Informatica Data Quality

“In e-Business, the Information IS the Business”
Having just completed writing a chapter on “IQ in the Internet and e-Business Environments” in my forthcoming book, Information Quality Applied: Best Practices for Improving Business Information, Processes and Systems (John Wiley & Sons), I wanted to share a few excerpts from this chapter. This is one of ten chapters focused on applying sound quality principles to the unique quality issues in various information value “circles” such as “Prospect to Satisfied Customer,” “Order to Cash” Supply chain, for example.
There are three categories of information in the Internet environment to which quality principles must be applied:
* Web-Based Documents and Web Content
* Data “Shared” by Internal Processes and Internet Processes
* Information Collected or Created in e-Commerce and e-Business value chains, including third party business partners
The major problem with IQ in the Internet is that business is conducted in “cyberspace” with no person “minding the store” or monitoring the e-Business transactions.
Here I will address some problems and improvements in the first category.
IQ in Web-Based Documents and Web Content
In this blog, I address some issues and specific improvements of quality in web information content.

IQ Issue: Unclear, Misleading or Biased Web Information
Misleading, or unclear information can confuse e-Visitors and drive them away. Because there is no one to observe these e-visits or to explain when e-Visitors have questions, you must make the site and information intuitive and clear, with explanations and definitions of technical terms.
“Confusion in e-Customers who may make a wrong decision or selection. If information does not match the Customer’s perception of a product or service, they may request their money back, costing you the handling of the return or compensation to the customer.”
IQ Issue: Inaccurate or Out of-Date Information
Costs include:
* Lost business if product prices are over-priced in error
* Lost revenue if product prices are under-priced in error and legal liability and reputation problems with cost-recovery initiatives attempted. This happened to an airline when they sold more than 1,000 airline tickets at $1.86, instead of $186.00. They honored the ticket sales at a loss of around $200,000!
* Lost profit in returns of products for which information does not match product reality

Preventive Actions for Inaccurate Out-of-Date Information Content
* Make the problems visible by creating internal real-time IQ monitors that can detect “run-away or out-of-control transactions.” Create thresholds of reasonable transaction limits, updated for sale or promotion events, to allow you to identify abnormal transaction patterns, both high and low. Then analyze the data associated with any run-away transactions to identify if an information quality issue is the cause, taking corrective action as necessary
* Managers of content producers must be held accountable for the quality and currency of web content. Once managers have accountability written into their job descriptions and are held accountable for information quality, and once training and resources are provided to information producers, then the content producers may also be held accountable for their information
* Content producers must understand the “shelf life” of the information and create a schedule for the information to “expire.” If there is a known time of expiration, then calendar events can trigger a review to update or archive. At this time the information must be:
* Updated to keep it current, such as a new price for a current product,
* Replaced with correct, current information, such as when a new-and-improved product replaces a previous product, or
* Archived or deleted with no replacement, such as a discontinued product

What do you think? Share your thoughts on this blog (without exposing any confidential information, of course).