Strategy clinic: How can I make users supply quality data?
- Posted:
- 09:56 08 Oct 2004
- Topics:
- Customer Management
The IT team has been criticised over
our customer relationship management software. But the real problem
is the quality of the data supplied by users. How do we make users
understand the importance of data quality, especially that
supplying old data created for other purposes is not
appropriate?
The business case should clarify the technical
case
For a business solution to be successful, the business and the
users need to be engaged throughout the whole process. If the CRM
project has been exclusively an IT project, this will be the root
of the problem.
To successfully install any application, an appropriate business
case should exist that clarifies the technical case. The business
case will clarify business need, the critical success factors,
benefits realisation, dependencies and risks.
You need to establish whether the users understand and have bought
into the need for the CRM system. Hold some workshops and market
the need. Show the users why the old data will not help them do
their jobs.
Make sure you have not fallen in to the trap of enforcing processes
that, although great in theory, are unworkable in reality.
Roger Rawlinson NCC Group
Taking the heat out of the political aspects
Tackling data quality is a politically fraught task and can easily
put an IT manager in the bad books of senior managers.
Criticism of operational data tends to be perceived as criticism of
the staff who produced it. Questioning the quality of management
information exposes weaknesses in managerial decision-making
processes. Also, data quality has to be improved by changing
business processes and working practices, which means hard work for
the business.
If you want to tackle data quality head on, be prepared to make
yourself unpopular and do not expect any rewards. If data quality
is poor, the business will find fault with your poor IT; if data
quality is good, it will be because it is their data.
Many data quality problems are no more than mismatches between data
quality as understood at the point of data capture and by
decision-makers at the new point of data use. This should be seen
in a positive light - business users are adapting by trying to use
data in new ways.
Engage managers in thinking about the different ways in which the
information they have could be improved to gain an appreciation of
what "fit for purpose" means for them.
You can then identify the business and IT changes needed to deliver
information to the standards they require. Feed your assessment
back to decision-makers in terms of their own needs, explaining the
costs and business change required.
A few small wins will raise awareness among managers of the need to
take a more strategic approach to managing one of their most
valuable assets.
Christopher Hemmingway, Cranfield School of
Management
Successful change comes from business and IT
unity
Many organisations still struggle to bridge the business/IT divide,
resulting in frustrated IT departments and dissatisfied users.
Successful business change programmes require business and IT teams
to understand and fulfil their responsibilities. Critical success
factors include:
- Visible leadership by user management, fully briefed in the programme and its roll-out
- Early involvement of users
- Quick wins to reinforce benefits
- Clear responsibilities and commitment to time and effort required from all parties
- Comprehensive communication plans
- Considering bringing "influential cynics" into the team to champion the roll-out.
Changing the hearts and minds of users after a system is live
costs 10 times as much as doing so before. It can be done, but lots
of good systems have been dropped because users have refused to
accept the change.
I suggest you set up a small team of influential people from IT and
the business department involved. Come up with a realistic action
plan and get the management resources needed to fix it. A CRM
system with inaccurate data can be a very expensive business
mistake.
Steven Bell, partner, Ernst &
Young
Consider data quality issues before, not after,
investment
The problem with data quality is that although everyone agrees it
is a good thing in principle, it is not simple to achieve in
practice. For example, the people who create business data are
often not the people that have to use it, and data created years
ago may now need to be used in ways the company never
envisaged.
Lead your company through the next maturity step - considering the
issue of data quality before committing to an investment, not
afterwards. Identify what data will be critical to achieving the
targeted return on investment and check that the company either has
that data at sufficient quality, or can realistically invest in
improving and enhancing the existing data.
Chris Potts, director, Dominic
Barrow
Time to focus on the 'I' part of the IT director's
role
Who is responsible for the quality of data? It is easy to say that
the users are, and it then seems very unfair that they should blame
the IT department for their failure to supply data that is fit for
purpose.
However, the alternative view is that IT is accountable for the
success of the whole business project. Ask what the IT department
can do to make users understand the importance of the project.
- Ensure that a business project manager is appointed who understands the importance of data quality.
- Provide tools to assess the quality of the data, not just during testing but before, during and after the project.
- Ensure there is effective user acceptance testing that identifies data quality issues.
- IT can encourage the appointment of data stewards who have an ongoing responsibility for data quality.
You can treat this problem as an opportunity to focus on the "I" part of the IT role. This is a major challenge, and if the "T" part is working, it can be a very positive one.
Sharm Manwani, Henley Management
College
Revisit what was agreed in the project specification
Surely one of the principles of CRM systems is that they manage
data to better serve the customer and to provide new opportunities
for the business.
You and the users need to revisit what was agreed in the project
specification, because either you are wrong in that you did not
specify the data quality needed, or they are at fault in not
providing pre-agreed quality.
It just stresses again the importance of defining requirements
before proceeding to application delivery.
Robin Laidlaw, Computer Weekly 500
Club
Ultimate responsibility lies with the
business
CRM done badly is worse than not doing it at all. If this is not
already understood, you need to communicate it quickly and
concisely to users at every level. Identify areas of information
accountability and clarify where the ownership and responsibility
lies.
I recommend that it lies with the business - the IT department
should only be the guardian of the information. Work with data
owners to understand what you have and how you need to use it.
Create definitions, build a model and set out rules. User
acceptance and testing is essential.
Ollie Ross, The Corporate IT Forum
The experts
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NCC Group www.nccglobal.com
Ernst & Young www.ey.com
Cranfield School of Management www.cranfield.ac.uk/som
Computer Weekly 500 Club www.cw500.co.uk
Henley Management College www.henleymc.ac.uk
British Computer Society www.bcs.org.uk/elite
Impact www.impact-sharing.com
The Corporate ITForum www.tif.co.uk
Dominic Barrow www.dominicbarrow.com
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