How AI Can Help Overcome the Challenges of Legacy Data Integration

Big data presents big challenges, from maintaining data integrity to having the ability to extract insights from data sets. Decades of meticulously captured data do you no good if you cannot access it easily or manage it efficiently.

Aretec is an 8(a) certified data science-focused firm devoted to bringing efficiency and automation to federal agencies. One of the ways we do that is easing clients into dealing with legacy data by leveraging AI services to integrate, optimize, and intelligently parse huge and diverse datasets.

Data Fragmentation

Over time, information necessary to support operations often winds up fragmented across multiple data silos. Some are outside of the agency or stored with private entities. Incomplete data leads to imperfect reporting and inaccurate analytical services. And the problem only grows worse the longer it is allowed to persist. Fragmented data eventually results in “islands” of duplicated and inconsistent data that incurs unnecessary infrastructure support costs. It affects every part of the agency’s operations, from contract negotiations to acquisition planning.

Aretec Data Virtualization is designed to correct this exact problem. Instead of further duplicating data into a central repository, the ADV Platform functions as a connective layer that provides easy-to-consume visibility into all of the original data sources, in their original locations. The onboarding time is significantly shorter than alternative solutions, in some cases requiring only one-tenth the development time. And it delivers approximately the same query speed as accessing the original data directly.

Data Inconsistencies

Many government agencies are tasked with aggregating data records that come from a wide variety of sources, which are not always standardized in format or content. Even when standards are rigidly applied, it is inevitable that they will evolve over time, so the longer your records go back, the greater the chance for variance.

Aretec’s solution is to use machine learning to intelligently map data fields consistently across records. Aretec’s services use AI processes to identify patterns and make hypotheses about which data fields correspond to each other. Before proceeding to validate and reconcile the data, human operators must confirm the decision to proceed, providing important expert, human guidance while still managing huge volumes of data at scale. As the AI tools process more data records and learn from their human operators, their hypotheses become increasingly more accurate.

Learning Curves

Many of the challenges that come with legacy data management are not technical — they are cultural. Highly skilled employees have spent years learning how to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. Any change in the system compromises that, and a technical solution that requires extensive retraining and relearning will have a negative impact on productivity and potentially morale.

Aretec understands this challenge and helps agencies overcome it by offering highly customizable, smart, self-service tools designed from the ground up to be extremely user friendly. Our objective is to automate everything that can be automated and free up employees from the rote processing work that machine learning excels at. We value the knowledge and expertise of your professional workforce and rely on them to guide the tools to do the work — not force them to alter their workflow to accommodate a new tool.

Partnering with Aretec on a custom AI service solution for data integration helps improve efficiency, ensure visibility, lower overhead costs, and make better use of your agency’s professional resources. And Aretec is easy to work with — we are a “Best In Class” Chief Information Officer–Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) contract holder, supporting task areas 1 through 10. Aretec is also an IT Schedule 70 (IT-70) vendor, as well as a U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) Schedule vendor.

For more information about how Aretec can help solve your organization’s data challenges,