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Abstract Poor data quality can have a severe impact on the overall effectiveness of an organisation. Data quality problems, which are prevalent in many customer relationship management (CRM) implementations, receive limited attention in the literature. Few organisations account for these problems when planning a CRM project. This is often because data quality problems do not become apparent until the project is underway, when the time and costs required to address them can be substantial and beyond the project budget limits. This paper uses illustrative case study examples of problems encountered when implementing CRM and highlights the need for further research in this area.
INTRODUCTION
The literature is now full of strategies for successful customer relationship marketing (CRM) implementations and case examples highlighting success factors.1-3 Data quality problems, which are prevalent in many CRM implementations, receive limited attention in the literature. Few organisations account for these problems when planning a CRM project. This is often because data quality problems do not become apparent until the project is underway, when the time and costs required to address them can be substantial and beyond the project budget limits.4,5 If dealt with at the strategy formulation stage, however, improved data quality can improve operational costs, customer satisfaction, effective decision-making6 and, importantly, employee confidence in CRM.
This paper focuses on data quality problems that appeared in a CRM implementation in a large European telecommunications company. It illustrates how data quality issues -were invisible until the CRM implementation was well underway and how failure to include these extra costs in the budget and set a timetable to address potential problems jeopardised the success of the project, particularly amongst user groups. The paper begins with a brief review of the literature on data quality. This is followed by an outline of the case study company and the data collection methods used. Three of the data quality problems that emerged in the course of CRM implementation and their impact on the project are discussed in the findings section. This is then followed by a proposed strategy to improve data quality and a conclusion which considers factors that could address invisible data quality problems.
THE IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVED DATA QUALITY
Data and information are strategic enterprise resources. Good quality information enables business...