dq:view - Steve Tuck on Data Quality

I Love Data

No, I'm not confessing to having a "thing" for the android in Star trek: The Next Generation - I'm talking about the data that fuels businesses in the information age. Some people would have you believe that data is boring, just a collection of bits and bytes in a database, but it is far more than that to me. Data is Money. Data is Knowledge. Data is People.

Profiling and analysing a companies data can tell you so much about the health of the business and its business processes. These techniques allow you to identify and diagnose business maladies just as a doctor uses blood tests and scans to investigate human ailments. Data quality tools like dn:Director not only provide you with the ability to carry out an initial examination and diagnosis, but to continually assess the health of data: it's like hooking your business up to a heart monitor.

Of course human doctors don't just treat symptoms of an illness, they tackle the disease itself and the same is true for the data doctor. Identifying and treating the root causes of data issues is essential if you don't want to get lost in a cycle of data cleansing, scrap and rework. This means attending to the business processes, procedures and controls as well as operating on the data.

Are we nearly there yet?

Master Data Management (MDM) promises to deliver organisations with the ability to integrate, analyse and exploit the value of its key data assets, regardless of where that information was collected; the holy grail of a single view of customers, suppliers and products is within grasping distance, it seems. But haven’t we heard that before?

In the 1990s, Customer Relationship Management promised, amongst other things, to provide us with a single view of customers, but the ideal fragmented into a number of different disciplines, largely dictated by technology vendors. Instead of a single customer view, most organisations have multiple, often inconsistent views of their customers and prospects delivered through an assortment of Sales Force Automation, Analytical CRM and Campaign Management systems each propagating their own database.

Rather than being held up as a business approach, CRM became synonymous with a collection of high-profile software packages and that’s where it has failed. Instead of focusing on the business processes and delivering the right information to the right people at the right time, CRM initiatives often limited themselves to the installation and deployment of a software package. Little thought was given to the integration or quality of the data that was needed to support the business process.

We have to be watchful now that we don’t repeat the CRM mistakes with MDM and its domain focused offspring, CDI (Customer Data Integration) and PIM (Product Information Management). If we regard them as IT initiatives rather than business strategies, we assuredly will. It’s time that business owners took to the driving seat, rather than being treated as junior partners.

Click the following link if you'd like a copy of The Successful Business Guide "Master Data Management: Is MDM The Route To The Holy Grail?" and we'll send you a copy by return.

Profiting from Your Most Important Business Asset

Tom Redman, a.k.a. the “Data Doc”, believes that information is an organisation’s most valuable asset, but almost all companies grossly underuse their data assets. From his work with hundreds of companies across many different industries, Tom's diagnosis is that the cost of poor data quality to a business is typically 20% of its revenues. Couldn’t your business benefit from a revenue uplift of one fifth right now?

With poor quality data costing organisations so much, it ought to be easy to build a business case for doing something about it, but projecting (and measuring) the return on investment (ROI) is something that many people struggle with. In my experience, data quality programmes nearly always realise sufficient tangible & quantifiable benefits to make their sponsorship a no-brainer.

My advice is to build a business case around the concrete benefits you can measure and demonstrate to your management. I’ve seen, for example, many customer data quality projects justified on the savings made by eradicating the printing and posting costs of sending mail to duplicated customers or undeliverable addresses. Sure, the improved customer service that results is also a benefit, but how do you measure its impact on the bottom line? Especially when there are other initiatives delivering improvements in the same area.

Building a business case with a clear ROI and continuing to measure the value of your data quality programme is critical. There’s nothing more certain to grab and maintain the interest of you executive. If it was ever acceptable to invest in data quality without achieving a measureable return, those days are surely now over.

Tom made this point in a recent webinar hosted by the IAIDQ; he went as far as saying that you should abandon a data quality initiative if you can't demonstrate a return on investment. "Hear, hear," say I. Tom’s new book, The Data Driven Company, promises to provide insight into new strategies for profiting from quality data (I’m expecting my copy any day), but I’m also keen to hear from you - send me your comments below.

Propping up the house of cards

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that the world financial system is on "the brink of systemic meltdown"; Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat spokesman describes the situation as a "bank tsunami"; the City is talking about a potential banking "armageddon". The unprecedented global financial crisis has left us all reeling; where were the regulators when we needed them? Ken Clarke, former Chancellor of the Exchequer put it quite succinctly on last week’s edition of the BBC’s Question Time: “the regulators were useless and the new regulation system didn’t work,” he said. After years preparing and implementing Basel II, a regulation regime that was supposed to ensure the capital adequacy of financial institutions and reduce risk, we’ve seen bank failure after bank failure as the true state of their liquidity is revealed. Vince Cable talks about the need for a new regulatory deal with the financial community, but warns that this “should not be done when the public mood is understandably for hanging, drawing and quartering anyone connected with banking… The priority now is disaster management.” On that front, it’s good to see a broadly united front from governments as they pump money (our money) into the financial system in an attempt to restore confidence and stabilise things. There’s more finger-crossing and touching wood going on than most of us would like, I’m sure; hope is a key part of the strategy as they try to prop up this house of cards. Banks have traded in increasingly complex financial instruments without a clear understanding of the market and credit risk. They owe it to their shareholders and the public at large (who may, in any case, become significant shareholders whether they like it or not) to take new measures to scientifically assess and mitigate risk. The data that financial institutions hold should be put under the microscope for forensic analysis. How many banks, I wonder, rely on incomplete, inconsistent or out-of-date information for their risk assessments? Consider a couple of examples from the retail banking world. A 95%, interest only mortgage a year ago will have turned into a 110% mortgage today. Self-certified or historic income details may have been sufficient to lend money in a time of rapidly rising house prices, but it’s the customer’s current income that matters. Here are three data-centric suggestions to help financial institutions identify their current risk exposure:

1. Perform a regular data audit of all key customer information, including calculated fields, to identify errors and anomalies that indicate credit or market risk.
2. Ensure that KYC (Know Your Customer) checks are rigorously applied and customers are regularly screened against enhanced due-diligence lists to reduce operational and reputational risk.
3. If you don’t have a single view of your customers, GET ONE NOW. Understanding the complete relationship you have with your customers will allow you to measure your risk exposure in relation to individual entities and enable your marketing department to reduce attrition by targeting customers at risk.

This last point applies to all institutions, but is particularly salient for those institutions involved in a stressed merger. I’m not talking here about migrating legacy systems or implementing a grandiose Customer Data Integration strategy - those things can happen in due course, but now is not the time to be contemplating your navel about an IT project that might take 2-5 years to complete. I’m talking about cutting through the political wrangling and technology bigotry and delivering the information that the business needs to survive today. If that’s not clear, call me now!

Data quality carrots

When I want to teach my dog to do something, I generally find it helps to offer her something in return. A small piece of cheese, or other tasty morsel generally does the trick. It doesn't have to be anything big or expensive and, after a short while, when she's learnt what it is I want. she'll respond without the need for anything more than a "good girl" as a thank you.

I'd say the same is pretty much true for my kids (although they respond better to cash than cheese and can generally understand more complex requests). So why is it that some data governance regimes think that everything will be alright if they issue an edict and back it up only with strong-arm tactics - "do it this way, or else."

If you want to encourage the right behaviour from your front-line staff who collect and enter information that other knowledge workers consume, why not start by offering them some incentive to do it. If you only measure their performance by crude measures, such as call volumes, or numbers of records entered, you cannot expect them to worry too much about the quality of the data they're actually typing in.

By measuring the quality of the information they're entering, and rewarding them for doing it right, you'll increase the value of that information, remove costly scrap and re-work and improve the output of the downstream processes that use the data. Just like my dog, the reward doesn't have to be big or expensive and, after a short while, you'll find that the good behaviour becomes second nature, which can be positively reinforced by regular monitoring and a polite "thank you." There's a place for the stick, but it's better to lead with the carrot.

Please note, the author does not recommend the offering of either carrots or cheese as a reward for good data quality.

Getting their wires crossed

What on earth possessed me to transfer my mobile, office and broadband lines in the same week? How could I be so naive as to think that it would all go smoothly?

After a lot of frustrating calls to premium rate numbers, working through countless automated menus and listening to a lot of dreadful "on-hold" musak, my office line did get successfully transferred, but the mobile and the broadband were not so successful. Both look set for a delay of at least a week.<br>

What has frustrated me most in my dealings with the FOUR telephone companies involved is the failure of anyone to take any ownership or responsibility for resolving THEIR issues. Instead I have been passed from pillar to post in my quest to sort things out for them.<br>

It seems that everyone I speak to has a very limited remit and is incapable of talking to their colleague or even transferring me to the next department. Why do that when you can bump the customer and give them another premium rate number to call which places them in another queue they have to endure?<br>

I now know more about the internal workings of the ordering process at these companies than most of their staff do and certainly more than I care to. Each of them has some form of single customer view in place and references me by my telephone and account numbers, but none of them appear to be truly joined up and the customer service staff have access to information that is incomplete at best and frequently incorrect. They may have the same identifier on the records, but their systems and processes are certainly not working in a joined up way, leaving the customer to assemble their own single view of the enterprise when things go wrong. As far as I can see, the only saving grace for these organisations is that they are all as bad as the others. Perhaps they should be called miscommunication companies...

Trillium Software's Identity Crisis

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.  I thought someone was pulling my leg when I first heard about this, but it's true - Trillium Software is currently paying for an advertisement on Google, that uses one word only - Datanomic!  Why would such a well established data quality software vendor make such prominent use of a competitor's name?  And why has Trillium singled Datanomic out for this special treatment?  I'll let you make up your own mind about that.  Meanwhile, here's a screenshot I just grabbed that shows the advert.

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Feel free to Google Datanomic and click on Trillium's link - it takes you to the registration page for a White Paper, but if you want the real Datanomic, simply go to www.datanomic.com.  And Kevin, well spotted but no, this doesn't mean that Datanomic has been acquired by Trillium Software!  LOL

The Dos and Don’ts of CRM Data Migration

According to a Gartner Research report, “Eight Steps to Implementing a Successful CRM Project” (October 2006), CRM project failures continue to run at nearly 50%.  What the report fails to identify is that a significant number of these failures are due to inadequate data resulting from deficient data migration practices.  Poor data quality leads to poor user adoption and poor CRM performance; getting the data migration right is critical to success.

In my experience of dozens of CRM Migration projects there are two key mistakes that are commonly made, to avoid these:

• Don’t Assume that Migrating Data will be Easy – Companies invest large sums of money, time and effort in buying and customising a new CRM system, but all too often they overlook the challenge of populating it with fit for purpose data, leaving the migration to the last minute and then just dropping data from the legacy system straight into the new system.  It’s like buying a new car and selecting the colour and a range of luxury options, but then fitting it with the engine and tyres from your old vehicle and wondering why it performs so badly.
• Don’t Leave the Data Migration to the Technical Team Alone – Whilst a data migration undoubtedly needs skilled technical staff to understand the physical data models and to extract and load data in an optimised way, the critical area of data transformation requires business knowledge.  Key decisions about how information should be translated from one system to another, or how duplicated records should be matched and resolved should be made by a business user and ratified by a governance board.

All too often, the implementation of a new CRM system is seen primarily as a technical challenge.  The truth is that, to be successful, a CRM programme requires collaboration between the business and technical teams.  The data migration element is not just about plumbing the two systems together; it’s about understanding the contents of the data and its business context and constructing a process that delivers data that is optimised to perform in the new system.  This requires time and effort; here are 8 steps of my own for ensuring a successful CRM Data Migration:

1. Establish a governance board that sits above both the CRM Implementation and CRM Data Migration Project.  This should consist of representatives from the business and IT.
2. Start the CRM Data Migration project at the same time as work on the tailoring and implementation of the CRM system itself begins.  The migration project will often identify shortcomings in the system design – it’s best to identify these as early as possible so that they can be properly address rather than worked around.
3. Identify all of the source systems.  Unless you are doing a like-for-like system replacement your new CRM system it is likely that the new system will need to be populated with information extracted from a number of legacy applications.
4. Decide on an approach to migrating historical information; will all, some or none of it be migrated?  This is most relevant when replacing a CRM system.  Including historical data may dramatically increase the volume of data to be migrated (and consequently the time it takes), but not migrating it means you may need to maintain the old system for archive purposes.
5. Assess up-front whether a one-off data migration is required, or if the project actually requires the ongoing integration of different systems.  Many so called migrations actually require continuing feeds of data to be in place.
6. Decide whether a “big bang” approach is practical (is there sufficient downtime to execute the migration?) or if a phased, or “trickle” migration is required.  Avoid the mistake of one insurance company that got to within a month of implementing a new CRM system before realising that it would take more than 2 weeks to migrate all of the data, but it had only allowed for a 48 hour operational window in which to complete it.
7. Use subject matter experts, from within the business, to map data to the business level entities (Customer, Address, Contact History) in the new system.  When implementing a replacement system the mapping exercise should be repeated based on the legacy system entities to ensure that no critical data is left behind.
8. Identify whether the data migration needs to include a deduplication process and where it will be done.  If one is needed, must it be completed before the data is loaded to the new CRM system, or could it be done afterwards with the data in situ?  As with an business rules, those used to match and merge data should be designed by an empowered business user and confirmed by the governance board.

At first sight, it appears that little has changed in the 15 years since my first CRM data migration project; significant numbers of CRM implementations are still doomed to failure because inadequate attention is paid to the data that powers them.  However, attitudes are, I believe, changing and so too is the technology that is used to deliver data migrations.  These projects are finally moving out of the darkened basement, thanks to innovative solutions that provide powerful functions through easy-to-use interfaces and enable business users and IT specialists to collaborate effectively.

Data Quality - Small Beer?

According to a new Data Quality Benchmark Study by Tank! Action Group and Transactis, half of the organisations surveyed (some of the biggest mailers in the UK) have no data quality strategy in place and, instead, approach it in an ad hoc way, with irregular, unplanned attempts to resolve data quality problems.  What is more, 40% of these organisations do not view data as a commercial asset, and are therefore unlikely to see it as worth investing in.

So many organisations regard data quality as small beer, i.e. of little importance.  They will continue to lose out to those that recognise the critical nature of data quality.  Neglecting data quality results in under performing business applications and loses UK business £billions every year.

The real cost of small beer

In a separate report, published by the Financial Times (FT.com) today, Camra (the Campaign for Real Ale) reveals a shocking indictment of 10 years of Tony Blair's government.  Back in 1997, the British public was promised that "drinkers will get what they pay for under Labour".  Yet Camra's survey of trading standard officers found that one in four "pints" contains less than 95% of a real pint.  The cost to beer drinkers?  A whopping £481m per year, or a total of £4.5bn since Mr. Blair won in May 1997.

Two subjects close to my heart: data quality and beer.   :O)

Customers: Corporate Asset or Corporate Liability

Financial services companies are risking their reputation and possible fiscal and custodial penalties by failing to recognise their exposure to potential criminal activity. As the deadline for implementation of the 3rd EU Money Laundering Directive fast approaches (15 December 2007) many money laundering reporting officers (MLROs) appear to be oblivious to the size of the problem they face.

The new directive further tightens the screw on financial services suppliers to know their customers. It requires them to take a 'risk-based' approach to screening their customers against prescribed sanctions lists and to also identify any client that is a politically exposed person (PEP). The legislation builds on existing efforts to prevent criminals access to the European Union’s financial systems.

It is up to individual firms to decide where they draw the line in the battle against organised crime and terrorists and there is little guidance from the Financial Services Authority (FSA), but any company that is subsequently judged to have acted negligently in this respect faces a heavy penalty.

I have to confess to a feeling of déjà vu. Following the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 and the Proceeds of Crime Act of 2002, Northern Bank and Bank of Scotland were each fined £1.25 million by the FSA for failing to take appropriate steps to prevent money laundering. Add to this the immeasurable damage these cases (and the headlines they attracted) did to the reputations of these organisations.

I have talked to many MLROs in a range of organisations, from small private banks to international asset management companies and retail banks with tens of millions of customers. Regardless of the size of the organisation, all of these people face the same challenge; deciding where to draw the line in customer screening to strike a balance between operational efficiency and crime prevention.

Attitudes range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Best practice is exemplified by the MLRO who measures every decision by what she describes as the Cornflake Test – doing everything necessary to ensure her employer does not appear in the morning paper for all the wrong reasons. This is stark contrast to the MLRO who suggested that doing nothing was a valid response to the risk-based approach required by the new directive.

Ineffective and uneconomical approaches

Anybody thinking of playing Russian Roulette with watch and PEP lists should bear in mind that World-Check, the leading supplier of consolidated lists, estimates that their file will contain approximately 500,000 names by the end of this year when the new directive comes into force. Financial services companies will need to regularly screen their entire customer base to ensure compliance.

Unsurprisingly, criminals do not like to be easily identified. So, despite the growing number of names on the lists supplied by the likes of Bank of England and the United States Office of Foreign Asset Control, they are becoming increasingly difficult to identify when hidden in a large corporate database. Whilst some resort to identity theft to cover their tracks, others simply manipulate their own names and personal details to create multiple personae.

Traditional approaches to matching customer names are proving ineffective and uneconomical when it comes to finding hidden criminals. They are typically unable to identify more complex matches, thereby missing the critical records.

These deficiencies have been evident in recent audits performed by my own company; each of them has found suspicious data that had been previously overlooked and each has resulted in new Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) being filed by the company’s MLRO. The crimes involved have ranged from trading whilst insolvent to money laundering and even terrorism.

Meanwhile, some companies are loosening fuzzy match rules in an effort to perform a more thorough search. The main consequence of this is a large increase in the number of false positive matches produced, each of which takes time to review and approve. To make matters worse, compliance with the directive requires regular repeat screening of the entire customer base.

In the case of one large retail bank, this has resulted in the employment of 30 full-time personnel whose sole purpose is to review suspect matches. Whilst this is well intentioned, it is hugely inefficient and almost entirely unnecessary.

Thin end of the wedge

Manual review on such a large scale is a recipe for disaster. The operatives who perform such work soon become disheartened when it becomes apparent that they have to look at the same records time after time after time. This increases the chance of genuine matches to the sanctions lists being missed.

Because of the amount of manual review work involved, the bank is also unable to screen its complete customer list more than once per month and runs the risk of responding late to a new threat. This could be avoided by using a system capable of remembering and repeating previously made decisions so that only new or changed records required review.

Compliance with the 3rd EU Money Laundering Directive requires a blend of people, processes and technology:

• Money laundering reporting officer - all firms must have an MLRO, who must be sufficiently senior and be competent. The MLRO is responsible for internal and external reporting of exceptions.

• Training – the relevant staff must receive appropriate anti-money laundering training.

• Record keeping – details of suspicious individuals, organisations or activities must be reported.

• Customer screening – customers should be screened against the sanctions and PEP lists; not only at the inception of a relationship but on a regular basis.

• Suspect review – any possible matches should be reviewed in a timely manner; this may require referral to a client relationship manager. Once a review has been completed and the decision made, this does not need to be revisited unless circumstances change.

In today’s commercial environment, the damage caused by publicity following a breach of the EU directive could be devastating. Certainly, any fine imposed by the FSA is likely to be only the thin end of the wedge.