16 March 2011

Capscan Whitepaper Reveals Simple Steps for Improving Data Quality and Saving Thousands of Pounds 

New whitepaper commissioned by data quality experts reveals hidden return on investment is untapped by majority of businesses

Capscan, a leading provider of international address management software and data quality services, has today published a whitepaper revealing the widespread and often hidden benefits of data quality management (DQM). The report by Independent analyst and data management expert, Graham Rhind, entitled ‘The Hidden Returns on Your Data Quality Investment’ provides insight into the simple and low cost measures that deliver a quantifiable return on investment (ROI).

The new whitepaper advises that implementing even basic measures at the point of address data capture will save the organisation thousands of pounds. “I find it baffling as to why organisations still incur the costs of mailing to redundant addresses, deceased people and sending duplicates items,” comments the report author, Graham Rhind. He adds: “This whitepaper demonstrates that whilst poor data quality doesn’t have an immediately obvious impact on the business, the longer term affects are clear and severe. Our intention is to alert senior level executives to the simple and low cost preventative measures they can embed in the organisation, along with the returns they can expect to achieve from an ongoing DQM strategy.”

The whitepaper explains how a ‘dirty’ database of 100,000 contacts could realistically expect to have as many as 15,000 duplicates. So for a mailing that costs £1 per item to create and send, the use of low-cost de-duplication software would immediately save the organisation £15,000. Furthermore, taking into account identical response rates of 1%, it could expect to make a further £15,000, with a total of £30,000.

Managing Director of Capscan, Terry Hiles, adds that cleansing data before fulfilling an outbound campaign can reduce unnecessary costs and deliver improved response rates. Furthermore, even greater gains can be achieved if problems are prevented at the point of data capture: “Organisations of all sizes, operating nationally or internationally, can realise huge savings and increased profitability from a DQM strategy. Affordable technology exists to ensure that only complete, up-to-date address data is entered into the customer database.”

The whitepaper complements Capscan’s recent survey into the DQM habits of organisations worldwide, which found that although organisations perceived the quality of their International contact data to be sufficient, few have the necessary processes, tools or strategic will to protect its integrity, with only 38.8% of those asked claiming to have a DQM strategy in place.

The ‘The Hidden Returns on Your Data Quality Investment’ whitepaper is available from the Capscan press office and can also be downloaded from: www.capscan.com/white_papers.aspx.