge from the data.
Presenting data: This involves organizing and showing the results of the data analysis in a way that is easy to understand and communicate to others.

Types of data processing

There are several different types of data processing, each with its own set of techniques and approaches:

Batch processing involves processing data in large batches rather than in real-time. This is often used for tasks that do not require immediate results, such as generating reports or running backups.
Real-time processing: This involves processing data as it is generated to provide immediate results or take immediate action. This is often used in applications such as fraud detection or traffic control.
Stream processing: This involves processing data as it flows into the system continuously and sequentially. This is often used for tasks such as analyzing social media data or monitoring machine logs.
Distributed processing involves using multiple computers or servers to process data in parallel to increase speed and scalability. This is often used in tasks such as data mining or machine learning.

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How do you get started with data processing?

If you're new to the field, there are a few key things you'll need to consider. First and foremost, you'll need to decide on the tools and technologies you'll be using. Many tools and technologies are available for data processing, ranging from simple spreadsheet software to complex programming languages like Python. It's essential to choose appropriate tools for your needs and skill level. Here is a step-by-step approach to data processing:

What are some common applications of data processing?

Where there is data, there is a use case for data processing. To perform analytics on the data, the raw data must be processed. Now, what are some common use cases of data processing for enterprises? Let’s take a look.

Predictive analytics: What’s better than knowing forecasts of something that’s about to go wrong? With automated data processing, businesses can proactively handle tricky situations like dropping revenue numbers before it becomes a problem.
Data Cleansing: Data from multiple sources is bound to have differences in formatting. Data processing normalizes the data and ensures similar formatting across sources.
Intelligent Automation: Data processing can help trigger rule-based workflow automation to automate manual tasks.
Fraud Detection: Identifying fraudulent activities by analyzing patterns in transactional data.
Recommender Systems: Analyzing user behavior data to make personalized recommendations.
Image Processing: Analyzing and manipulating images to extract information and insights.

These are some data processing use cases, but they can be applied to many industries and personas.

How to automate data processing?

There are numerous applications for data processing in business. But how do you make life easier with complex data processing?

The question to this answer is "data processing automation."

Data processing automation simply uses workflow automation to put data tasks on autopilot. You can use intelligent automation to automate mundane data processing tasks like data entry, document upload, data cleansing, data matching, verification, and data storage. To get started with data processing automation, you need to follow the following steps:

Identify the problem or question you want to answer:

Before you begin, you must clearly understand what you want to achieve through your data processing efforts. Identify the problem you want to solve or the question you want to answer, and then consider the data you need to address it.

Select an automation platform:

You can use SQL, Python, and STATA to code the data processing process. Or, you can use modern no-code workflow management tools to create workflows to set up rules and triggers for data processing.

Platforms like Nanonets provide an end-to-end solution for enterprises to automate business processes efficiently.

Collect the data:

Once you know what data you need, it's time to start collecting it. This may involve using sensors, databases, or web scraping tools to gather the data. It's important to ensure that the data collected is accurate, relevant, and comprehensive.

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Clean and preprocess the data:

The next step is to clean and preprocess the data to ensure it is usable. This may involve removing errors and inconsistencies, formatting and restructuring the data, and handling missing values.

Nanonets can handle all data cleaning and wrangling processes easily. Check it out for your use case.

Transform the data:

Once the data has been cleaned, it's time to transform it into a more suitable form for the analytical task. This may involve aggregating the data, performing feature engineering, or applying statistical techniques.

Analyze and interpret the data:

Now, it's time to put the data to use. Use the appropriate tools and techniques to analyze and interpret the data and extract valuable insights and information.

Communicate the results:

Finally, it's important to communicate the results of your data processing efforts to relevant stakeholders. This may involve creating reports, visualizations, or presentations to share the insights you have gained.

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Nanonets: Data Processing Automation for enterprises

Nanonets is an AI-based intelligent document processing software that can extract data from any document (images, handwritten images, PDFs, and more) & perform tasks on extracted data on autopilot. You can use no-code workflows to perform tasks like

Document verification,
Approval workflows
Data enhancement,
Data wrangling,
Data export,
Data formatting,
Payment reconciliation,
Data extraction,
Document processing,
Accounts receivable

And more.

Nanonets is an entirely customizable platform, which means you can customize it according to your use case and requirements. It can perform multiple data formatting and enhancement tasks, including but not limited to the ones shown in the image below.

Why should you choose Nanonets?

As a business, you have documents. Often, a lot of them.

A lot of information is hidden in the documents. Using a platform like Nanonets allows businesses to use data from records, automate manual document processes, and enhance the organization's productivity while enhancing the security of documents.

Nanonets help businesses automate document data processes like data entry into accounting software or ERP, document data extraction, converting documents from one format to another and automating approvals, checks, verifications, and more.

Apart from its features, here are some reasons why you should move to Nanonets:

Saves 80% of costs and 90% of your time with an intelligent automation platform
Free migration assistance when you move to Nanonets
24x7 live support
7-Day Free Trial
Dedicated customer manager
Custom pricing plans

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Other Data Processing Tools & Technologies:

Many tools and technologies are available, from simple spreadsheet software to complex data processing frameworks. Some standard tools and technologies used in data processing include

Relational databases are structured databases that store data in tables and use SQL (Structured Query Language) to manipulate and query the data. Examples include MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL.
NoSQL databases: These do not use the traditional SQL language.
R and Python: Programming languages popular for data analysis and machine learning.
Tableau: A data visualization tool that allows users to create interactive dashboards and reports.
SAS, SPSS, and STATA: Statistical data analysis and visualization software.
KNIME: An open-source data integration and data analytics platform.

Conclusion

Data processing is a lifeline for businesses looking to draw meaningful insights from their vast datasets. Data processing automation helps businesses automate manual aspects of processing with minimal errors.

Software like Nanonets can help organizations save time and costs by simplifying data processes with no-code workflow automation. If you want to automate mundane document data processing tasks, reach out to our team or start your free trial.

In case you have another use case in mind, please reach out to us. We can help you automate data extraction, processing, and archiving using no-code workflows at a fraction of the cost.