The Advisor from Dedication Group

In this Issue

	Welcome to The Advisor from Dedication Group
	Fat fingers and failed businesses - Managing Data Quality
	Did you know?
	Seasons Greeting

Dedication Group

Dedication Group has developed a range of cost effective IT Strategy and Advice packages to simplify the consulting process and provide the right level of advice to meet your budget and business requirements.

Flying Solo

Greg Pritchard writes for Flying Solo; the online magazine for solo and small business owners www.flyingsolo.com.au

Did you know?

When online Australians research financial products, 47% prefer to obtain information from family and friends. This is ahead of financial company Web sites at 28% and financial company advertising at 20%. (Forrester Research Asia Pacific Consumer Technographics ® Survey, Q4 2007).

This should raise questions on how important word of mouth is for any business. Advertising, marketing and product positioning have their place, but its important to realise how much your existing customers are having an influence over your future prospects.

The Advisor from Dedication Group for December 2008

Hi,

Welcome to The Advisor from Dedication Group. This article first appeared in the Institute of Chartered Accountants IT Special Interest Group Newsletter. The principles contained in this month's article apply equally well for your business, as it does for Accountants. We hope you enjoy the read.

'Til next time!

Greg Pritchard
Managing Director, Dedication Group

Fat fingers and failed businesses - Managing Data Quality

The quality of a company's data is an often overlooked facet of many business operations. This article introduces the concept of data quality, the impacts to your business, why you should care, and what you can do about it. Read on to see how a recent client's exit strategy valuation was facing a dramatic reduction because of preventable data quality issues:

Defining data quality

Data quality is defined as having your business information correct, consistent, and complete. Managing data quality forms part of the broader Information Management process; which seeks to ensure data is trusted, reliable, and available for business initiatives.

Symptoms of poor data quality

Before we can address any of the challenges faced, we need to be able to identify poor data quality. The following are typical issues faced by all businesses:

Information in the wrong fields. e.g. mailing addresses stored in physical address fields and vice-versa, email addresses in phone number fields
Business process information in descriptive fields. e.g. using the comments field to keep track of where a particular file/customer/application is at in it's workflow
Information simply not recorded. e.g. discounts or rebates provided to clients not recorded quantitatively during the initial transaction
Inconsistencies of data entry. e.g. NSW vs New South Wales, 20 vs 0.20 (for percentages)
Same or similar information stored in multiple locations. e.g. in a multitude of spreadsheets or databases
Colloquial information. Sometimes, in the heat of the moment, we record subjective commentary which could later be seen by the wrong person.

Business implications of poor data quality

For almost all businesses, poor data quality is not simply an IT problem. Instead, data quality issues have real business impacts that can extend throughout the organisation. The following are actual challenges faced by clients...

Click here to read on

Happy Holidays from Dedication Group!

The team at Dedication Group would like to wish you a very happy holiday season. We hope that you and your family are happy, healthy and safe during this time.

We look forward to seeing you in 2009!

Email Dedication Group at info@dedicationgroup.com or call us on +612-9280-4443