“Our focus is providing actionable insights from data, and you can’t do that if people are stuck on how to pull a certain report or run a certain query” – Monica Calabria, Senior Data Analyst at ddms
Besides diving into data, one of the things ddms consultants love to do most is help clients connect the dots with data.
Monica Calabria, Senior Data Analyst, recently participated in a client site visit as part of a consultant electronic field data adoption process. The ddms team was able to meet with both the client and consultants for a 30,000-foot holistic view of data inputs and – crucially – data outputs.
Background
This particular client uses EQuIS to collect, manage, and report on environmental site data.
ddms was part of the initial implementation to help all the internal and external companies get set up to input all their data into one central database. One reason ddms does ongoing site visits post-implementation is because no initial installation can withstand all the inevitable personnel changes and job roles changes that happen in every organization. Especially when clients work with multiple consultants, each of whom is autonomous, success depends on each person within each supplier organization understanding how to work with the technology on an ongoing basis.
Diagnosing Data Gaps
“It’s our job to make sure that everyone knows the most efficient, simplest way to input and extract data,” said Monica. “Our focus is providing actionable insights from data, and you can’t do that if people are stuck on how to pull a certain report or run a certain query.”
The benefit of site visits is being able to sit down with someone in a more informal way to see how they use the system, what barriers they’re running into, and understand typical processes.
“Dialogue is the best way to train,” Monica added. “Every company has different processes. When you factor in how we each think differently, it’s just better to sit down and talk through the issue and show people show how to get the most of their data.”
“I think of it as connecting the dots,” said Monica. “Or being a ‘data doctor.’ We’re always looking for the gaps, the missing sample data, the report functionality that we know is there, but perhaps the client or a supplier doesn’t.”
One common example of diagnosing data gaps is when the electronic field data collection tool is not in use or used incorrectly. That results in mismatched or missing sample ids which break the field data to lab data relationship. When you need to generate a report, the data is disconnected, which then requires someone doing additional backend work to reconnect the data. Setting up solid workflows from planning to data collection to reporting keeps those dots connected.
How We Can Help
ddms are scientists who understand environmental data from the ground to the cloud. We join your team as an expert partner to centralize data so it’s accessible, secure, and easy to manage. From governments to superfunds to industry, we work with any organization who needs to use environmental data to make sound business decisions.
For more information on how ddms can improve your environmental data program adoption, please email sales@ddmsinc.com