Treasure hunts sure were fun as a kid. Whether your parents sent you looking for buried boxes of gold with coffee-stained clues, or you were decked out in pastels and on the prowl for Easter eggs, your younger self was filled with a sense of adventure. Sure, you secretly wondered if you’d ever find the prize, but the rush of glory once you did was always worth it.

Treasure hunts at work, however, have less luster. When you’re on a deadline and can’t find information you need, it is not adventure you feel—it’s stress and frustration. That’s why you need a centralized database, which has a lot of benefits to offer your organization. Let’s go over some of the ones you’d see immediately.

Real-time Access & Up-to-date Information
When you have a single database into which information is recorded, you don’t have to wonder whether or not someone has plugged in their data from another source. And if the system is worth its salt, it will also show you when each record was last edited—and by whom. This gives you the freedom of knowing you’re always using the most up-to-date information available.

Reporting Capabilities
When all your data is stored in a single place, it makes reporting easier and faster. Even better, it gives you more versatile reporting options, since you can include any piece of information or any data point. You’re no longer limited by what is recorded in each system—you can pull anything you need. If your database is structured correctly, your ability to access information is nearly limitless.

Efficiency
Once your data is all in one spot, it eliminates your need to hunt through multiple systems and spreadsheets for the record you need. (How many hours would you save right there?) It also increases your organization’s efficiency by requiring data to be input only once—instead of multiple times across different systems. That means time formerly spent on a tedious task can now be used for something else, making the organization more productive.

While no one’s saying you shouldn’t channel your inner pirate or Indiana Jones, work isn’t the best place to do it. Instead, store all your golden data in a single treasure chest, so when you need information you know for certain which X marks the spot.