Expert offers data quality description tips

Data quality expert Jim Harris knows there is a need for companies to clean their data and keep it safe. He recently acknowledged, however, that some in IT remain unconvinced that quality of information is worth investing in. He discussed challenges that employees face when trying to convince doubters in their organizations that the need for data quality tools is real and pressing.

Harris stated that, when faced with real examples of data quality problems, some in business will fail to see the relevance to their own organizations and ignore the warning. He attributed some of the denials to the reflexive desire to not be associated with any problems that may turn up.

Some of these issues, in Harris' estimation, stem from the fact that it is hard to put numbers on losses from poor data quality. While bad data may erode a company's effectiveness from within, that is hard to quantify.

The Wall Street Journal's Michael Hickins recently expressed his own worry - that CIOs, eager to avoid the potential headaches of keeping data, are outsourcing their data management duties to external companies. The proposed movement involves handing over complete control of data to outside sources - a drastic move for CIOs.