Data Quality: A Critical Component of Business Assurance

Data quality is a vital element of any business assurance. Poor quality of data can lead to higher operational risk and threatens the performance of the operating systems. It also weakens the output of business intelligence systems on which important decisions of organizations often rely. For a decade now, importance has been given to creation of information systems that improve the output quality and efficiency of the organization creating customer loyalty for example Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Business Intelligence (BI). Being in a competitive environment, companies spend enormous amounts on these information systems to gain competitive advantage and if the data on which these information systems rely is not authentic, then returns of these systems cannot be availed. If the basis for all business plans and strategies is inaccurate and incomplete, it can cause enormous financial loss, lost customer loyalty, and damaged organizational credibility. Experts estimate the cost of bad data as much as 10 to 20% of what is invested in the total implementation of the system. It must be made sure that the right data is available, in the right quantity, at the right time, and of the right quality to sustain in today's competitive business environment. This article elaborates how ACL solutions enable organizations to manage data quality for higher business performance and lesser risk.