Organizational databases are filled with inaccurate, incomplete, and inconsistent data. A report released in 2017 highlighted that 47% of newly created data records have one or the other kind of critical error. Since then, until now, many research firms like IBM and Gartner have raised concerns about the cost of data errors. This has serious consequences, including substantial loss of revenue.
Despite this, cleaning databases remains a challenge. Only a few organizations have the requisite expertise, time, or resources to monitor and manage their databases. Acquiring cleaning tools, training employees, and maintaining a team can be expensive.
One solution to this challenge is to bring in external experts from data cleaning firms. Let’s see how you can benefit by outsourcing data cleansing services.
Ways dirty data can cost an organization
To estimate the costs of insufficient data to your organization, consider the 1-10-100 rule. It costs $1 to verify data, $10 to clean dirty data, and $100 if it is not cleaned. Suppose your organization creates a new database of 100,000 records, of which 47 percent have at least one critical error; then you would lose $4,700,000 annually. Cleaning the records would save you $4,230,000 a year.
The costs can manifest in multiple forms: operational inefficiency, lost opportunities, or wasted resources. A considerable amount of time can be spent identifying and fixing errors in data, hampering productivity. Dirty and poor data also inevitably lead to flawed analysis and poor decisions. The result could be better targeting, increased cost per customer, fewer conversions, and reduced revenue.
Benefits of hiring data cleaning experts
The costliness and difficulty of identifying and cleaning dirty data makes it necessary to get the help of experts with hands-on experience. Organizations needing more skills or resources can outsource data cleaning to a company that provides data cleaning services. Doing so can help them overcome budgetary, expertise, time, and other constraints.
There are several reasons why hiring experts for data cleaning can be beneficial.
They bring deep expertise and subject-matter knowledge
Experts possess in-depth knowledge of data quality principles, cleaning techniques, and how to assess the best and cleanest databases. This enables them to see subtle inconsistencies and outliers that may often be missed. For industry-specific data, their understanding can ensure more precise and thorough cleaning. If you decide to outsource data cleaning services to a specialized data cleaning company, you get access to advanced tools, which can cost an average of $208,000 annually.
They help identify the root cause of quality issues
Experts can not only fix immediate issues but also identify the root causes of data quality problems, minimizing errors from recurring. Additionally, they can audit your data and help improve your data processes.
They recommend data governance strategies
Beyond identifying and fixing erroneous data, experts can help establish processes and policies for maintaining data quality in the long run. They assist in building a sustainable data governance framework. This may include harmonizing across different data silos, creating a 360-degree view by integrating disparate data sources.
They give you a competitive advantage
Experts can deliver clean data quickly, which enables you to make informed strategic decisions. And since your in-house experts are not bogged down by cleaning data, they can direct their time and energy to core functions. Data cleaning experts enable quicker and better decisions and improve operational efficiency, giving your organization an advantage.
Conclusion
Organizational databases are plagued with dirty data. The dirt affects organizations in harmful ways. Dirty data introduces operational inefficiency, causes flawed analysis, and drains revenue. Routinely cleaning data is thus a business imperative.
However, data cleaning is a big undertaking and may seem unnecessary, given that the effect of dirty data is only sometimes immediate or obvious. But to ignore it would be a costly mistake, especially since data cleaning services can be obtained at reasonable costs. With experts’ help, data can be immaculate, the root cause of dirty data eliminated, and the downstream adverse effects of unclean data minimized.
