Why Is Good Data Quality a Necessity for Modern Businesses?

Why Is Good Data Quality a Necessity for Modern Businesses?

Written by Sophie Robertson, In Business, Updated On
February 8th, 2024
, 445 Views
In short:
  • Good data quality is crucial for modern businesses, as poor data quality can cost companies an average of $12.9 million annually.
  • Data-driven decision-making relies on precise and reliable data to steer businesses in the right direction, exemplified by Walmart’s efficient inventory management through real-time sales data analysis.
  • Understanding customers through high-quality data enables personalized experiences, as seen with Spotify’s curated playlists based on user listening habits.
  • Clean data drives savings and efficiency across industries by streamlining operations, identifying inefficiencies, and supporting innovations like biometric-powered bag-drop technology in airlines, leading to fuel savings and emissions reductions.
  • Compliance with regulatory requirements is essential for safeguarding business reputation, and good data quality ensures accurate reporting, data retention compliance, and protection against costly fines and legal troubles.

The modern business world is overloaded with data. It is vital for professionals and corporations aiming to harness it for precise decision-making. However, abundant data doesn’t always guarantee success; it can be a double-edged sword.

As per the Wakefield Research data quality survey, more than half of respondents reported that 25% or more of revenue was subjected to data quality issues. Considering figures, poor data quality costs companies an annual average of $12.9 million. As a result, businesses are increasingly turning to data engineering services to offset the effects of poor-quality data. Eventually, it’s not about having more data; it’s about having the correct data.

Let’s take the example of Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS), a potent AI tool for decision-making and gaming, excelling in handling complex scenarios where traditional algorithms struggle. It strategically builds a search tree by simulating random plays, focusing on promising areas rather than exhaustively exploring the entire space. Businesses value MCTS for tackling decision challenges with large datasets, making it a valuable asset in AI.

How data quality plays a role in upgrading or degrading a business’s reputation

good data quality

Now, we will explore how data quality plays a role in upgrading or degrading a business’s reputation!

Data-Driven Decision-Making

For sound decision-making, precision and top-notch data are the compass that steers businesses toward the precise path when needed. Take Walmart, for instance. They’re masters at using data analytics to manage their inventory efficiently and efficiently. How?

They restock products at just the right moment by closely monitoring real-time sales data. More than saving money on excessive inventory, they ensure your favourite things are always available. This demonstrates how data-driven decision-making can improve operational efficiency while keeping consumers satisfied.

Understanding Customers Through Data: The Key to Personalization

More than numbers, good data quality emphasizes understanding the customers. Top-notch data provides insight into the minds and behaviours of your customers, helping you know their preferences, likes, dislikes, and interactions with your products or services.

The next step is to offer personalized experiences. Tailoring your offerings to their preferences becomes easy once you understand a customer’s needs and desires. All of this leads to customer satisfaction and builds loyalty. Spotify did the same thing when they introduced personalized playlists like “Discover Weekly” and “Release Radar” (driven by data). They analyze users’ listening habits, compare them with others with similar tastes, and create playlists accordingly.

Data Quality: Driving Savings and Efficiency Across Industries

Data quality is directly linked to a business’s financial health and efficiency. Clean data is an investment that pays dividends in savings and improved performance.

Data streamlines everyday operations by reducing errors and identifying inefficiencies and resource wastage, contributing to cost management. Airlines do this all the time. Delta expanded its innovation initiative in October 2021, adding bag-drop technology powered by biometric data. Similarly, Alaska Airlines adopted the Flyways AI platform, an open-source database deployment tool that creates data-based predictions and provides recommendations on flight operations. All this leads to 480,000-gallon fuel savings and the avoidance of 4,600 tons of carbon emissions during a six-month trial period.

Compliance and Data Quality: Safeguarding Business Reputation

Regulatory bodies require businesses to report data accurately. Think of financial regulators – they want those financial statements to be on point. High-quality data keeps you in their good books.

Some regulations dictate how long a business should retain certain types of data. Clean data makes it easier to manage data retention policies and ensures you’re not holding onto data longer than necessary and violating regulations. That will lead to hefty fines and damage to the overall reputation of businesses. Data breaches and compliance violations also lead to serious cash woes and legal troubles. Hence, clean data is like your shield against these costly disasters.

Effective Strategies for Data Quality Maintenance

Maintaining data quality is an ongoing endeavour that requires strategies and techniques to ensure data accuracy and reliability. The strategies include –

  1. Create guidelines and procedures for data governance to assure data quality throughout its lifespan. Roles and duties, data stewardship, and data quality standards are all part of this.
  2. Implement validation rules to check data as it’s entered and conduct regular data cleansing to correct inaccuracies and inconsistencies. For example, a customer’s address may be validated against postal service data.
  3. Use Master Data Management (MDM) solutions to create a single, accurate version of critical data, such as customer or product information, and ensure consistency across the organization.
  4. Lastly, define key performance indicators or KPIs to measure real-time data quality. Regularly monitor these metrics to identify and address issues. For instance, you can track the percentage of incomplete customer profiles.

In addition to these strategies, organizations often turn to data migration services as a fundamental technique to support their data quality initiatives.

Elevating Success through Data Quality

The modern data-driven landscape demands good-quality data to stand against financial missteps. It’s not just a choice anymore; it’s an imperative. It shields businesses from costly blunders and steers them toward sound decisions by enabling tailor-made customer experiences. In today’s business realm, good data quality is your unwavering ally.

When you embrace the right data quality strategies, you set the stage for accurate and dependable data. And let’s be honest: the more precise your data is, the more powerful your toolkit becomes for reaching your audience, boosting profits, and outshining your competition.

To truly succeed, team up with the right data modernization services. At last, fine-tuning and upgrading your data accuracy will ensure that your data is always on point and ready to fuel your journey to excellence.

Also Read -   Where do you get your candle packaging boxes from?
Related articles
Join the discussion!