Data quality will go from nice-to-have to need-to-have. Flexibility and openness remain nothing but talk, while standardization and virtualization remain useless, unless companies can reliably integrate their systems and ensure the quality of their data. Not only do strategic systems such as business intelligence depend on integration and accurate, up-to-date and unambiguous data, but so does compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulations.

Companies are currently attempting to introduce new approaches to integration—Web services, SOA—while wrestling with new technologies such as RFID and the mobile Web that will introduce new data streams and data quality problems. But the business stakes are high, and huge volumes of data and new technology make for a volatile mix; not all companies will be able to master the shift, and some will stumble. To achieve integration and quality, companies will focus on information governance—the question of who has control and responsibility for data.

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