Making the most out of big data investments

Most business decision makers would agree that data is valuable. Its worth is so high that 60 percent of surveyed IT professionals said their organizations plan to use big data to make better decisions and become increasingly competitive in the global marketplace, according to the recent Connected World Technology Report by Cisco. 

Despite the appraisal of business information, an alarming number of businesses are still not taking their data quality seriously, according to IT Web. While the importance of cleansing content and running contact lists through address management systems is picking up, it's still not where it needs to be in all data adopters. 

It's estimated that even the companies with relatively low error rates can experience significant impacts to their bottom lines, the source adds. If a firm experiences mistakes just 5 percent of the time or less, they might still see a 30 percent bump to their business costs through hidden fees. 

These expenditures might be minimal at present, but they could quickly grow. According to Cisco's study, IT professionals say that organizations anticipate widening their data streams to bring in larger volumes of data. In fact, 25 percent expected to triple their existing network loads and 50 percent say their loads will double. 

To manage these increasing data burdens, IT leaders will need to take steps to keep data quality at a premium. Information Management breaks down best practices into five steps that include: tracking mail deliverability success rates in their metrics, verifying information as it is entered into databases, understanding the information that they're storing, assigning a professional who will assume responsibility for the success and scheduling audits to ensure data quality efforts are effective. 

Taking the steps to ensure organizations are using strong data quality can ensure companies are making the most out of their investments in big data and business intelligence.