The Problems of Poor Master Data
Poor quality master data creates problems mostly within data warehousing and BI - but also outside it. The top three problems relate directly to data warehousing, namely inaccurate reporting (81 percent), arguments over which data is appropriate (78 percent), and bad decisions based on incorrect definitions (54 percent).
The Benefits of High Quality Data
Though a vast majority of users have suffered problems from poor master data, a much slimmer majority (54 percent) claims to have derived benefits from good master data. Still, this indicates that benefits are possible and can be identified.
As with master data problems, the benefits relate most strongly to data warehousing and related data management practices, followed by general business issues.
Near the top of the list are data warehousing and BI issues, like accurate reporting (75 percent), better decision making (69 percent), and easier auditing of information's origins (47 percent).
The full report from which these statistics are excerpted is available here.
Philip Russom is the senior manager of research and services at The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), where he oversees many of TDWI's research-oriented publications, services and events. Prior to joining TDWI in 2005, Russom was an industry analyst covering BI at Forrester Research, Giga Information Group and Hurwitz Group. He also ran his own business as an independent industry analyst and BI consultant, and was contributing editor with Intelligent Enterprise and DM Review magazines. Before that, Russom worked in technical and marketing positions for various database vendors. You can reach him at prussom@tdwi.org.
