What is data quality? Part 4

How do we ensure our data quality?

This is an ever-present point of discussion in many companies, regardless of department or duties. The quality of your data can be evaluated based on many variables. In the last post we discussed what affects how reliable and consistent your data is.

• Accessible
• Relevant
• Comparable
• Valid
• Accuracy
• Completeness
• Reliablity
• Consistency
• Current

Based on these, we will recommend a selection of activities, both manual and system-driven, that can help you evaluate and improve your data quality.

Current data

The fifth and sixth data quality variables are very important to how agile and fast you can be in a data-driven business. The fifth variable is about your data being current. Current data means that both you have updated information, preferably in real time, but also that it is available when you need it, regardless of where you are.

Accessable data

That leads us into variable sex. The need varies between companies, but having data accessible in real time means that you can always start from having the latest image of your business available. Real-time data can also be combined with making the visualization available on multiple platforms, for example mobile or tablet to be able to have data available in places other than the office. How can you have up-to-date and accessible data:

Use key performance indicators (KPIs)

Try to think about what is important in your business and select a couple of key figures to follow up, these should describe your performance and contribute to developing your company. Simplification by focusing on a few defined points makes information more accessible and easier to understand.

Consolidate information in real time

By using data from several different sources through a service that is updated in real time, your company can combine and standardize data to be able to produce up-to-date information that was missing before.

Cloud Service (SaaS)

Having the information available in the cloud as a service (Solution as a Service) provides many advantages. The downtime for the service is today usually minimal and the security is equivalent to having an "on premise" solution. The data is available when it is needed, and you do not need an internal organization or premises for servers.

How current and available is your data? Have you defined which key figures help you make the best decisions?

Are you curious to learn how Business Cloud iPaaS can help your company with integrations and data quality? Contact me below or book a demo and I'll tell you more.

Staffan Hedbrandh, CEO