Data is crucial to business, providing insights into your customers and products, as well as direction for future investments in marketing and development.
Unfortunately, much of your data is flawed.
John Fruehe, senior analyst with Moor Insights and Strategy, writes in Forbes of the need to maintain data security and consistency: “Bad data leads to bad decisions, especially when one doesn’t realize the data is wrong.”
U.S. companies estimate nearly a third of their data is inaccurate, according to “The data quality benchmark report” from Experian Data Quality. More than 90% of companies suspect customer and prospect data may be inaccurate, and companies complain inaccurate and incomplete data costs productivity and resources.
The biggest cause? Human error.
The most common data quality tool used by companies Experian surveyed was data monitoring and audit—but only 42% were doing that.
Your existing software may have some built-in capabilities to monitor data. For example, QuickBooks includes an “Audit Log” that tracks when anything is added, changed or deleted. Other solutions may be server-based. For example, ShareTech applications not only logs clicks and keystrokes, but also takes screenshots for a visual audit trail.
What to look for
To monitor and audit your business data, U.K.-based Realise Data Systems recommends looking for four features in a data log system:
- Separation from the system it monitors. This prevents system users who may be tampering with the data also tampering with the log.
- Centralization across data sources, for one complete look at any data issues.
- Universal formatting, called “abstraction.” By converting different types of data into a common format, you can search for information regardless of the original system where it was created. This also aids collaboration among departments.
- Scalability—so it can grow with both the amount of data you use and your business.
If you are planning to use your business data for anything, the first step is to ensure its accuracy. With quality data, you will operate with greater efficiency and productivity.