DataFlux

Despite any claims to the contrary, the concept of master data management is not new, and the existence of many “{customer, product, vendor, etc.} master” files and tables indicates that the desire to create a reference master for certain business entities has driven many data consolidation projects. One theme that often comes up is the hope of creating a “single view” of whatever is under the microscope, and there are different system requirements to implement this single view depending on the business needs. - Read the rest of this entry »

The DataFlux User Event, held last week at the venerated Rio Hotel and Casino just off The Strip, was not your typical Vegas vendor demo-and-display fiesta. - Read the rest of this entry »

It was recently reported that the Commerce Department either lost or had stolen 1,137 laptops since 2001. This astonishing figure came to light because of the missing laptops at the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department. Workers in the Census Bureau have lost 672 laptops since 2001, and 246 of these contained census data on individuals. - Read the rest of this entry »

Reporting today from the DataFlux Users Event in Las Vegas, I have spent the day listening in two distinct modes: presentation and conversation. The event’s agenda incorporated two kinds of presentations, those based on corporate communication, and those based on customer case studies. In the first set, DataFlux staff members discussed their approaches to data quality improvement, and how those ideas have been incorporated into their software and application infrastructure, and it’s exciting to see how data governance and data quality management are being introduced through the use of automation. - Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past month I have written about the challenges of the global economy in a couple of articles and a recent blog on this site. Essentially, I noted that even though the global economy presents many challenges to organizations, it also offers a wealth of opportunities to those organizations that are prepared to do business internationally and that understand the potential problems associated with various political and geographic regions. - Read the rest of this entry »

We once lived in a house where we left the door to the backyard wide open. Say what you want about L.A., one can exist quite comfortably with the doors and windows flung open a good ten months of the year. During Santa Ana winds, a nice warm breeze will waft through the living room, accompanied by intermingled scent of mown grass and distant brushfires. (Note to the burglars: we’ve moved.) - Read the rest of this entry »

What’s new in data quality these days? A lot of things, but one of the things that I find most interesting is data monitoring.

No, data monitoring isn’t brand new. But some of the data monitoring capabilities available today hold promise not only for the quality of an organizations’ data, but also for solutions such as CDI. - Read the rest of this entry »

One of Knowledge Integrity’s current customer engagements involves developing a data quality framework based on an organizations concept of business operations. This concept of operations essentially defined who the participants in the business placation were, their roles and responsibilities, and (at a conceptual level) how they were to interact with the system. This document was part of the “canonized” material, reviewed and approved by the organization’s board. It was, for the most part, set in stone. - Read the rest of this entry »

When The Rolling Stones played the Hollywood Bowl last summer, Mick Jagger paused between songs to comment that the last time the band had played the Bowl was 1966, and tickets were $4 apiece. Many of the people in the boxes — the Bowl’s best seats, where a group of four or six can have dinner and drinks while they watch the show — had paid upwards of $400 apiece for the privilege of seeing the Stones play the Bowl. If you looked around right after Mick’s remark, you could see a few of these big-spenders twitch. - Read the rest of this entry »

Conducting business on a global scale doesn’t appear to present any insurmountable problems, at least on the surface. Organizations can conduct business anywhere in the world over the Internet, and whatever problems they experience seem to be insignificant. If this weren’t so, the international growth of business over the Internet would probably be rather slow. - Read the rest of this entry »