Without good data, you won’t be able to make good IT or business decisions. Interestingly, many IT operations leaders and business pros are still working to improve data quality. The success of data quality management depends on deployment, infrastructure, and modernization strategies. In a recent report on data quality management, we see that automation and modernization efforts have still not been universally adopted. While seven in ten enterprises surveyed (69%) have begun their DQM journeys, they still have not achieved high maturity levels. The technology is there, but companies are struggling to use it and are only scratching the surface of DQM’s potential.

Companies increasingly realize that if they don’t keep up with the latest trends and technology in data quality management, their competitors will leave them behind.

To extract the full value from data, businesses must ensure its accuracy, completeness, and consistency. This is where Data Quality Management (DQM) comes into play. This blog post will explain DQM, how to manage data more effectively, and why it is an essential business strategy.

Data Quality refers to the degree to which data is accurate, complete, consistent, and relevant for its intended use. Poor data quality can lead to inaccurate business decisions, misaligned strategies, and lost opportunities. Effective DQM ensures that data is accurate, reliable, and relevant throughout its lifecycle. It involves establishing policies, procedures, and practices to ensure data is correct, complete, consistent, and relevant.

Here are the critical components of effective DQM:

• Data Profiling: This involves analyzing data from various sources and identifying any anomalies, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, or missing data that could affect the quality of insights drawn from it. Data profiling also helps to identify patterns and relationships in the data, which can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the business, IT ecosystem, and its customers.
• Data Cleansing: This involves removing or correcting inaccurate or incomplete data. Data cleansing ensures that data is accurate, complete, and reliable. Data cleansing involves identifying and correcting errors, filling in missing data, and standardizing data across different sources.
• Data Integration: This involves combining data from multiple sources to create a unified view of the data. Data integration ensures that data is consistent and up-to-date across different IT operations and business systems. It involves identifying the relationships between various data sources and creating a common data model to enable data to be analyzed effectively.
• Data Governance: This involves managing the availability, usability, integrity, and security of data. Data governance involves establishing policies, procedures, and controls to ensure data is used appropriately and protected from unauthorized access or use. Data governance also involves establishing roles and responsibilities for data management and ensuring that the organization complies with relevant regulations and standards.

Effective DQM provides many benefits to businesses, including:

• Improved Decision-Making: Accurate and reliable data can help IT operations and business leaders to make informed decisions. Companies can make better decisions that drive growth and success by identifying trends, opportunities, and risks.
• Operational Efficiency: Effective data management can help businesses optimize processes, reduce waste, and improve productivity. By having accurate and timely data, companies can avoid overstocking or understocking, reducing waste and improving profitability.
• Customer Satisfaction: Accurate and reliable data can help businesses personalize the customer experience and provide better customer service. By understanding customer preferences and behavior, businesses can tailor their marketing messages and product offerings to meet the needs of individual customers.
• Risk Management: Effective data management can help businesses and IT operations leaders identify and mitigate risks. By having accurate data on supply chain or market disruptions, businesses can take steps to minimize the impact of these events on their operations and finances.

To implement effective DQM, IT operations leaders need to follow these seven best practices:

• Define Data Quality Requirements: In working with the business, IT operations need to define the data quality requirements for their data. This involves identifying the critical data elements and their characteristics, such as accuracy, completeness, consistency, and relevance. By defining data quality requirements, businesses can establish clear expectations for data quality and ensure that everyone in the organization understands the importance of data quality.
• Establish Data Quality Metrics: IT ops and respective business units need to establish data quality metrics to measure the quality of their data. These metrics should align with the data quality requirements and be measurable, achievable, and relevant. By establishing data quality metrics, businesses can monitor the effectiveness of their DQM program and make continuous improvements.
• Implement Data Profiling and Cleansing: This is for IT ops and business leaders. These groups must implement data profiling and cleansing to identify and correct errors, inconsistencies, and duplications in their data. This helps ensure the data is accurate, complete, and consistent. Data profiling and cleansing should be performed regularly to maintain data quality.
• Develop Data Governance Policies: IT operations and business compliance leadership must develop policies to ensure data is managed effectively. Data governance policies should include guidelines for data ownership, security, access, and usage. By creating data governance policies, businesses can ensure that data is used ethically, securely, and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.
• Train Employees: Businesses need to train employees on best practices and the importance of data quality. By training employees, businesses can ensure that everyone understands the importance of data quality and how to maintain it. Within IT, IT admins and operations should be trained on data profiling and cleansing techniques, as well as data governance policies and procedures.
• Use Automation Tools: IT operations should use automation tools, such as data quality software, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their DQM program. Data quality software can automate data profiling and cleansing tasks, making identifying and correcting errors, inconsistencies, and duplications in data easier and faster. Automation tools can also improve data quality metrics and help businesses make data-driven decisions.
• Monitor Data Quality: Businesses and IT operations must monitor data quality regularly to ensure that data is accurate, complete, and consistent. Data quality monitoring should be performed using data quality metrics and should be an ongoing process. By monitoring data quality, businesses can identify issues early and make necessary corrections before they become more significant problems.

Getting started with data quality management

Data quality is critical in decision-making, operational efficiency, and customer satisfaction. When data is of poor quality, IT operations make decisions based on inaccurate or incomplete information, leading to missed opportunities, incorrect forecasting, and even financial losses. It can also lead to human error and downtime.

Poor data quality can lead to inefficient operations, increased costs, and decreased customer satisfaction. By implementing a comprehensive DQM strategy, businesses can ensure their data’s accuracy, completeness, and reliability, leading to many benefits. TFORM’s software platform is a leader in providing data quality. It also makes data quality management fundamentally simpler. To improve your data quality journey, schedule a call with a TFROM data expert and get the most out of your data.