Best Practices for Data Quality

Agenda
 Business Driver
 Best Practices Overview
 Importance of Data Quality
 Data Quality Management
– Data Culture, Analyze, Plan, Standardize, Clean & Enrich,
Integrate & Automate, Maintain

 Tools and Resources

 Additional Information: Data Considerations
– De-duping, Merging, Migration, Integrations & Mapping,
Reporting, IDs
Business Driver
 All organizations buy a CRM tool to derive clear
quantitative metrics on their business. Having bad data
causes user frustration, poor adoption, and may lead to
bad decisions due to inaccurate reports/metrics. The
drive to have accurate data for an organization is critical
since it can provide better and accurate visibility to
increase revenue, reduce costs, increase customer
profitability, and usage. It is important to understand Data
Quality Management best practices using Salesforce.
Best Practices Overview

 Every successful implementation of Salesforce should

have accurate data quality as a CRM goal. This is the
key in generating the right metrics and truly
understanding your customer. This presentation
touches on all of the aspects of creating and
maintaining good data quality.
Importance of Data Quality
Pitfalls of Bad Data

 Inaccurate report metrics

 Bad information wastes users time and effort
 Marketing wastes money and effort pursuing bad prospects
 Understanding your “customer” is impossible
 IT wastes time sifting through information and trying to make
sense of it
 Operations has difficulty reconciling data against financial and
other backend information
 User get frustrated, you lose valuable buy-in and adoption

Analysts rate bad data as one of the top 3 reasons for CRM failure
Importance of Data Quality
The Cost of Bad Data

75% of
respondents
“ 75% of commercial businesses
believe that they are losing as much
as 73% of revenue due to poor data
quality
”Experian - QAS
U.S. Business Losing Revenue Through
Poorly Managed Customer Data

“ 41% of costs U.S. businesses more than

Poor datarespondents
quality
$600 billion annually
” Data Warehousing Institute.
Data Quality Management
Best Practices
Data Quality Management Best Practices

 Data Culture
 Analyze
 Plan
 Standardize, Clean & Enrich
 Integrate & Automate
 Maintain
Installing a Culture of Data Quality
1 2 3
Introduction
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Analyze: Data Profiling

 Understand your data sources

– Where is everything coming from

 Understand your data’s weaknesses

– Rate your data; consider completeness, accuracy, validity,
relevance, integrity, level of standardization and duplication
– Pinpoint your problems and find ways of improving this

 Understand your mapping and usage of data

– Entity Level Mapping (Account, Opportunity, Contact)
– Field Level Mapping (state, city etc)
– Don’t duplicate information between entities
Data Quality Analysis Example: Phone Numbers

Not valid

Not complete

Not standardized
Plan: Data Quality Management Strategy
 Create your Data Quality Plan
 Identify and Prioritize Goals
 Define Reports and Dashboards
 Find Sponsors and Owners
 Establish Budget
 Select Tools (i.e. for De-Duplication)
 Commit Resources
 Create Communication Plan
 Provide Rewards and Disincentives
Standardize, Clean & Enrich

1 2 3 4 5
Standardize
Standardize Cleanse
Cleanse Enrich
Enrich(Optional)
(Optional) De-dupe
De-dupe Validate
Validate
Names Find & Company Identify, Load to
Replace Name & Address Match & Score Sandbox
acme incorp.-> Acme Inc Hot  High J. Smith, John Smith –
Cold  Low 80%

Addresses Naming Hierarchy Data Merge Validate

Conventions Acme Inc HQ J. Smith, John Smith -> & Modify
US, U.S, U.S.A -> USA
Acme-Widgets-453 Acme UK John Smith

Postal Data Demographics Re-parent Load to

Standards Transformation Child Records Production
Mergers, acquisitions, Account: Division,
spin-offs Opportunity, Contact

Archiving &
Filtering
Standardize
 Create naming conventions and data standards and train all users
 Enforce standards with validation rules and pick-lists
 Implement procedures to standardize data before mass-importing
 Examples:
– Accounts names: Inc vs. Incorp., INC, incorporated; Ltd vs LTD, Limited
– Opportunity names: i.e. Name – Product: “Acme – 250 Tschotchkes”
– Country/State: use validation to standardize TX vs Texas, USA vs. U.S.
– Postal Code: use validation rules for proper format in US/CAN: xxxxx-xxxx
– Contact info: use pick lists for roles, titles, department: Marketing vd. Mktg

Look for useful validation rules in Help & Training!

Cleanse
 Cleanse your Data
– Correct inaccuracies and inconsistencies
– Find and replace bad or missing data
– Remove or merge duplicates
– Leverage all users to fix data (it’s their data)
– Archive irrelevant and old data
– Leverage automated routines/tools
– Routinely reconcile Salesforce data against other data points/systems

 Prioritize your data control process

– Fix high visibility/usage information first (duplicates, addresses, emails)
– Fix business specific information next (opportunity types, stages etc)
– Remove duplicate fields (don’t repeat account info on contact)
– Remove irrelevant fields
Enrich: Data Augmentation
 Add missing information from 3rd party sources
– Phone, emails, address info, executive contact information,
– Company demographics, i.e. SIC, Industry, Revenue,
Employees, Company Overview, Competitors, Fiscal Year

 Understand what data would provide additional value

– Poll your sales and marketing users and see what is needed

 Add internally available account intelligence

– Order history
– Purchasing Pattern
– Up-sell opportunity, i.e. products not yet owned
Integrate Accounts Product Leads/Oppty
Pricing Data Warehouse
Acct Master • Quick Arrow • SAP • SAP • ??? • Catapult
based on • View Central • Oracle • IMI
lifecycle • Siebel (Custom) • Volume
• View Central

 Understand your Masters EAI/Middleware ETL Standards based Integration

Internet

Integration • Tibco, WebMethods (Alcatel) • Assorted • SOA/Web Services

Tools • BizTalk • XML

– Account Master (Unique ID stored on all other systems) Internet

SFA
Internet

Data Enrichment

– Product Master

 Avoid stale and bad information from spreading

– Integrated solutions make it easier for users and more reliable for customers
– Create links or integrated apps to avoid duplicates in many systems
– Use and monitor ‘review dates’ for key objects, i.e. account plans
– Archive or flag old/irrelevant data, i.e. contacts not updated in last x months
– Use workflow/approval processes before updating key fields
 Create a true “360” view of your customer
– Link order entry, fulfillment apps to Salesforce.com

 Make some information read only

– Use processes like “case submission” to update account master information
 : Five paths to integration success

A comprehensive family of technologies built on top of the Force.com Web Services API

1 2 3 4 5

Native
Salesforce Native ERP Integration Developer
Desktop
AppExchange Connectors Partners Toolkits
Connectors
 Automate
 Salesforce.com partners can help!
– Leverage 3rd parties such as D&B, Hoovers and others to periodically import and
automatically update account records
– Inside Scoop or other partners to augment and cleanse information

 Workflow can help!

– Emails requesting missing information automatically sent to owner when a record is
incomplete

 Force.com can help!

– Generate your own alerts through the API
– Script adds missing information
– Script updates erroneous information

 Create integration points

– Account Master/Product Master/Address Masters
– Address Cleansing
– Keep Relationships automated
Data Management Applications 4
Force.com Appexchange app considerations list not all encompassing

Low Complexity Medium High Complexity

Complexity

Composite Apps
• Enterprise Mash-ups
• Rich user interface Scontrol

Application
Integration
• Real-time integration
•Multi-step integration
• Human workflow

Data Integration
• Data migration
• Data replication
• Bulk Data Transfers

Data Cleansing
• Data de-duplication
• Data assessment
 Data Quality Management Best Practices
Native tools for managing data quality
Web-to-X Excel Connector Data Loader
Analyze and cleanse
data

Leverage tools to prevent

duplicates before passing to Import data from various file
Salesforce real-time sources

Features Data Quality Analytics

Use reports and dashboards

Use Validation Rules and to measure data quality
Workflow
Maintain your Data
Safeguard your cleansed data and prevent future deterioration

Train
Train Enforce
Enforce Monitor
Monitor

•User Training •Required Fields •Data Quality Dashboards

•Naming Conventions •Default Values •Data Quality Reassessment
•Address Conventions •Data Validation Rules •AppExchange Tools
•Dupe. Prevention Process •Workflow Field Updates
•Data Importing Policies •Web-to-Lead Restrictions

“ Data quality decays rapidly & enterprises should follow a methodology that
includes regular measurement of data quality with goals for improvement &
deployment of process improvements & technology
”
Maintain Data Quality: Train and Communicate

 Users are trained that data integrity is a collective responsibility

 Users are trained on how data will be used (establish reasons for why data
needs to be clean and accurate)
 Communicate data quality goals and progress updates
 Communicate policies and procedures
 Data is always changing so Data Quality processes are on-ongoing!
Maintain Data Quality: Enforce
 Make sure Data Ownership and Sharing is accurate
– Critical to keep data in the right peoples hands
– Designate i.e. super user or geography lead to own regional data quality
– Make sure your hierarchy, groups, teams etc are kept up to date
– Proactively have meetings with management and stakeholders to understand
org changes
 Define your CRUD rights on each profile
– Give users access rights to only the information they should have
Maintain Data Quality: Monitor
 Use Reports and Dashboards to monitor and identify
erroneous/missing data
 Data Quality owners spot check and monitor data on a regular
basis
 Create Alerts and workflow to monitor data
 Define centralized processes for mass loads
 Implement Procedures and Policies
 Enlist everyone and hold them accountable
 Exception reports run monthly to find incomplete records or records
with incorrect pick list values
Improvement Checklist
 Do you understand what data you have in Salesforce?
– Where is it coming from? What is wrong? What is the business impact?
 Have you cleaned your data?
– Identify data owners, ensure permissions are up to date (CRUD)
– Remove duplicates (manually and through tools or partners)
 Have you integrated and automated your data?
– Do your applications tie together?
– Are you using workflow for notifications? Are validation rules in place?
 Have you augmented your data?
– Have you added information to help your sales users?
 Do you monitor your data?
– Get the reports, dashboards and automation in place to monitor the health of your data
 Do you have a good data quality culture?
– Is everyone trained and contributing to your data quality? Do users trust the data?
Tools & Resources
 AppExchange - Data Quality tools and offerings
– Data Quality Analysis Dashboards
– Integration & Data Management
– Data Cleansing
– De-duplication Tools - Search term “Data Quality”

 Salesforce.com Data Tools

– Apex Data Loader and Excel Connector

 Dreamforce Data Quality Sessions

– Data, Data Everywhere
– No More Bad Data
– Wrangle Data & Pump up the Configuration
– Turning Around your Data Quality Dilemma,
– Data Data Data: Start your Spring Cleaning Now

 Salesforce Professional Services

– Data Quality Assessment and Cleansing Solutions
Thank You
Additional Information
Data Considerations
 Addressing duplicate records
– There will most likely be overlapping/duplicate data
– De-dupe either before or after you import the data from one system into the other
• Prior to importing into master account
– Export both data sets, merge into one and identify duplicates
– Merge/delete duplicates, import clean file
• After importing into master account
– Leverage de-dupe tools in salesforce.com
– Leverage de-dupe tools from partners (www.salesforce.com/appexchange)
– Use a custom field to flag each records source system
• Establish controls and processes to minimize dupe creation and to remove dupes on an
ongoing basis
• Consider existing integrations and system of record for your data
 Develop rules for merging data
– When there are two records for the same entity (i.e., Account), which one ‘wins’?
• Newest record? Most complete record? Record from one of the databases? Most recently
updated?
– Determine who will own the records if there are duplicates
• Impacts sharing rules, reporting, etc.
• Leverage for data cleansing that will ensue
Data Considerations

 Establish plan for migrating data

– Determine when master system becomes live/system of record (i.e., stop
entering data into other system)
– Set date when you will extract all data from the system being merged
– How long will the merge take? How will you deal with interim data? New
data blackout dates? Temporary data ID? How will you communicate to
users?
– Ensure you have a complete copy of both data sets before attempting
any merging … just in case!

Note – if you have not done this type of work before, it is challenging.
Data Considerations

 Create mapping tables

– Every record in Salesforce is assigned a unique 18-digit alpha-
numeric, case sensitive id by salesforce.com
– Relationships between records are established based on these IDs
(i.e., Activity related to a Contact)
– These IDs will change when you import data from one system to
another, as the system will assign it a new ID
– In order to re-create the relationships between records (i.e., import
Activities and associate to the appropriate Contact), you need to
create a mapping table that will allow you to associate the OLD
Contact ID with the new one
Data Considerations
 Create Mapping Tables (cont.)
– Create a temporary/mapping field on each object you will need to map for the old
id (i.e., OLD ACCOUNT ID, LEGACY ID)
– Export all your data from the instance to be retired
• You can do this via the Weekly Export service, reports, the API, Excel
Connector, AppExchange Data Loader or request a one-time full extract from
customer support
• Don’t forget about attachments and Documents!
– Consider “dumping” these to a file server with a unique naming strategy and use
Custom Links from the salesforce.com objects to access

– When importing the data into the master Account, map the Account Id to the OLD
ACCOUNT ID field
– You will then be able to export the new Account Id, OLD ACCOUNT ID and
Account Name to act as your mapping table
Data Considerations
 Created Dates
– All records imported/migrated will have a Created Date = to when the import occurs
– To retain original dates, create a custom field to import into (i.e., Original Create Date)
– If you are updating via the API, the new 7.0 version will allow you to set the Created and
Last Modified Dates: http://www.sforce.com/resources/tn-17.jsp
Note: You must contact Salesforce support to enable this feature.

 History Tables
– Stage History for Opportunities / Case History for Cases
– Data cannot be migrated into these tables, this information must be stored elsewhere if
you bring it over (“Note” field is not Reportable, so custom field is recommended)

 Unique Ids (system generated)

– Record Ids are unique and cannot be imported
– Imported records are assigned new Id, it is a good idea to import the old Id into a custom
field for mapping purposes
– Features that reference (i.e., Custom Links) unique ids of other objects (i.e., a report)
must also be updated
Data Considerations
 Reports
– When reporting on migrated data, date filters must take into account standard
and custom date fields (i.e., Create Date and Original Create Date)
– Other filters on existing reports must be reviewed to ensure they are still
relevant/apply to all data

 Record Types (EE/UE only)

– If one of the salesforce.com instances leverages record types, all records
added from the other instance must be assigned a Record Type
– Record Types can be updated through the API, not through the import wizard
– Record Type assignment must also be aligned with user Profiles
Data Considerations
 What if data is inadvertently…
– Deleted
• Restore from the Recycle Bin (retained for 30 days)
• Restore missing data from backups

– Merged
• There is no way to “un-merge” data
• Clean up/work with merged records, OR
• Delete and restore from back ups

– Imported incorrectly
• Mass transfer (if you can)
• Delete and re-import into proper area
• Consider tagging batches with a custom field indicating the load/batch
number in case you need to reverse
Advanced Data Quality