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It’s well understood that data is critical to driving good business decisions, but it’s easy to forget that data also supports a number of other activities. Data is at the center of everything businesses do, and it’s also how potential customers are measuring their prospective vendors. Because of this, in many organizations, sloppy maintenance of data has shifted from an internal oversight to a core issue that could lead to a much bigger company reputation problem.
Sloppy Data Maintenance can lead to security breaches, lawsuits and other data-related risks that can impact a company’s reputation. Companies that have had their data breached or mishandled run the risk of lawsuits, which can impact their industry and consumer reputations. Avoiding sloppy maintenance by consolidating and governing Master Data is way for companies to help ensure Data Quality and consistency across the enterprise, in addition to improving Data Stewardship and integrity within their organizations.
Sloppy Data Maintenance Can Lead to Issues with How Companies are Perceived
Over the past several years, companies across industries including finance, media and retail, have found their names in the headlines due to security breaches brought about by sloppy Data Maintenance. Politicians, consumers and users across the country have called for improved security measures to protect privacy and ensure proper Data Management after several of these breaches have led hackers or unauthorized groups to gain access to millions of peoples’ information. The mishandling of data across industries has led consumers to severe ties with these organizations in many cases, after their data was breached or was shared for an unauthorized purpose. In addition to losing customers, companies that have mishandled data have also been faced with lawsuits, loss of profits and oftentimes, irreparable damage to their brand reputation. Companies that mishandle their users’ data will be less trusted and reliable, even after addressing whatever mistakes were made with the breaches or mishandling of data.
So how can organizations today avoid sloppy Data Maintenance?
- Ensure Proper Data Governance
Data is at the center of everything businesses do – but what if that data is wrong? Or what if decisions are being made without making use of all available data? One wrong number, or any missing data, can have a huge impact that could potentially lead to a security breach. Data should be cleansed so companies have the full trust in the data being used and govern data to ensure consistency across the enterprise.
Companies that are taking advantage of Master Data Governance software are giving their organization a single, trusted view of their data to address digital, analytical and operational challenges head on. Moreover, organizations that are striving to implement these systems will better ensure there is increased data accuracy. This will allow companies to accelerate the development of business activities and it also drives consistency across the enterprise and reduces the total cost of owning data.
Furthermore, organizations should strive to have harmonized customer and product data, as well as centralized governance, to help make the data easy to maintain. This step is key for companies that want to avoid sloppy handling of Data Maintenance.
- Understand How the Quality of Data Impacts Business Processes
Businesses should implement systems that offer Data Profiling, Data Lineage and Metadata Management, as well as Data Cleansing to gain continuous insight into the integrity of your enterprise data model. By implementing these types of systems, there is improved transparency into data origin and lineage, and outdated data can be handled accordingly.
Using these types of systems also provides organizations with the ability to consolidate, integrate and audit metadata, which also plays a role in making sure data is more accurate and well maintained.
Understanding how quality of data impacts business processes can help maximize visibility into quality data metrics and enhance data governance with consistent processes.
Businesses that understand how the quality of data impacts their businesses processes will be able to better protect themselves against data mishandling and potential breaches.
- Take a Proactive and Predicative Approach to Ensure Customer Satisfaction
Customers want to know their data is safe and reliable, and the companies that take a proactive and predictive approach are more likely to ensure compliance and security in the Cloud and with on-premise data centers. Successful businesses will ensure they are adhering to global data protection policy that is designed to secure the privacy rights of their customers, as well as their own employees, in addition to implementing an integrated risk management and internal control approach that ensures their global risk management efforts are effective.
Ultimately, companies that are taking this approach are more likely to mitigate potential risks which is better both for the business and for customer satisfaction. Furthermore, customers will feel more secure knowing the company handling their data is adhering to global protection policy.
Avoid a Data Mishandling Scandal
Potential customers are going to evaluate vendors based on how they handle data and treat their current customers, and they will likely not want to do business with vendors that do not prioritize security and safe Data Management practices. Organizations that implement proper Data Governance and understand the value of quality data will be steps ahead of companies that do not prioritize proper Data Maintenance.
Businesses will be better equipped to mitigate data mishandlings if they focus on safeguarding their organization against the evolving IT threat landscape. Companies that avoid sloppy Data Maintenance and take the approach of ensuring their data is updated, cleansed and stored correctly will be less likely to have a data mishandling incident.