Are your databases piling up with incorrect customer addresses, duplicates, and contradictory values? These are signs of poor data quality. Don’t ignore the signs! Studies show that incorrect data often leads to unpleasant consequences. Software like BIG EVAL can help by finding data errors, monitoring data systems, and keeping data quality high.
Data quality can have a big impact on revenue
Data errors are a common problem. A study by researchers Tadhg Nagle, David Sammon, and Thomas C. Redman demonstrates this. The study was published in the management magazine Harvard Business Review in 2017. The results showed that on average, 47 percent of businesses’ newly-created data contains critical failures that negatively impact business processes.
These kinds of mistakes can cost money – lots of it. Loss of revenue is one of the biggest risks of poor data. A 2015 study by the international analytic information provider Experian indicated that data quality has a large influence on revenue. On average, the businesses in the study lost 27 percent of their revenue from incorrect or missing data. Gartner’s Data Quality Market Survey from 2017 provided another interesting figure, saying that the average revenue loss from poor data amounts to 15 million USD.
Loss of time and business image
Revenue losses are only one of the potential consequences of poor data quality. Bad data can result in bad communication with customers and hurt business reputations. Poor data quality ties up parts of your workforce and can become very costly – this has also been demonstrated by experts and research. Renowned expert for information management Larry P. English estimates that costs stemming from poor data quality can amount to 10–15 percent of business revenue, and claims that businesses are spending up to 40 percent of their IT budgets on redundant work caused by poor data. This is a lot of money, and it should make you think critically about data quality in your own business.