Transform Scattered Data Into Business Intelligence Today

Author

Rich Barker
May 26, 2025

Welcome to The Varato Letter, Sponsored by Harris Web Works.

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To learn more about how Harris Web Works can help you to future proof your manufacturing wholesale or distribution business, click here.

How to build a data warehouse that gives you FULL control of your business data (...most companies get this wrong):

Stop letting big tech companies own YOUR data.

Your business data is the oil that will power your future growth.

But right now?

It's probably scattered across multiple platforms:

  • Salesforce for CRM

  • Shopify for ecommerce

  • Google for analytics

  • Facebook for marketing

Here's the 3-step framework to take back control:

Centralize your data — Build a data warehouse that pulls information from ALL your systems into one place.

Let's break this down:

  • Create a single database (data lake) that automatically collects data from every platform you use

  • Set up secure API connections to pull data from each source

  • Store everything on your own servers, not on third-party platforms

  • Update data in real-time to ensure you're always working with current information

For example: When a customer makes a purchase, you'll capture:

  • Marketing data (which ad they clicked)

  • Sales data (what they bought)

  • Customer service interactions

  • Shipping details

All in one place, under your control.

Normalize your data — Structure your data so it's clean and usable.

Here's what proper data normalization looks like:

  • Standardize formats across all platforms (dates, currencies, customer IDs)

  • Create unified customer profiles that combine data from all touchpoints

  • Build automated cleaning processes to fix common data issues

  • Design custom reports that pull from multiple data sources

Real-world example:

Instead of checking 3 different platforms to understand a customer's journey, you can instantly see:

  • First touchpoint (Facebook Ad)

  • Website interactions (Google Analytics)

  • Purchase history (Shopify)

  • Support tickets (Zendesk)

All in one dashboard.

Future-proof your stack — When your data is centralized, switching platforms becomes easy.

Here's why this matters:

  • Switch from Salesforce to HubSpot without losing years of customer data

  • Change e-commerce platforms without disrupting your business intelligence

  • Test new marketing tools without worrying about data silos

  • Maintain historical data even when platforms change their APIs

The biggest benefit?

You'll be ready for the AI revolution.

AI needs data to get smart. Here's what this means practically:

  • Train AI models on your complete customer history

  • Predict customer behavior across all channels

  • Automate personalization using comprehensive data

  • Develop custom AI solutions specific to your business

The companies with large amounts of clean, structured data will win.

Start building your data warehouse today.

Because whoever owns the data, owns the future.

Whenever you're ready, here's how we can help you:

Harris Web Works is a digital transformation agency that helps supply chain partners (manufacturers, wholesalers & distributors) meet new generational buyer demands & expectations by installing streamlined e-commerce systems.

To learn more about how we can help you future-proof your business, click here.