Why companies need to manage their data better

If you would ask any Chief Information Officer (CIO) from anywhere around the word about what is one of the top issues that they are facing and they will tell you that it is managing their customer's data. Each company uses different products, methodologies, processes, resources to manage their data appropriately to meet the needs of their customers. There is no set one solution, design, or implementation to solve the problems of these CIOs. We all forget that the reason why information technology exists is to support the organization's critical data in order to do business effectively.

Companies need to use data to communicate internally with other stakeholders across the organization to better support services for their customers. When different teams have different versions of the truth on the same business questions then this is an indicator that your company has bad data. If you have bad data then you can not answer questions about the business with full confidence. This will cause major issues, mistrust, and excuses between staff because the data is not right.

When you bring in new systems into your organization to use the data that you already have to populate the system database then it already becomes an ineffective tool. Business executives can not comprehend why they would spend a million dollars on a system that is not working as planned. The system configuration is correct, implementation went well, and users are trained but when the system is built on a foundation that has discrepancies it reduces the value of the investment that you have made in your company.

If you do not clean up your data and develop an effective data management plan to solve these issues then you will start to lose your customers and fail to get new business. If you can not provide your customers with accurate information about their account then they will lose trust in your company as being capable in performing their services. They will then turn to other competitors in the industry and give their business to them. You will gain negative publicity by your inefficient data management processes that are not developed or mature enough to support higher demanding customers. Word of mouth from your current and past customers will help influence other potential customers from not using your services based on the negative experiences that they have received.

You want to make sure that you have developed a solid data-foundation to support all business activities of the organization to meet the requirements of your customers. You need to invest in spending money into fixing your data and educate the staff in understanding the authoritative sources for the major functions of the company.