The easiest way to understand the importance of Data Quality, especially for those that deal with data processing daily, is to look around and pick up any physical object of daily usage and imagine the process of its transformation from a mix of raw ingredients to an unfinished final product. Would that object be still... more
We marketers work so hard – and spend so much money – to earn customer data that we really want to believe that our job is done once we’ve captured it. The truth is exactly the opposite: the customer data that we neatly store in our databases, CRM systems, marketing automation platforms, and customer profiles... more
Imagine the relief you must feel when you step forth from the rubble, look around, and realize that in spite of your entire town being demolished by a tornado, that your home has miraculously made it. In disbelief you must stand there and take it all in. Everything around you, flattened to the ground but... more
“We need to be more efficient.” “We need to be more nimble.” “We need to show results.” Phrases like these are commonly heard at meetings every hour of the day all over the world. The drive for internal efficiency has been growing faster and faster, with the pace of technology racing in parallel. Regardless of... more
I recently ran into this HBR article about why and how to tell compelling stories with data. HBR also had some interesting insights on storytelling and the use and shortcomings of analytics as well (Davenport, Tom. “10 kinds of stories to tell with data”, HBR, May 5, 2014 and Filbin, Bob and Jeff Bladt, “A... more
We all know this story. Salesperson X logs into Salesforce. Notices a new lead assigned to her. Picks up the phone to call and speak with this lead and hears, “You have the wrong number” or “That person doesn’t work here anymore” or “The number you have reached is not in service”. The example could... more
So as I sit here contemplating life, I realize that change is not only hard but damn’ hard. Not so much for me (of course;-) but for everybody else who does not run into and advise a new company every other week including a wide variety of personalities and business models, aka canonized modes of... more
A consultant, a data architect and a call center manager walk into a bar in some Asian metropolis (figuratively speaking). The data architect says, “Can you help me figure out how to convince the business to invest in upgrading our data management environment?” The consultant says, “Sure, let me chat with your call center manager... more
Updated 2021 by the data privacy team Introduction to data masking and data encryption Here’s a test: Are you able to obscure the heading of this post correctly using data encryption vs. data masking techniques? For example, “opjuqzsdof bube vs data ;8^)!#g.” Let’s move ahead and we will revisit it again. Of course, if you’re a... more
Much has been written about the monetary impacts of poor data quality. A familiar and easy to understand illustration of this is the cost of bad postal address data: The US Postal Service (USPS) estimated in 2013 that there were approximately 6.8 billion pieces of mail that could not be delivered as addressed. Beyond the fact... more