Most manufacturers would never think of eliminating the quality control function from their production processes. Without quality control, the number of defective products that must be reworked, scrapped or returned would dramatically increase. Almost all consulting/service organizations monitor the quality of the services they deliver to uphold their reputations, ensure satisfied customers and generate repeat business. After all, who would keep a product that falls apart the day after it is purchased or fly on an airplane that does not conduct preflight checks?
Yet ensuring data quality within operational and business intelligence applications is a discipline that is frequently overlooked by many organizations. It is often not until you discover a major problem that could have been avoided through quality control of your data that you recognize the importance of data quality.
Once this occurs, most executives quickly realize that almost all of the organization's operational and analytical business processes rely on a solid, high-quality, data foundation.
‘They discovered that many of the user names were cartoon characters or well-known politicians.’
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As Marketing Measuring Increases, Expectations Evolve
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Posted on Feb 22, 2005
The last 15 years have seen enormous strides made toward greater marketing measurability. But consumer protection laws and changes in company's needs have altered expectations for return on investment.
A few years ago, database analysis was mistakenly seen as a substitute for market research, partly as a result of market research companies’ paranoia, and partly because of the overblown claims of lifestyle database owners. Experience has now shown the two techniques to be entirely complementary. Database analysis gives insights into behavior—who buys what products, when and how often. Market research, on the other hand, is concerned about why people make the purchases that they do.
Especially when introducing new product lines, both techniques are required for effective sales success. Market research indicates which types of people will buy. Database analysis helps find them and test those market research insights. The latest development here is the ability to rapidly analyze responses to Phase 1 of a campaign, to adjust the parameters of which people receive Phase 2 and beyond. Being able to do this rapidly and automatically has been proved in many examples to increase response and conversion rates substantially.
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