Data management and information quality specialist, InfoBlueprint, this month launched the South African Community of Practice (CoP) of the International Association of Information & Data Quality (IAIDQ).
This is the first local information and data quality forum, a professional association for those interested in improving business effectiveness through quality data and information.
Accurte and reliable information and the data on which it is based is a cornerstone of business success, but its value is often not appreciated, setting companies up for under achievement and potential business failure.
Data quality issues are regularly addressed by the IAIDQ and analyst groups such as Aberdeen and Gartner. However, up until the launch of the IAIDQ's South African CoP this month, there hasn't been a South African forum for information and data quality knowledge sharing. Run by professionals for professionals, the forum will be the 16th member country to join the IAIDQ.
"The forum's mission is to build a community of businesses and individuals who value data management and information quality as critical to the success of their enterprise systems and programmes, and who share their knowledge for the benefit of all information producers and consumers," says Bryn Davies, Managing Director of founding company InfoBlueprint.
"High-quality information can only be created from high-quality and effectively managed data. Often this data - usually spread across business units - is incomplete, invalid, inconsistent, misinterpreted or not compliant with business rules, and this weak foundation has a damaging impact on decision-making, planning, customer relations, service-delivery, productivity and competitive advantage." says Davies.
"Some large corporates are taking the issue of data quality very seriously and embarking on data management and information quality programmes, but the majority of South African businesses do not view data as a valuable asset and this has a direct impact on their success.
"Yet, a strong focus on data quality will significantly minimise risk and increase the value of enterprise programmes such as business intelligence (BI), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management, master data management (MDM), and other critical business initiatives."
The forum plans to run regular discussion groups and practical workshops on the impact of poor data and information quality on these initiatives. "We welcome anyone involved in activities such as data management and BI to join," adds Davies.
For more information, contact InfoBlueprint on 082 941 9634 or 021 551 2410. InfoBlueprint, a homegrown South African company, is the first dedicated specialist consulting firm in SA to address the very real Achilles heal of data and information quality head on. The team's wealth of knowledge and global experience puts them in a strong position to facilitate the local CoP aimed at a broad range of business functions across all industries.
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InfoBlueprint is a specialist in data management and information quality solutions, helping organisations improve the quality of their business applications and decision-making towards greater business effectiveness and cost-efficiency by reducing the risks associated with poor, or unknown, data and information quality. It is also the first SA company solely dedicated to and specialising in data management and information quality. Directors: Bryn Davies, Alan Snow and Shelley Brunette www.infoblueprint.co.za
About the directors
Bryn Davies has over 23 years of broad industry experience in IT and in particular data management. Subsequent to designing, building and managing one of the first data warehouses in SA, he spent 14 years with Sybase South Africa as Technical Director for the Cape Town operation. During this time, he was involved in all aspects of business intelligence, data management, enterprise application and data integration, and data and information quality. He was also product and solutions manager for leading data quality software solutions, and managed numerous consulting exercises at SA companies for data quality, data integration and BI. Subsequently, Davies co-founded InfoBlueprint and he is currently Managing Director of the company, which is dedicated to providing leading professional services in the fields of Information Management and Data Quality. He has authored a number of articles on the subject of data quality.
Alan Snow has over 35 years experience in IT and business process management. His career includes 15 years in IT technical roles at IBM and at Eurocontrol; 10 years in management positions (Ascential Software, SAS Institute, Informix), and over 10 years as a business/IT consultant with Bill Inmon's Prism Solutions, Business Coaching Europe and Ordina Visonworks, as well as undertaking projects as an independent consultant in Denmark, Hungary, Egypt, Switzerland and the UK. For the last 10 years, Snow has specialised in data and information quality management and business intelligence. Snow has been actively involved in the IBM European Users Association (SEAS/SHARE), the Benelux Group for Computer Measurement, IAIDQ and DAMA UK. In 2004 he co-founded DAMA's Benelux Chapter and in 2005 DAMA's Netherlands Chapter, where he is currently the secretary. He has presented on Information Quality Management and Information Value monitoring at several international business/IT management conferences.
Shelley Brunette has been in the IT industry for 24 years, with 15 year of experience in the field of data and information quality. Before she joined InfoBlueprint, she managed the information quality division of Lechabile, a national BEE IT company. Prior to this, Brunette worked in a large financial services organisation where, in the early '90's, she assumed responsibility for a large data cleansing project. From this the data quality initiatives were developed into a formal function in the business with departments, full-time roles, processes and systems in place focusing only on data and information quality. Brunette has led teams, focusing purely on data quality and information disciplines, whose processes and systems have been well-received at international conferences, such as the data management and information quality conferences held annually in Europe and the USA, and the International Business Rules Forum, among others.
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