Key Criteria for Evaluating Data Quality Platformsv1.0

An Evaluation Guide for Technology Decision Makers

Table of Contents

  1. Summary
  2. Data Quality Primer
  3. Report Methodology
  4. Decision Criteria Analysis
  5. Evaluation Metrics
  6. Key Criteria: Impact Analysis
  7. Analysts’ Take
  8. About Andrew Brust

1. Summary

Data quality reflects the completeness, accuracy, consistency, usability, reliability, relevance, traceability, precision, statistical normality, verifiability, and error-free status of data.

Poor data quality has many causes, including the use of multiple databases that don’t integrate well, formatting issues, and the use of obsolete data. This is a non-trivial concern because data quality can have a significant social and economic impact on a business. Inaccurate analyses that result from low-quality data may lead to suboptimal data-driven decisions and eventually harm organizations and their customer/client relations. Poor data quality can also damage an organization’s reputation and even thwart checks for sensitive data. To avoid these pitfalls, companies need to commit to an ongoing assessment of data quality.

To help organizations perform data quality assessments, vendors offer tools to automate data quality checks, provide validation tests, and mitigate the adverse effect of poor data quality. Offerings typically include reporting and statistical summaries, alerts and notifications about data quality lapses, issuance of diagnoses with root cause explanations, and machine learning (ML) capabilities.

The GigaOm Key Criteria report identifies key criteria and evaluation metrics for selecting an effective data quality platform, and gives an overview of the past and future of the data quality space. This report, along with the companion Radar report, will help decision-makers gain a better understanding of the data quality domain so that they can effectively evaluate existing platforms and decide where to invest.

How to Read this Report

This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding, consider reviewing the following reports:

Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.

GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.

Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.