Data Sounding Board: The Data Asset

Sep 26, 2012 by Jim Harris

Welcome to the Data Sounding Board, a Data Roundtable podcast where I sound off on data-related topics but balance my ranting lunacy with recorded discussions about data management concepts with guests possessing a sounder mind than mine.

During this episode, I sound off on how it’s often easier to convince people that poor data quality is a liability than it is to convince people that good data quality is an asset. My very sound-minded special guest is Tony Fisher, the author of one of my favorite data management books: The Data Asset.

The Data Asset – Closing the Loop: Selecting the Right Technology

Oct 05, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

Technology is viewed as a tool for undisciplined companies. Most of us have experienced the slow baby steps that must be made with undisciplined companies, and some of us have suffered their need to NOT change. But, if you can get the technology adopted by the company, then you can SLOWLY move them in the right direction. Thus, allowing the technology to enable this organization. I use industry best practices to help validate the need for these tools, and describe these tools are used in other companies in the same industry my customer.

The Data Asset – Utilizing People and Processes to Achieve a Quality Culture

Sep 30, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

Tony is this the part where you can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make it drink? I love this section of the book, especially where he says “Quality is not an act, it is a habit”. How true is that? If it takes 11 time for a prospect to see a product before it is branded, then making quality a habit must take 11 times too. I can’t tell you how many companies I have seen that do not pay attention to the quality of the data. That is something happens and it now hurts the organization.

The Data Asset – Proactive and Governed Organizations

Sep 22, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

Proactive organizations treat their data like a corporate asset. They think globally across the enterprise, and act collectively as a unified group. Most proactive organizations have mastered the use of their CRM (Customer Relationship Management), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), and their data warehouse technologies. Basically, data is being used across the enterprise. In a proactive organization, the executives view the data as a strategic asset. IT (Information Technology) and the business groups collaborate, and have an enterprise view of most corporate data. This would include subject areas like customer, product, financials, etc.

The Data Asset – Undisciplined and Reactive Organizations

Sep 17, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

Do you know organizations that are undisciplined and/or reactive? I do!

As stated in Tony’s book some of the characteristics of an undisciplined organization include:

1. Each department thinks and acts locally. This is when the finger pointing begins when the organization encounters a problem.
2. Few defined data rules or policies. Exceptions are only found when a load or integration process does not complete properly.
3. Redundant data found in different sources – each system has customer/product/pricing data.
4. Little or no executive oversight. Truthfully, as long as the bills are paid and the organization is making money the executives are not involved in the day-to-day data issues.

The Data Asset – Optimizing Revenue and Governing Data

Sep 15, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

In chapter 4 Tony explains how an organization can optimize revenue with quality data. From what I see, most organizations don’t seem to take the time to understand the quality of their data until something happens. Tony states in the book that “CRM focuses on the trees. Revenue optimization and yield management focus on the forest. All require sound data”. How true is that statement!

The Data Asset – Risk Mitigation and Controlling Costs

Sep 08, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

In Tony’s book it is stated that to mitigate risks, executives often put too much emphasis on the people involved and not enough on the information that underpins the decisions. How true is that!!!!!!! One of my previous clients could never understand that the data was not good, without good data you cannot make good decisions. In fact, creating a ‘master’ set of customer, product, and financial information is crucial for most organizations.

Julie and Julia and The Data Asset

Aug 25, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

Julie and Julia is a new movie that involves a temporary secretary (Julie), and the character of Julia Child, played by Meryl Streep. Julie embarks on a year-long culinary adventure by making all 524 recipes in Julia Child’s book Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie blogs about her experiences creating these recipes. The movie also does flashbacks to the 1940s when Julia Child and her husband lived in Paris.

The Quality Culture

Jul 21, 2009 by Joyce Norris-Montanari

I recently did a webcast with Daniel Teachey, part of the Marketing group of DataFlux. The webcast was on Developing a Quality Culture. Daniel and I had a great time during the webcast, and hopefully answered all the participant’s questions. We talked about the importance of quality based on Six Sigma, Total Quality Management (TQM), Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA), and Lean Manufacturing. The objective of these methodologies is to create more efficient processes with the data they need.