The only constant in business data is constant change. On average, 14 percent of the nation’s population changes addresses each year, rendering customer information in countless databases obsolete. And that’s just for starters. These same customers change jobs, swap credit cards, open new bank accounts, get divorced, make new purchases, change phone numbers, make payments and get married. This constant change holds true as well for patients in healthcare, citizens in government and prospects tracked by the salesforce.

If changes such as these are not accurately reflected in an organization’s data records—and pushed out to all the systems and processes that depend on those data records—the organization can pay a high price.

Incorrect or duplicated customer information costs corporations more than US $600 billion annually. For example, in 2007 alone, poor quality data will cost the insurance industry US $14 billion and the banking industry US $27 billion in operating costs.

The problem is widespread. Roughly half of 750 companies surveyed in late 2005 reported incurring losses, problems or costs due to poor quality data. Over the last decade, organizations have come to realize that they need a single view of the master data on which their business, and their business decisions, is based. This master data includes a heterogeneous mix of customer information, product information, agreements and accounts, vendor and supplier information and inventory information—all generated and currently stored in line-of-business systems throughout the organization.

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