Organisations must establishdata stewardshiproles in their
organisations to improve business data quality, says analyst
Gartner.
Gartner said poor data quality severely inhibits many strategic
business initiatives, such as
customer relationship management,
business intelligence (BI) or any effort requiring significant
integration of data.
A recent European Gartner survey of more than 600 BI users found
that more than 35% identified data quality as a major problem
facing their organisation in the next year to 18 months.
The success of data stewardship requires organisations to move
towards a culture that views data as a competitive asset rather
than a necessary evil, and to define clear goals for data-quality
improvement, said the analyst.
"Data quality is a business issue, not an IT matter, and it
requires the business to take responsibility and drive
improvements," said Ted Friedman, a Gartner analyst.
He said appointing data quality stewards helps organisations
achieve data quality improvement goals. Such individuals should be
considered subject-matter experts for their departments and act as
trustees of data, rather than owners of it.
They will ensure that quality is maintained to make the data
support business processes, he said.
For example, a marketing specialist from the company's marketing
department could act as the data steward in a data quality
improvement programme, by keeping marketing data complete, correct,
consistent, honest and not redundant.
In this role, they would have responsibility for ensuring
marketing-relevant information adheres to corporate data quality
standards.