Elevate your data management practices with strategic Data Quality Audits and Assessments designed to enhance data quality and drive informed decision-making.

A Dinner Spoiled

Imagine the scene. You go out to dinner at a favourite restaurant – whether it’s to seal an important business deal, propose to your significant other, or simply cherish moments with your loved ones, you’re looking forward to a delightful experience.

A perfect evening

You order your usual, delicious house special and enjoy a small bottle of the house Dry Red.

Everything seems perfect—the ambiance, the flavors, and the attentive service.

A Shocking Discovery

During the course of the evening, the maitre d’ gets a call. He attracts your attention, along with that of the other patrons, and announces that due to a small emergency in the street, they have been asked to evacuate the restaurant through the back. There is no reason to panic – everyone can gather their things and leave through the staff entrance at the back.

The Dirty Kitchen

As you exit, you happen to catch a glimpse of the kitchen, separated from the dining area. To your dismay, it’s in a deplorable state.. Dirty dishes are lying around on the floor, cock roaches are rampant, and there is a strong and unpleasant smell coming from the cold room.

The Data Quality Analogy

Even though you have eaten at this restaurant for years would you go back?

If you were a health inspector would you close them down?

The Data Quality Connection

In the realm of data management, many of us resemble the maître d’ in this story.

We produce BI reports or machine learning models based on poor-quality data and massage the results until they look right – just like the decent food produced in unhygienic conditions.

We spend millions on new systems, just like the restaurant updating the decor, without considering the impact of poor data that we will take on. What is the value of upgrading the dining room if the kitchen is an epidemic waiting to happen?

And we fudge our audits! Who cares about a lasting solution for compliance if we can fake it yet again.

The Risk of Exposure

Until one day we have an unexpected emergency and we are exposed.

Maybe the auditors arrive unannounced and we cannot put in our usual clean up.

Maybe changing business circumstances cause management to ask an unusual question – and the BI system simply cannot be massaged to produce a result.

Maybe our new system, developed at massive expense and with much fanfare simply fails to deliver on core functions – because the data is not up to scratch.

Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Data management necessitates proactive measures on an ongoing basis, rather than waiting for emergencies from which recovery becomes nearly impossible.

A clean kitchen is maintained by instilling a culture within your staff of keeping things clean and in place, all the time. This doesn’t require massive investment in new facilities – but once you have lost control it can be very difficult to get it back. Similarly, data governance principles should be built into your environment to keep your data fit for purpose.

The Importance of Data Quality Audits

In the past, organizations could afford to overlook the perils of poor data hygiene.

Now external auditors are increasingly including data quality audits as part of their standard approach to the financial assessment of the business. Businesses must conduct their own data quality audits using specialized data profiling tools to mitigate the risk of receiving a qualified financial audit due to poor data quality. Like the dirty kitchen, you don’t want to be caught off guard by the health care specialists.

So, ask yourself: does your data require a health check?

Act now to safeguard the integrity of your enterprise information asset.

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