One Systems Inadequacy Can Be Another Systems Downfall

In my last blog about how clean is your data, I gave you tips about how to structure and maintain your data.

Following a recent project, I thought it would be beneficial to identify pitfalls of poor data entry, or 'short cutting' another systems inadequacies to get data entered rather than  get the problem fixed.

In this increasingly connected world, it is vitally important to create the correct data fields and to enter the accurate data, for the purpose it was created.  Users need to be aware that systems no longer work in isolation, and when a one system is not configured or designed correctly it is important NOT to find a shortcut to overcome that inadequacy. 

On this recent project, the ERP systems label printing template was not configured correctly and the contact name was not included in the label template.  So, rather than get the template fixed users had established a bad practice of entering the contact details onto the first address line of the shipping address.  The problem was fixed, in isolation.  When we then came to use the ERP shipping address information in the CRM system, the marketing and management team complained the data was corrupt as contact information was appearing in the address fields.  Subsequently, the marketing team cannot use the shipping address information for direct marketing without cleansing the data with great difficulty.  Because the contact information is variable, it cannot be deleted by a simple 'find and replace' formula.

It is only as a result of integrating the ERP data with the CRM solution, that the finance team have been made aware of the data quality issue and have quickly fixed the ERP label printing template.  However, they now have a slow ardous process of cleansing the ERP shipping data, as each ERP address is used again and manually cleansing the offending contact data.  Meanwhile, the marketing team are unable to exploit the data for use in their direct mail campaigns.

So, if you are wishing to integrate your systems to improve your organisations productivity and efficiency, look at how your data needs to interact and work on cleansing any data before you integrate.  To fail to do so could delay or even stall your integration project.  From a management perspective this is easily identified through a quick export report of the system data to be used.  In an instant you will have a perspective of the potential challenge ahead.