Small Business Managment - It's All About The Data!

There is a critical issue which most small business owners
seldom pay much attention to: the quality of their most valuable
corporate asset – their data. Whether the source of the data is
a customer management system, an operational application or a
financial package, the issue of data quality is unquestionably a
critical business question. No business can meet its full
potential if the decisions made in running the business are
based on incomplete or unreliable information. Data duplication,
incomplete contact information, invalid data for a given field –
these are all types of data quality conditions which can
directly impact the performance of your company if left
unchecked.

Information quality is actually more complex than you might
imagine. The logistics of a data quality project are not that
daunting. It is certainly not difficult to initiate an internal
“clean-up” project to remediate errant data conditions (provided
your staff can find the time to accomplish it). Bringing in an
expert solutions provider to perform data cleansing is a good
alternative and should be seriously considered. Be prepared for
a bit of sticker shock though because this service is a highly
specialized discipline that requires years of development and
training. Just don’t dismiss the idea because you are afraid of
the costs. Ask yourself if you can quantify the costs to your
business every day of not solving the data quality problems you
have. If you can’t do so easily then you might not understand
the scope or pervasiveness of the problem. Most solutions
providers in the data quality space can show you the bottom line
justification if you ask for it.

Perhaps more important, however, is what you do to change the
culture of your business to one which embraces the concepts and
requirements of information quality. This isn’t easy. This is
all about recalibrating the priorities of both the staff and the
senior management of the firm. Just as no business can qualify
for a prestigious quality award like the Malcom Baldridge
without having undergone a comprehensive realignment of internal
thinking, so is it true also that data quality will never be
effectively resolved if it fails to be championed by the
owner(s) and promulgated down through the hierarchy to the front
line. Quality is a cultural mindset and working methodology –
this applies to data just as surely as it does to processes.
Don’t waste your money on a clean-up project if you won’t also
evaluate what your business can do to prevent data degradation
from recurring. The solution is an investment in your business’s
ultimate success. That’s one way for your business to stay in
step!