Anyone still using spreadsheets to conduct mission-critical operations, please raise your hand. Anyone?  

Please don’t be shy about this. The reality is that although people speak of being in “the era of AI”, there are still plenty of  data related processes that will not involve any form of artificial intelligence, and a lot of business operations still rely on old school tools. Offices develop systems and sometimes they don’t migrate off them for years, decades… or, ever. The reasons for this vary from environment to environment, but the fact is this: if you are still using spreadsheets to conduct work, you’re not alone.

You might even be pretty happy with your systems. If you are, don’t change a thing. The work of migration to a new system is not worth the trouble if what you’re doing is working for you. However, if you are finding processes are becoming hard to manage, it’s time for a change. If this is your issue, it’s likely your solution has nothing to do with AI. More than likely, you need to get yourself a database. 

Databases serve as the foundation for much of the work you’re ever going to want to do with data, whether it be analyzing it, reporting on it, sharing it, or integrating it with other sources. These are still some of the most common tools that data engineers build for organizations. If you are building your first database, we suggest working closely with a data engineer who can understand the specifics of your business needs and design accordingly. The following case study describes past work conducted for a government agency to implement a first instance of a relational database.