Metadata refers to the information about data that gives it more context and relevance. It records essential aspects of the data (e.g., date, size, ownership, data type, or other data sources) to help users discover, identify, understand, organize, retrieve, and use it—transforming information into business-critical assets. Think of it as labels on a box that describe what’s inside. Metadata makes it easier to find and utilize the data that you need. Typical metadata elements include.

Before shedding light on metadata management, it is crucial to understand what metadata is. Metadata refers to the information about your data. This data includes elements representing its context, content, and characteristics. It helps you discover, access, use, store, and retrieve your data, having a wide spread of variations. Metadata of an image. Image by Astera. Let’s look at some of the metadata types below.

Data aggregation is the process of combining and summarizing data from disparate sources into a cohesive dataset. It prepares data for analysis, making it easier to obtain insights into patterns and insights that aren’t observable in isolated data points. Once aggregated, data is generally stored in a data warehouse. Then, you can leverage it to gain a holistic perspective on your operations and market trends, design effective risk management practices, and make more informed decisions overall.

IT leaders who want to scale operations to meet future business needs face an epic challenge—improving operational efficiency while managing risk, ever-growing IT backlogs, and stakeholder expectations. That's where process orchestration comes into play. Process orchestration is not just about efficiency and scale. It's a transformative approach that revolutionizes how work gets done. By automating routine tasks, it frees up your workforce to focus on strategic initiatives.

A solid understanding of internal technical and business terms is essential to manage and use data. Business glossaries are pivotal in this aspect, facilitating improved understanding and collaboration among teams. A business glossary breaks down complex terms into easy-to-understand definitions, ensuring that everyone in the organization, from the newest recruit to the CEO, is on the same page regarding business language.

As generative AI grows in popularity and enterprises scramble to embrace new technology in a scalable, compliant way, it can be difficult to know the right path forward. Your enterprise has already invested in automating processes to free up resources and improve organizational efficiency, but is it enough? This is where intelligent process automation comes into play.

This year at Appian World, we announced the launch of Process HQ. This next-generation process mining capability combines both process and business data in a single place, automating process analysis and empowering users with intelligent recommendations for where and how to take action. And because it’s part of the Appian Platform, you can immediately apply these improvements to your processes using our AI automation and workflow orchestration capabilities.

For organizations looking to automate processes for better performance, a combination of RPA and process mining can help. Let’s take a step back to understand why. Automation that’s implemented without data-backed decisions often yields poor results. And data without action leads nowhere. To get the most out of any technology investment, you have to be sure you're using the right combination of tools and techniques.

OLTP is a transaction-centric data processing that follows a three-tier architecture. Every day, businesses worldwide perform millions of financial transactions. This fact brings to mind client-facing personnel such as bank tellers and supermarket cashiers tapping away on keyboards and at cash registers, and with good reason. According to ACI Worldwide, a payment systems company, there was a 42.2% growth in global real-time transaction volumes in 2023, amounting to 266.2 billion transactions.

Data mining, also known as Knowledge Discovery in Data (KDD), is a powerful technique that analyzes and unlocks hidden insights from vast amounts of information and datasets. Data mining goes beyond simple analysis—leveraging extensive data processing and complex mathematical algorithms to detect underlying trends or calculate the probability of future events.