Get your COAT, you've pulled (clean data)

If your data doesn’t have a COAT, there could be a range of bad or costly decisions made which could affect the business performance, financial situation, risk jobs, or even the fate of the company.?It’s a bit like dating – the more refined the search pool is, the more likely you are to find a match! You wouldn't go searching for ‘the one’ in a nightclub if you prefer the quiet life, you’d have nothing in common. And you shouldn’t work with data or make business decisions without the same level of quality data.

And, just like with searching for a partner, there are different levels of quality dating services out there. If you sign up for a certain mobile app, you might not find anyone who really wants to commit to a serious relationship, it won’t last long, and you’ll end up right back where you started - alone. It’s the same with data, if you don’t invest in good quality service you will end up paying twice as much, if not more, in the long run to fix the earlier mistakes.

So, what is COAT?

Consistent – Generally data is used by many people or teams, which can lead to multiple classifications of one product. For example, you might ask your date in for a coffee and just mean a coffee, but they might think you mean something else entirely… talk about mixed signals!?Remember when Ross and Rachel were “on a break”? It’s the same with data. Everyone needs to be on the same page and there can be no ambiguity about what’s being recorded. Let’s put this in business terms - one person might put DHL as a ‘courier’, while another might log it as ‘logistics’ or ‘warehousing’.?It could even be a simple as units of measurement. One person may use ‘Litre’, another ‘Ltr’ and another ‘L’ – but these should all be one format.?This means everything can be reported accurately, you get a true picture of what’s going on and better business decisions can be made.

Organised – Would you be able to date a messy, unorganised person? Or someone who was constantly turning up late – or worse, standing you up? That’d probably be a deal breaker. And data, much like a partner, is only useful if it’s organised (and committed to the relationship).?You can organise data in different ways, depending on what you want to get out of it, and that will produce different reports/analytics.?You may want to assign data to employees, teams, departments, functions or internal categories, as well as time periods such as months and quarters, or year groups like P1, P2 etc… So, for example, when you need the information on the accounts that Sharon in Finance is working on, or the sales teams’ performance for the quarter - you can pull that information quickly.

Accurate – Remember when we were online dating? ‘Robert, age 30, a waste disposal operative’ might really be ‘Bob, aged 59, a bin man’ using a 30-year-old photo (not that there’s anything wrong with being a bin man). But you need accurate data to make better decisions about who you want to date and when making financial decisions about your business! At its most basic level, accurate data is correct.?In more detail, this could be no duplicate information; correct invoice descriptions; correct classifications; no missing product codes; standard units of measure (e.g. ltr, l, litres); no currency issues; correctly spelled vendors; fully classified data; or the right data in the right columns.

So, what does this mean??It means greater visibility across your business in several areas, allowing better decisions, as well as time and cost savings and increased profits. Who doesn’t want that?

Trustworthy – This is critical.?If there’s no trust in your relationship, then what else is there? Business decisions around jobs, staffing, budgets, cost savings and more are all based on data.?Data is used by everyone from the bottom to the top of an organisation. You have to be able to trust that what you’re looking at is the right information, and you need it to be accurate in order for your teams to use the data in their daily jobs.?

If they don’t trust the data, then they might not use the fancy new expensive software you’ve just spent tens of thousands of pounds installing.?Or the new AI you’ve installed may not produce the right results because it’s learning from dirty data.

Like a good relationship, clean data is invaluable.?By making sure it has its COAT on, you’re saving time, money and avoiding future problems.?And also like any relationship, it needs to be maintained.?You need to continually ensure your data is Consistent, Organised, Accurate and Trustworthy to get the most out of it.

So, get your COAT – you’ve pulled clean data!

PSA for all my non-British friends: In Britain, going out to meet new people at a bar is called “going on the pull”. So, when that mysterious stranger you’ve been making eyes at from across the room finally comes over to talk to you (and maybe even decides to share a taxi home…), your friends would say “Get your coat, you’ve pulled!”.?