Informatica Data Quality

If you ever find yourself discussing the benefits of data quality for your business and one of your associates asks rhetorically, "Yes, but can it solve world hunger?" you now have an answer for them.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations records the level of completeness for data collection from each member nation. On their website, their stated mission is to work towards "a world without hunger." A key element in their fight against hunger is the FAO Stat database and a key means of maintaining the efficacy of the data is their data quality dashboard.

For organizations working with the FAO, it's important that the data be accurate - otherwise perishable goods may be wasted by getting shipped to locations not suffering from malnourished populations. This example highlights something that I've seen very often in the context of enterprise data quality initiatives. Many prospective customers come to us and ask "how do we get started, given the complexities of coordinating across multiple organizations inside our company?" Within the Informatica customer base, there are many examples of successful initiatives starting off with Data Quality metrics and dashboards. The metrics offer a great way for organizations to maintain a dialog on how to prioritize their investment in data quality.

Already, I've received email comments on my posting. "Can Data Quality allow us to live longer? Facilitate the exploration of outer space?" Great questions… stayed tuned for future postings!