Data Quality

CHAPTER 1Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Today, intangible assets – which are not physical in nature and include things like data, brand, and intellectual property – have rapidly risen in importance compared to tangible assets such as land, machinery, inventories, and cash. In 2018, intangible assets in the S&P 500 hit a record value of $21 trillion and made up 84% of all enterprise value. This is a massive increase from just 17% in 1975 (Ali 2020). IDC predicts that by 2023 half of all GDP worldwide will be driven by products and services from digitally transformed enterprises (IDC 2019). Overall, as technology becomes more pervasive with 5G, artificial intelligence, robotics, the internet of things (IoT), quantum computing, analytics, blockchain, and more, organizations are looking at ways to develop, maximize, and protect the value of intangible assets, especially data, as all these digital technologies are underpinned by data.

Against this backdrop, data – an important intangible asset – is considered a critical business resource as it enables organizations to maximize productivity. Today, four of the top five companies in terms of market capitalization are data companies (Investopedia 2022). In 2019, Brain Porter, CEO of Scotiabank, Canada's leading bank, said, “We are in the data and technology business. Our product happens to be banking, but largely that is delivered through data and technology” (Berman 2016). AIG and Hamilton Insurance Group announced a joint venture firm ...