IMPORTANCE OF DATA CLEANSING from Feroz Ali's blog

The survival and continuity of most businesses these days depends on the quality of data that a business posses. The data mainly consists of customer information, client profiles, technical information about various products, addresses and contact number of important people and market researches etc. This information is mainly collected from various databases. Since these databases use different formats or styles, the data collected can be very clumsy and sometimes unintelligible; however we cannot control the way data is stored in the databases.

So, the best solution for us to have organized data is to apply a process called data cleansing. A clean data will be easier to be analyzed and hence one can derive faster solutions or conclusions from it. There are various softwares and applications available in the market which can help in data cleansing. Data cleansing is a process by which we can detect unwanted, inaccurate, corrupt or bad data from a database so that we can either delete them or replace them in order to improve the overall quality of the information.

It is done to achieve consistency in a system of information so that all the data contained in it can be read and understood by everyone involved with it, in an organization. It is a very important process for companies as their business depends on the quality of data they possess.

For example, if in a company which manufactures soft drinks, the data about research on the acceptability of a new product could not be understood by the R & D team, then they will not be able to cater to the needs of the consumers; which in turn, will result in losses. Thus, data collection terminalshould be implemented in companies from time to time to achieve higher efficiency and limit risks involved with data corruption.

Ways to get clean data:

1) While importing the data, make sure that there is a common format applied before it is stored anywhere; this will ensure consistency.

2) Use dictionary software or MS Word to check for spelling errors or common grammatical errors. It should be done manually as it will be very time consuming for anyone when the amount of information is high.

3) While copying from any external source always copy the data to notepad so that all sorts of formatting are terminated.