New Gartner Research Probes Data Quality, Offers Guidance
STAMFORD, Conn.–Gartner has released its annual report examining the quality of data being captured by organizations of all types.
“The data quality tools market sees strong growth, yet poor data quality costs companies millions of dollars annually and impedes digital business agendas,” Gartner said in its analysis. “Addressing the state of data quality and its business impact must remain a key priority for chief data officers and data and analytics leaders.”
Among the findings:
- Organizations are buying data quality tools for cost-led and opportunity-led scenarios in both rising and declining markets.
- Most key data quality roles are located in business units or are a business-IT hybrid, and Gartner said it is seeing increased business collaboration in selecting data quality tools.
- Although organizations place greater demands on vendors, expecting greater functional depth and business-area knowledge, Gartner said it also found they underutilize key functionality, such as monitoring and issue resolution, in the tools purchased.
- Though data quality initiatives address all data domains, party data remains most common. Notably in 2015, Gartner said it has seen a sharp rise in data quality initiatives for big data and content. Despite their interest, organizations remain cautious about moving to cloud-based models.
The new Gartner research offers up several suggestions for chief data officers and all information governance stakeholders, saying they should:
- Assess whether data quality solutions delivered in the cloud may advance or supplement current approaches. Run scenarios to test the implications of data quality-as-a-service (DQaaS) and identify the risk implications.
- Evaluate opportunities for applying data quality tools to broader data domains and business scenarios. Assess the actual data quality functionality you currently use, and work with your vendor to broaden its application without any additional cost.
- Ensure that your governance policies and processes apply consistent data quality rules across the organization, particularly where alternate data quality tools are in use.
- Extend the data quality conversation with business stakeholders to explore how its value can be extended to other areas, such as information governance.
What's Being Projected
Gartner is projecting that by 2020 40% of large organizations will use cloud-based data quality services.
Gartner noted its recent research identified that the top three priorities for CEOs are: customer experience management, digital marketing and business analytics.
“If CIOs, CDOs and data and analytics leaders are to achieve these objectives, they must ensure that the business-critical information their enterprise holds about customers, products, transactions, suppliers and assets is of sufficient quality (meaning that it is fit for purpose and trusted) to support existing business operations and enable their digital business agenda,” said Gartner. “In a 2015 Gartner survey on the usage and adoption of data quality tools, respondents estimated that they were losing an average of $8.8 million annually because of issues with data quality. The inability to adequately address these issues will result in the objectives being impeded, leading to less value for shareholders, reduced competitiveness, rising operational costs, loss of customers to competitors, and potential fines for noncompliance with government regulations.”