How Companies Can Reduce Data Redundancies and Data Cleansing Needs
As a company, data is one of your most important assets. However, data is only as valuable as its accuracy and usability. Therefore, if you have cluttered and inaccurate data, it can lead to major problems as you seek to use that data to grow your business. That’s why it’s so important to implement various solutions to keep your company’s data accurate, concise, and usable.
Determine the Sources
Before you can begin to synthesize your company’s data, you must determine the various places where your data is stored. If you have multiple servers holding various pieces of information, it will be hard to reduce redundancies until all of the information is in a single place. Therefore, do your best to follow every possible lead to ensure that you don’t overlook even the smallest cache of information.
Find Redundant Records
One thing that often happens in a database with multiple contributors is that you end up with redundant records. After all, misspellings, mispronunciations, and a host of other issues can occur when imperfect humans try to gather accurate data. That’s why identity resolution software is so important and useful when working to reduce excess data. This software looks at partial record matches to determine if matching records exist in your system.
Be Proactive
An important part of reducing your data cleansing needs in the future is being proactive about entering accurate information in the present. Make sure that you have systems in place to catch data redundancies as they are entered so that your associates will update the existing record instead of adding a new record. By being diligent in teaching your associates how to use this technique, you will have a much more useful data set.
Reach Out to Customers
Another way to reduce inaccuracies in your database is to manually purge it on a regular basis. By reaching out to individuals who haven’t interacted with your company in a long time, you can determine if these customers intend to interact with your company in the future. You can also set up automated rules to help purge older information so that you are left with a set of customers who are active and valuable to your bottom line.
Appreciate the Value
An important first step in being willing to purge your company’s data is simply realizing the value that it has. If you take the data for granted, you’ll be less likely to take care of the existing data and any new data that you receive. However, once you realize just how important and valuable this asset is, you’ll be much more inclined to make an effort to maximize its usefulness.