How to Create a Business Case for Data Quality Improvement
Early and ongoing engagement will help gain the confidence of business leaders in data quality.
Poor data quality destroys business value. Recent Gartner research indicates that the average financial impact of poor data quality on organizations is $9.7 million per year.
This is likely to worsen as information environments become increasingly complex. Data quality issues are faced by organizations of all sizes and complexity. Those with multiple business units and operations in several geographic regions with many customers, employees, suppliers and products will inevitably face more severe data quality issues.
Speaking ahead of the Gartner Data & Analytics Summit in Sydney in February, Saul Judah, research director at Gartner, said, “Poor data quality contributes to a crisis in information trust and business value, such as financial and operational performance. Unless tangible and pragmatic steps are taken to understand, address and control data quality, the situation will worsen.”
Many organizations struggle to successfully propose a program for sustainable data quality improvement. Effective business engagement and funding may be limited for several reasons:
“A business case for data quality improvement must start and end with the business outcome. The business case should demonstrate how any improvement in the underlying data creates better business outcomes,” said Mr. Judah.
Gartner has identified five steps to creating a business case for data quality improvement:
If a business case is to be taken seriously, it must be presented in the language of the business and speak to the critical and specific business priorities of key stakeholders. Understanding the business vision will not only enable you to identify senior-level support for your business case, but also help to identify and engage the right level of senior business sponsorship.
Posted on 7wData.be.
