Category Archives: Identity Resolution
Can Data Quality Solve A 110 Billion Dollar Problem?
Recently the US Senate passed legislation, the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act, which would require US federal agencies to identify and reduce improper payments. Improper payments are defined as mistakes, waste, fraud, and abuse cumulatively costing the US tax payers $110 billion per year and growing. This is a staggering sum. Think about it – think of all of the things that we could fund either through government programs or back into our pockets. The financial incentive is there, but the challenge for the federal government is how to discover and prevent these improper payments. (more…)
Data Tales From Afar
With our Informatica9 World Tour in full swing, I have found the last month to be extremely exhilarating meeting clients across North America, South America, Europe and Australia. I have met with banking clients in New York, major telco operators in Brazil, government institutions in Sweden and retailers in Australia.
Several people have asked me if there have been any major differences from region to region. My observation is “yes … and no”. Let me explain:
Uncovering Terror Plots: Does Data Mining Work?
The recent article NY Bomb Plot Highlights Limitations of Data Mining concludes that data mining and analysis techniques are ineffective in uncovering terror plots.
No single technique or approach, whether based on data mining, human intelligence or other monitoring will ever be 100% comprehensive. This is why the most effective solution is a combination of all tools and techniques to ensure that risk is lowered. The next question that needs to be asked is whether data mining should be a part of such a comprehensive toolkit – and for that we need to judge how successful data mining has been.
Why Tax Agencies Need A Unified View Of The Taxpayer
The infamous April 15th deadline is drawing near. Like many of you, I spent last weekend filling out my tax returns. Did you know that, with over 140 million taxpayers in the US, income tax evasion and fraud are the main sources of lost tax revenue? In 2007, it was close to $350 billion — about 14% of the US government’s revenue for the fiscal year. How can tax and revenue agencies like the IRS and California’s Franchise Tax Board efficiently detect fraud and collect lost tax revenue?
One of the keys to detecting fraud is having a clear view of the taxpayer population. Creating a ‘Unified View of Taxpayer’ can help agencies understand a taxpayer’s history, accurately identify honest taxpayers from fraudulent ones, detect tax payment anomalies, link taxpayers to their existing financial transactions to detect suspicious patterns and concentrate agency resources on truly suspicious tax returns for auditing purposes. (more…)
Refilling State Coffers After The Recession
While the market is showing signs of recovery from the “Great Recession” most state budgets have been feeling the squeeze from the lag in recovery. In a recent article titled The Sorry State of Finances, Liam Denning explained that, “55% of state revenue, before federal transfers, comes from personal and corporate income tax.” Denning also stated that, “the first three quarters of 2009 were the worst for state tax since at least 1963.”
There is an apparent lag between recovery in the private sector and a state receiving tax revenue. So what can states do about this problem while they suffer in the red? Mr. Denning said, “Since states can’t run general funding deficits, closing gaps mean raising taxes, cutting services and resorting to one-time measures.” Mr. Denning’s list of solutions is certainly accurate, but does it include all options that states have? What about employing new technology to discover fraud or recover uncollected revenue? (more…)
Tell Me All About The Informatica Marketplace
I am very fortunate to have a CIO role that extends beyond the traditional responsibilities of IT. Part of my role includes the strategy and implementation of the recently launched Informatica Marketplace.
The Informatica Marketplace has generated a lot of buzz with our customers and partners. Last week while I was presenting at the Pacific Crest Annual Cloud Computing Conference I heard the excitement about our new offering from many of the attendees. Mostly, people appreciated our continued thought leadership and commitment to providing an open platform to host solutions for data integration, data quality and data management. And yes, it is an open platform to host solutions that not only support Informatica, but other vendors too – even competitors. Our fundamental belief is that the hand of free enterprise will ultimately win, so we are willing to provide an open platform to do so.
Here are a few questions I’ve heard and answered over the last few weeks: (more…)
Global-hopping Customer Data (Part 2)
Continuing the discussion started in Globe-hopping Customer Data I’d like to examine the issues related to identifying which customers you do NOT want to do business with.
One of our customers – a major bank in Saudi Arabia – learned first-hand the complexities that arise from having to comply with watchlists from multiple countries. At a minimum, the bank had to screen customer data against the Saudi Arabian government watchlists (in Arabic script) and the US government watchlists (in Romanized/English). To further complicate matters – the bank’s customer data was stored in two separate databases – Saudi customer data in Arabic script, and all other customers in Romanized form. (more…)
Globe-hopping Customer Data
Over the past few months, an increasing portion of my conversations with customers has been about globalization. The recent financial crisis has caused many companies to focus more on market diversification. Some traditional markets are experiencing slow or negative growth and some emerging markets have recovered faster than others. In the global search for customers, crossing geographic boundaries has become less of an impediment and more of an opportunity.
Globalization and multi-country operations bring a whole host of complications ranging from tax implications and exchange rate fluctuations to labor regulations and cultural sensitivities. However, one often overlooked aspect is the impact that globalization has on your enterprise data management strategy – and particularly – your customer data.
The Cobblers Children
Over the last few months I have observed a variety of posts and discussions relating to managing data quality. I thought it might be interesting to discuss how we are using our own software to help drive data quality across our company. We are on a journey and I’d like to share our progress with you over the coming months. Our goal, like yours, is to deliver trusted, relevant and timely data to all parts of
our business.
The True Cost Of Data Quality Issues
Data quality issues are like back pains…everyone has to deal with them at one point or another, and in many cases it requires some major surgery. The strategic use of data is critical, and is one of those things you have to put into hard dollars before people begin to take data quality seriously. Understanding the true cost of data quality issues provides a solid foundation of understanding around the business case for putting a good data quality program and core enabling technology in place to solve this problem.
There are two costs to consider: Operational inefficiencies and long-term consequences. (more…)
Loading ...