We all know that without regular management and strong operational policies, any database can quickly become inaccurate; contacts come and go, duplicate entries get entered by different staff, companies merge, demerge, change of address and so on.
Data duplication levels of up to 80% are not uncommon amongst poorly managed databases and as a result, reports produced from the system are inaccurate and potentially dangerous for a business. For small businesses especially, trying to eke out small budgets for marketing campaigns, for example, data integrity is vital.
Any campaign, mail shot or integration of different data sources based on inaccurate data has little chance of success and loses you credibility. Senior management confidence is dented and the integrity, and therefore reliance on key databases is damaged significantly.
There are some simple steps to follow and aap3 can guide you through;
Data Loading Strategy
Develop a migration strategy and set of migration tasks for loading data.
Field Definitions and Data Mapping
Assist with mapping source data to the application. If no extraction is elected, this includes development of customized data templates.
Data Mapping
Extract data and developing scripts for loading data into an application.
Data Migration
Load data and, if required, creation of conversion maps to maintain entity relationships.
Data Validation
Providing assurance that all data is properly loaded from the source data files to the application.
Data cleansing and de-duplication
'Scrubbing' your data of issues and eliminating erroneous entries.