Ever since data has become one of the key factors in running a business, there’s been a debate about its use. Sometimes business can be in a dilemma as to whether they’re trusting their gathered data too much. It can be justified, since data is prone to constant change, and as a business, you may be making decisions on information that isn’t accurate anymore.

There is also the question of using data to make business decisions. Any company’s ultimate goal is to improve their bottom line by providing what its customers need. In those circumstances, the importance of customer data, in particular, is undeniable. How can companies cater to the needs of their customers if they don’t know anything about them? But if they do, how can they make the right data-driven decisions?

Using Clean Data

You can’t overstate the importance of using clean data when making data-driven decisions. Whether your focus is on your company’s inner workings and employee data or your customers’ expectations, you need to ensure the data you’re using is accurate. Gather reports frequently and work on continuously updating the data you already have. That’s certain to bring forth crucial insights about your company’s needs, which ultimately helps in the decision-making process.

Trusting Data that You’ve Gathered

According to a KPMG research report, believing data is somewhat of a problem for businesses. With only 34% of decision-makers stating that they have a high level of confidence in their operational data analytics, it’s clear that D&A has some work to do to ensure trust. However, the situation seems to be the best in the U.S. which has the highest level of confidence in data among its companies. The reasons for this lack of trust may vary, but it often has to do with data quality.

Impact of Quality Data on a Business

With weak data quality, it’s almost a given that it will be difficult for decision makers to trust the analytics. Of course, sometimes it can be difficult for companies to know whether the data they have is quality or not. Still, using unreliable data to make decisions can have severe consequences for a business. According to Experian’s Global Data Quality Research from 2015, over 80% of companies state that revenue is affected by inaccurate or incomplete data. With the impact use of data has on businesses, it’s becoming more and more critical to ensure data reliability.

Ensuring Quality, Clean Data

Experts agree that businesses who want to make data-driven decisions need first to address the quality of their data. Companies can’t afford to treat data quality as an afterthought anymore — instead, ensuring it should become part of their strategy.

Runner EDQ’s software integration solutions can provide some much-needed help in ensuring quality, clean data. From keeping customer and vendor contact data updated to delivering useful marketing information such as demographic data, social media handles and GeoCodes, our solutions can ensure that you’re making decisions based on enterprise quality data.

For more information on our software solutions that ensure data quality, visit our website. Runner EDQ can provide you with a strong foundation that lets you tackle data quality in an organized manner, ensuring that your data-driven decisions are based on accurate information.