The more data you have, the more you know. It stands to reason.
Well, not exactly. It all depends on quality. Accurate, complete, up-to-date data – in other words, data you can trust – is the oil that lubricates your business’s engine. When it’s clean and plentiful, your processes run smoothly, your applications work like a dream and your people make sharp, sound, speedy decisions. You wouldn’t run your car on dirty oil, so why would you run your company on dirty data?
Of course, keeping it clean is hard. One of the problems with data is that it spreads and multiplies – until you have too many versions of the truth in too many different places. Indeed, poor data quality is the reason for 40% of all business initiatives failing to achieve their intended benefits1.
And while lack of support from the business is often a major obstacle, there is another fundamental issue. Central to success is an enabling technology infrastructure that helps information producers and information consumers organize, share, and exchange any type of data and content, anytime, anywhere2.
But when you get it right, the results are remarkable. With better information management, Colgate-Palmolive saw a 40% improvement in master data quality and CIE Las Américas was able to allocate its staff to more strategic tasks up to 50% more often3.
Meanwhile in The Netherlands, energy distributor, Alliander, achieved data quality control while cutting IT costs by 60%. “By introducing a managed environment for data overseen by business users instead of IT, we made data quality control faster, cheaper and transparent,” explains Rene Haasdijk, business intelligence manager.
According to Forrester Consulting, the real trick is finding a balance between tightly controlled IM architecture and flexibility, responsiveness and agility. And achieving this elusive balance is possible with a unified approach to information modeling. Start treating data as a strategic asset and you can expect a range of business benefits, from improved data quality and consistency, through optimized process performance, to greater customer satisfaction4.
You can learn more at www.sap.com/realtime_data/accurate_data or join the conversation #redefinedata
1Gartner. Measuring the Business Value of Data Quality, 10th October 2011
2Casnoto, Regina, et al for Gartner. Top 10 Technology Trends Impacting Information Infrastructure, February 2013
3Hoffers, Susan. Input Brief 2, SAP
