Why Bad Data Quality Is Bad for Business

Published: May 17, 2016
Updated: May 12, 2021
2 minute read

Why Bad Data Quality Is Bad for Business

Why Bad Data Quality Is Bad for Business

Why Bad Data Quality Is Bad for Business

Maintaining quality data is no simple feat, as employees manually input flawed data or issues emerge during the data migration and conversion process.

Expanding Universe

Expanding Universe

95% of survey respondents expect the number of data sources and the volume of data in their organization to increase in the coming year, with 30% predicting that data volume will increase by 75% to nearly 300%.

Top Business-Value Drivers of Data

Top Business-Value Drivers of Data

Increased revenues: 51%, Reduced costs: 49%, Less time spent reconciling data: 47%, Greater confidence in analytical systems: 46%, Enhanced customer satisfaction: 45%

Clear Misgivings

Clear Misgivings

Just 40% of survey respondents are “very” confident in their organization’s data quality management (DQM) practices or the quality of data within their own company.

Inflated Assessment

Inflated Assessment

82% believe their organization’s perception of its data quality is better than it actually is.

Strategic Liability

Strategic Liability

94% believe that business value is lost as a result of poor data quality, and 29% said that 50% or more business value can be lost.

Problems Caused by Poor Data Quality

Problems Caused by Poor Data Quality

Extra time to reconcile data: 45%, Additional costs: 44%, Lost revenue: 42%, Delays in deploying new systems: 40%, Bad decision-making: 39%

Likeliest Causes for Poor Data Quality

Likeliest Causes for Poor Data Quality

Faulty data entry by employees: 58%, Data migration or conversion project issues: 47%, Mixed entries by multiple users: 44%, Changes to source systems: 44%, Systems errors: 43%

Tools of the Trade, Part I

Tools of the Trade, Part I

62% said their company has a master data management (MDM) program in place to manage data quality, and 61% use DQM software on-premise.

Tools of the Trade, Part II

Tools of the Trade, Part II

53% said their organization uses a DQM cloud service to manage data quality, and 46% said they “find errors using reports and then act.”

Forward-Spinning

Forward-Spinning

67% said their organization has a predictive analytics program either in place, or in the works.

Dennis McCafferty

Dennis McCafferty

Content Writer

Dennis McCafferty, a writer for eWeek, Baseline and CIO Insight, has more than 20 years of experience as a writer. He has covered a variety of technology and business topics for a number of publications, including those of Ziff Davis. Dennis was also an editorial staffer for USA Weekend, the nation’s second-largest magazine, with more than 22 million readers.

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