4 Simple Steps To Data Integrity

When is the last time you cleaned out your database? Is your data clean, consistent, and accurate? It probably won’t surprise you that most people will answer with a resounding “No”. Information is always changing, and therefore so is your data. It may be people leaving companies, projects finishing and new ones taking their place, and old opportunities have completed the sales cycle. Data integrity refers to maintaining the accuracy and consistency of data over an entire life-cycle and can impact ones ability to determine emerging trends, overall success rates, future planning. When your data is incomplete or incorrect it can make your reporting difficult and lead to misleading queries. So how can you clean up your crucial data?There are 4 areas to project data, and by evaluating them, you can begin to see where to start you’re your “spring cleaning”:

Step 1 – Deciding Factors: Begin With A Search

The best place to start is by going through some search criteria. This will ultimately tell you areas that could use a bit of a tidy. Are all of your project statuses up-to-date? Has your database been cleared of non-users? Make a list of all of your deciding factors that help you in your decision-making and dive into your search queries to get an idea what areas need more attention

Step 2 – Standardisation: Out With The Bad And In With The Good

As you go through your data, you may find redundancies or certain fields that are unnecessary. Now is a great time to meet with team leaders and find out what they need for their decision making. You may even need to re-establish or re-invent your company’s business goals. Add tool tips so the users get a better understanding when inserting their own data into fields.

Step 3 – Identify Business Triggers

Is there a specific trigger in your business that could suggest an information update? Now that the unused fields have been purged and new, more important fields have been created, you should ignite a company wide data tidying exercise to keep your data at it’s best. Perhaps set an automated reminder or a specific timeframe for your next data evaluation.

Step 4 – Service Schedule Data

Integrity should be a top priority for decision makers. It is extremely important to have specific resources in place to maintain your data. Just as you would take your car to get a service, companies that regularly maintain their data have a much stronger platform in which future decisions are based. Without this maintenance, you could be driving your business into the ground.

Are you constantly finding holes in your data? Are you loosing confidences in the accuracy of your data? Is your current functionality lacking in usability? MSP Consulting offers an Expert BI Troubleshooter service that can your firm will improve data integrity. The Expert BI Troubleshooter service can improve your data integrity and solve urgent BI problems quickly without the need for any new BI product or solution. If you would like to learn more, fill out our Easy BI Troubleshooter Form and a consultant will contact you ready to answer any questions you may have.