For when you need to update your address book !

Have you ever considered the value of the data in your email address book and how much of this data may be obsolete?

Across many companies you find multiple records containing different information for the same company/contact. You will get a better feel for the amount of duplication when trying to pull together an email or address list. Even when a company uses a CRM system, there always seem to be multiple versions of a contact’s details.

This is a common problem for many small to medium size businesses, as well as some much larger organisations. Departments often work in silos, protecting their ‘knowledge’ by keeping copies of data local to their own PC’s or systems.

The problem itself often comes to light when a business needs to send out an important communication to all its customers and potential customers. For this type of exercise the business usually needs to establish “A single version of the truth”, or as a normal person might say, “ensure all the contact data is up to date!”

Your first challenge is to identify where all of this data is held. Across the various projects I have been involved with, I found that the accounts system usually holds the most accurate address data. This is often followed by production/deliver databases and then (in descending order) within a variety of supplementary contact lists held in Outlook. Spreadsheets and database systems are also popular.

An important part of the cleaning process requires getting all the data into a uniform format. This enables you to sort and filter out duplicates. It is important to realise that aside from deleting duplicate records, you also need to establish which is the most recent and relevant copy of contact data. Additionally, you need to ensure that any valid data attached to an out of data record is not lost. An example of this may be a home contact number or private email address that is still valid, even though the business contact information has changed.

You will then need to clean your data removing any out of date information. Merge records with additional contact information to produce a comprehensive list of contact data that meets the requirements of the business.

Once the data has been cleansed, it ideally needs to be maintained. You can achieve this in a number of ways. Depending on your requirements, a central database/spreadsheet, global address book or centralised CRM system may be appropriate.

Whilst the individual processes are not overly complex, they can take a bit of time. If you are unfamiliar with the range of options available for extracting and manipulating data, you may despair at the enormity of the task ahead. However, this is the type of task I have undertaken for many different businesses across a wide range of industries, and I would be happy to either assist (knowledge transfer) or undertake (outsource) the whole or part of the process for you. Contact me by telephone or email to arrange a meeting or ask a question.