The Data Asset: How Smart Companies Govern Their Data for Business Success

CHAPTER 13

Undisciplined Organizations: Discovering the Value of Data Quality Tools

Bad habits are like a comfortable bed—easy to get into and hard to get out of.

—PROVERB

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Undisciplined companies need to view technology as a tool. As much as business improvement guides focus on integrating data between business units and breaking down barriers, undisciplined organizations need to take baby steps, focusing instead on allowing individuals within different departments the opportunity to test data management technologies that address their specific needs. These organizations are not ready to find success with business applications like customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), or master data management (MDM). Instead, the undisciplined organization should focus on applications that can benefit the most from more department-driven, function-specific technology implementations such as:

• Database marketing

• Sales force automation (SFA)

• Spend management

In this chapter, organizations will learn about data profiling, data quality, and identity resolution—the three data management technologies that will help undisciplined companies succeed at these department-driven efforts.

REMEMBER

1. Data quality and data governance should never be considered a one-time project. A quality culture must be established as an ongoing, continuous process.

2. No organization can tackle enterprise-wide data quality and data governance all at once. To be ...